Why Lakshmi Sits at the Centre of Temple Jewellery
Look at almost any South Indian temple necklace and there is a seated female figure at the middle of it, framed by something. That is Lakshmi, and she is the reason the rest of the piece is arranged the way it is. Once you can read her, you can tell a considered piece from a copied one in about five seconds.
The figure itself
Lakshmi is shown seated on a lotus, usually with four arms, often with two elephants pouring water over her. In jewellery the elephants are frequently dropped for space, but the lotus almost never is: it is the seat, and a figure without one is a figure the designer did not understand.
What to look for in the casting:
- Her face should have features. On a well-cast piece you can see the eyes and the line of the nose at arm's length. On a poor mould she is a smooth oval.
- Her hands should be separate from her body. The gap between arm and torso is the first thing that fills in when a mould is worn out.
- The lotus petals should be individually defined, not a scalloped blob.
This is the single most useful quality test on temple jewellery, and it costs nothing to apply from a photograph.
What is arranged around her
The motifs repeating outward from the centre are not random. Each is a wish, and they are old ones.
Mango (manga). Plenty, a full harvest, children. The mango link is the most common collar element in Tamil Nadu and Andhra work, and a mango-link collar is the most traditional piece in this whole category.
Peacock. Beauty, monsoon, the rain that follows. Peacocks are almost always paired and almost always face each other across the centre, flanking Lakshmi rather than replacing her.
Lotus. Purity and the seat of the goddess. It repeats at the smallest scale, often as the connector between larger motifs.
Kemp stones. The deep ruby-red temple stone, traditionally set against green. Kemp is punctuation, not a field: on traditional work it marks corners and centres so the cast gold stays the subject. A piece covered edge to edge in red stones is following a fashion, not the grammar.
Why the finish matters to the motif
Cast relief only reads if a shadow can fall into it. That is why most temple work carries a matte antique finish rather than a high polish: matte absorbs light and lets the depth show, while polish bounces light back and flattens the detail into brightness.
If you are choosing between two versions of the same design, the matte one will almost always show the motif better in daylight and in photographs. The full argument is in matte or glossy gold.
How this shows up in the pieces here
The five temple necklace designs on this site are each built on one of these motifs rather than mixing them:
- Lakshmi Mango temple necklace set - mango links, the most traditional collar.
- Lakshmi Peacock temple necklace set - paired peacocks flanking the centre.
- Lakshmi Floral Rosette temple necklace set - rosettes instead of mango links, more ornate, which is why it gets picked for receptions.
- Lakshmi Kemp Stone temple necklace set - kemp used the traditional way, as punctuation.
Every one ships with jhumkas that carry the same motif through, so the pair reads as one commission rather than two purchases.
If you are buying your first temple piece
Buy the mango-link collar. It is the oldest arrangement, it suits the most necklines, and it is the piece that reads as temple jewellery to someone who knows what they are looking at. A guide to South Indian temple jewellery covers the wider category, and temple vs Kundan is the comparison worth reading before you commit.
Browse the full temple jewellery sets edit.
The honest part
Everything here is gold-plated Zamak with hand-set kemp and kundan stones, cast and finished in our workshop in Kandivali East, Mumbai. It is imitation jewellery, not solid gold, and we say so on every product page rather than leaving it to be found out. Free shipping across India, GST included in the price, and a manufacturing defect reported within 48 hours of delivery with a continuous unboxing video is repaired or replaced free.