Menu
Museum of Material Memory
  • Home
  • About
    • The Museum
    • The Founders
  • Contribute
    • Submission Form
  • Explore
    • Art & Decor
    • Books
    • Documents & Maps
    • Heirlooms & Collectibles
    • Household Items
    • Jewellery
    • Photo Archives
  • Contact

Category: Jewellery

Muniya’s benda

Benda is a common term used for a maang tikka in central India and Uttar Pradesh. In 1961, Mrs Prakashwati Misra, my great-grandmother, travelled all the way to Lucknow from Raipur by road to get this made for her daughter-in-law.

Continue Reading

Goynar Baksho: The jewellery box

My grandmother gauged that this box was bought somewhere around the year 1940 in Benaras. My great-grandma used the box until her death and then, her son [and my maternal grandfather], gifted the box to his wife, my grandmother, to use it as her jewellery box.

Continue Reading

From the hills of Uttarakhand

This necklace, called a janjeer in Kumaon, weighs 350 gms and is nearly 70 years old. Presented originally to my grandmother during her wedding in the 1950s, it was passed down to my mother in 1979, and to me in 2011.

Continue Reading
The Holdali pendant from Lahore

The Holdali pendant from Lahore

The surface of the pendant is smooth, as is the case with Jade. This smoothness gives it an ethereal quality, and touching it, you do feel a sense of calm. You will see some textures and markings in the light, which have appeared over the years, as it was not stored properly. The gold etching on the pendant is delicate, and transports you to a different era.

Continue Reading

The jhanjhar to unite two families

In 1943, my grandmother and her younger sister got married to two brothers and subsequently, moved to Nairobi, Kenya with their husbands. In Gujarat, jhanjhar are considered to be an auspicious gift for new brides and it was on their wedding day, that my great-grandfather split this piece of jewellery between his two daughters, giving them each a single jhanjhar.

Continue Reading

Posts navigation

Older posts
Newer posts

About

The Museum of Material Memory is a digital repository of material culture of the Indian subcontinent, tracing family history and social ethnography through heirlooms, collectibles and objects of antiquity.

Through storytelling, each post on the Archive reveals not just a history of objects and the people they belong to, but also unfolds generational narratives about the tradition, culture, customs, conventions, habits, language, society, geography and history of the vast and diverse subcontinent.


© 2017 Museum of Material Memory. All Rights Reserved. Terms and Conditions. Privacy Policy.