INDIAN JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGY

"Conserving Heritage by Recording Faithfully"

An Open Access E-Journal

Catalogue of Gold Ring Currency, Gold Beads and Stone Beads Found from Mandi, District Muzaffarnagar, U.P., Currently Kept in U.P. State Museum

Author:

Vijay Kumar, Vinay Kumar Singh and Anita Chaurasiya

This collection has 2923 gold rings, 8 sets of rings joined together, 5 gold spacer beads, 5 conical terminal beads, 2 bell shaped terminal beads, 1 tabular bead, 2 onyx beads, 1 green stone bead, 2 variegated jasper beads, 9 ocean jasper beads, 11 river jasper beads and 14 silver bangles. The analysis of metrology of the gold rings shows that these has been made for three types of users namely rich, very rich and ultra-rich. These were used as currency as well as ornaments. The onyx bead and orbicular jasper bead were probably worn for spiritual protection, good fortune, and warding off negative energy, as the ethno archaeological parallel of the use of such beads called Dzi bead in Tibet indicates. The orbicular jasper beads were brought from Indonesia and Madagascar by Borneans to bead makers of Gujarat. These bead makers made bead from local stones and imported material and then exported these to other parts of South Asia. The silver bangles were made from silver brought from the mines of Aravalis, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

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