BBC Learning English

London Life
Indian Jewellery

Anna: Hello, I'm Anna Jones and this is London Life.

And in today’s programme we focus not so much on London life as one aspect of
Indian cultural life that recently came to London. A London gallery recently
hosted an exhibition of Indian jewellery most of which was made by jewellery
makers from the Indian city of Jaipur. Jaipur has been a centre for jewellery
making for many years - priceless gems including rubies, diamond and emeralds
have all been turned into jewellery for the mogul emperors of the past and
jewellery is still made there today. BBC reporter, Anna Macnamme, was shown
around the exhibition by the curator, Harry Fane. She asked him to describe one of
the pieces of jewellery in the exhibition. How many diamonds are there on this
necklace?

How many diamonds are there on that one? There are a lot of diamonds because we have this
top fringe which contains there must be 200 what they call Moguul-cut diamonds and then you’ll
see a whole range of these tear-shaped diamonds set in enamel which are much larger that the
ones above and the bottom ones probably weigh about 2-3 carats each.

Anna: Did you catch how many diamonds are on on that necklace? Well Harry said that
there are 200 Mogul-cut diamonds. The word mogul refers to an important person
who has great wealth or power. Harry says that you can see a “whole range” -
there’s a whole set - of tear shaped diamonds on the necklace – diamonds that are
in the shape of a tear. He tells Anna that the diamonds are set in enamel which is a
glass like substance often used for decoration. The diamonds that are set in the
enamel each weigh about 2-3 carats – a carat is a unit for measuring the weight of
jewels.

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 But why did Jaipur become such an important centre for jewellery making? Anna
asked Her Royal Highness the Maharini of Jaipur this question. What does she
reply?

Maharaja Jai Singh of Jaipur who built the city of Jaipur is responsible for that. He built the city
of Jaipur with straight streets and beautifully designed city. And so to populate it he invited
people from all over India to come and settle there, so many jewellers or artisans came from
Bengal and from all over the Punjab and everywhere and their descendants are still in Jaipur and
they’re the ones who do the work for the jewellery and so that’s why I suppose Jaipur became a
centre of jewellery.

Anna: According to Her Royal Highness the Mahararni (Marherrarnee) of Jaipur, the
reason why Jaipur became a centre for jewellery making was because of a decision
by one man. Maharaja Jai Singh built Jaipur and he made sure that it was a
beautifully designed and constructed city. But he also needed people to live there
so he invited people from all over India to settle in the new city. These people
included artisans – people who do skilled work with their hands. It was some of
these artisans who became the jewellery makers in Jaipur. And it is their
descendants – their relatives from later generations who are still working as
jewellery makers in Jaipur today.

Anna: But why was the jewellery so popular with Indian princes? Anna put this question
to Alan Jaffer, the author of a recently published book about Indian jewellery.
Why did Indian princes like wearing jewels so much?

We have to remember of course that jewellery also forms a very, very easily liquidated asset. So
in fact when a prince is wearing jewellery he is wearing his Treasury and representing his wealth
and his authority for the possession of rare and wonderful stones.

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Anna: Well according to Alan Jaffer Indian princes used to like wearing jewellery
because it immediately showed other people how wealthy or rich they were. They
would be able to display their wealth through their jewellery and it represented
their Treasury – how much money they had. He says it was also a very easily
liquidated asset – jewellery was a very valuable item that could easily be sold and
turned into money if necessary. Alan Jaffer goes onto describe a photograph of an
Indian prince who is wearing a lot of jewellery. What is the word he uses which
describes the male ruler of an Indian state?

He’s the rather extraordinary Maharaja Patialla and he was a particularly extravagant man –
great great taste for show and display. He loved medals he loved jewels he loved cars he loved
women – he had a great taste for all that was best in life. And its rather dazzling when you look at
these photographs of these princes who were literally showered with diamonds.

Anna: The word he uses is Maharaja which means the male ruler of an Indian state. Alan
describes him as an extravagant man – someone who’s extravagant spends
money in a rather uncontrolled way. This maharaja loved luxury and all the good
things in life which included expensive jewellery – Alan says that it was rather
“dazzling” – rather exciting – to see these old photographs of princes who were
showered or covered with diamond jewellery. That’s all from this edition of
London Life – goodbye.

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