The Madurai Temple is known for
owning some unique and valuable
pieces of Temple Jewellery,
particularly the crowns embellished
with navaratnas or nine gems. It is
believed that on various auspicious
occasions like the Chithirai
festival, the temples of various
gods and goddesses were given
ornamental offerings some of
the fine specimens of which can
still be seen in various temples
of Tanjavur. Temple Jewellery
were considered an asset to the
temples since they were made of
pure gold and natural, precious
stones sourced from various
parts of the country.
“The designs and patterns
were more based on the
creativity of the artisan and
availability of raw materials rather
than any prescription.”, says Mr. R.
Muthukrishnan who is a temple jewellery
maker by profession and hails from a family of
seven generations of this craftsmanship. Most
often the motifs were inspired from nature and
mythology. There used to be patterns of the
temple Gopuram or the temple entrance towers
incorporated into long chains and necklaces.
“Swans (hamsam), peacocks (mayuram),
elephants (gaja), snake heads (nagapadam),
Sri S Nagalingam (Ramesh), Traditional oddiyanam
Traditional Jewellery
a variety of flowers especially lotus
(padmam) were beautifully adopted
into motifs and designs of jewellery.
The Navaratnas or the nine precious
gems were often used together
in neck pieces or early rings to
symbolise the nine gods of the
Hindu Universe. I had the blessing
to work closely with Kalakshetra
and its founder Smt. Rukmini Devi
Arundale. She personally went
to all major Temple towns to
research and revive the craft of
making Temple jewellery. The
dancer usually uses a head set
chutti, Chandran (moon) on the
left and Suryan (sun)on the right
signifying the feminine half and
masculine half.
There is also a legend that
once Lord Shiva cursed Goddess
Parvathi and she descended upon Earth. As
she walked into Earth, she carried with her the
Sun and the Moon. The hair is adorned with
Rakkodi and Jadai Bille. This signifies the spine.
In those days there used to be a five headed
Kalinga design of the Rakkodi suggesting the
episode of Kalinganarthanam.” He recalls
with great pride, how he and a couple of
Kalakshetra teachers would sit in a workshop
near the green room and create the jewellery