Hidden Secrets Behind Craze for Gold  & Silver in Indian Socities

I wonder why people are having so much of a craze for this bright yellow metal called ‘Aurum’ or gold. Aurum, gold’s Latin name, signifies ‘shine of sunrise’, and gold is undoubtedly an alluring metal. It is perhaps of the most un-responsive metal. It never tarnish and hence it doesn’t stain even after a long period of time and stays a dazzling yellow following millennia . It can likewise be pounded or moved into slender sheets  and brought into wires because of its malleability and ductility property respectively.  One of the chief reasons behind gold’s worth is its scarcity.  In any case, platinum and rhodium are considerably even more scarce.

Earlier the jeweller was a vital part of Indian life. They were exceptionally gifted specialists catering to the need of a populace fixated on ornamentation. Many individuals, particularly in the remote towns, wore all their abundance about their bodies, especially as anklets, armlets, nose-rings, neckbands and studs. These were in many cases given over to their posterity as legacies.

 An interesting reality about the discovery of gold is that nobody knows when it was found. However it has absolutely been with us for a really long time. A culture focused in the present eastern Europe started to utilize gold mined around the year 4000 BC, as per paleontology. In the year 3000 BC, the Sumer civilization of southern Iraq utilized gold to make many jewellery in  complex styles, some of which are worn even today. There lies a much talked about fact about Lord Tut’s gold-plated casket, whose quality shows that  in the specialty of working with gold.

Where does gold come from? Gold is often considered as earth’s own cosmetics which got manoeuvred into its centre alongside other iron-cherishing components like platinum and nickel when liquid iron sank into it, say researchers. There is sufficient gold in the center to cover its surface with a thickness of 1.5 feet.  However gold emerges through volcanoes in modest quantities. Then the obvious question comes….. where did the gold in our mines come from? It showed up when huge meteorites bombarded the Earth more than 4 million years ago, after the core had fully formed and the crust had cooled. Indians always remain in the forefront as far as the buying of gold is concerned( reported by IMF and World Gold Council). Indian households and temples have a much greater reserve of gold in the form of ornaments than the country’s government treasury. 

Here I would like to make aware all my loving and esteemed readers about an unique craft form of Odisha. That is none other than the silver filigree works of Katak,Odisha.

This is better known as ‘Tarakasi’, this work of art is around 500 years of age. It hails from Katak which is the Silver City of Odisha . The filigree work consists of drawing silver through a progression of successively more modest openings to deliver fine strands of wire. Typically, Tarakasi adornments are utilized to decorate Durga icons during Durga Puja in Katak . The silver filigree waist chains and anklets etc. form an important part of the classical dance Odissi costumes. But it is a matter of grief that the enormous demand for silver filigree artworks are nowadays being met using machines and hence our traditional silver filigree artisans are loosing their age-old livelihoods.🤔😢😢

You can have a better understanding of different other Odishan handicrafts ( like burnt clay crafts and wooden mask making  of Odisha) through the following links.

Dr.Manoj Mishra

lunarsecstasy@gmail.com