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THE PEOPLE
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ORNAMENTS
Ornaments are almost a necessity to all classes and a considerable amount of capital is thus unproductively locked up either in the owner's or the pawnbroker's hands. Ornaments differ in type as used by men and women and by boys and girls. They also differ according to community and economic status of the wearer. They are worn in the hand, in the ears, in the nose, on the neck, across the shoulders, on the arms, on the wrists, on the fingers, round the waist, on the legs and on the toes. A person with a complete set of ornaments may not wear them all at a time.
Male Ornaments.
It is no more a fashion now for men to wear ornaments extensively. Of those that are still found in use are, among the rich, gold earrings, bhikbalis, finger rings, angathis, and rarely necklaces, kanthi and goph; middle class men wear gold earrings, kudis, or a bhikbali on the upper part of the right ear, a silver necklace, goph, a kade on the wrist or a dandakade on the upper arm, and a silver waist-belt, karagota.. A boy's ornaments in a rich family are gold or silver wristlets, bindlya, kadas and todas, a waist chain sakhali, and silver anklets, valas or jhanjris; and in middle class and poor families, mudis, gophs and kadds. A young man of modern fashions sometimes takes a fancy to wear round his neck a thin gold chain with a central locket. Buttons, links, studs, collar-pins, tie-pins, wrist watches made of precious metals and set with precious stones are found in the wear of rich persons.
Female Ornaments.
Among women the rich wear, for the head, muda, rakhadi, kegada, phul, sevatice phul, and candrakora; for the neck thusl, galasari, sari, putalyachi mala, and tika;. for the ears bugadi, karaba,
kudi, kapa, and ghuma; for the nose, natha, phuli, and moti; for the upper arm, vaki and bajuband; for the wrist, bdngadis, gota, and patali; and for the ankles, todds. A middle class woman wears almost all the ornaments worn by the rich, and a poor woman wears only a gold or silver-gilt nose ring, natha or moti, a necklace of gold and glass beads strung on silk cord, galasari, round silver or lead lac bangdis, and a pair of gold or gilt earrings, bugadi. Other ornaments are added as funds admit, such as silver toe rings, jodvi, silver armlets, vaki, strings of gold coins, putalyaci mala, and gold hair ornament, ketka.
A girl's ornaments in a rich family are, for the head, muda, rakhadi, candrakora, kegada, veni, and kalepatti; for the nose, camaki or phuli; for the ears, bugadi, kude, and ear-rings; for the neck, galasarl, tika, putlyaca hara, and javaci mala; and for the ankles todas, valas, and jhanjris.
Fashions in female ornaments, particularly of the rich have undergone considerable change during the last fifty years, the general tendency being towards the wear of ornaments lighter, fewer and more artistically shaped than the old ones. Head ornaments are generally getting out of fashion; brooches and phule of fancy shapes are seen in the wear of young girls. As ear ornaments coukada and kudi, preferably of pearls and precious stones are generally worn by elderly women and earrings of various types are used by girls. Mangala-sutras of various types, the black beads being stringed together in different patterns of gold chain work, are now-a-days used as an ornament by married women. Besides, necklaces known as candrahara, capaldhara, bakulihara, puspahara, mohanmala, ekadani, kolhapuri saja, all made of gold, have come in vogue replacing the old thusis, saris, vajratikas, and putalyaci mala, Similarly the old heavy wrist ornament like goth and patlya have been replaced by bangles and bracelets of various delicate patterns.
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