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Comments

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  Rashantha Devanesan April 28, 2014 at 12:49pm

  I have strung it with old Sri Lankan beads, carnelian and Obsidian shard beads.
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  Thelma April 28, 2014 at 1:06pm

  This is beautiful, Rashantha. I've heard that the leaves of the pipal tree are also used for medicinal purposes. Is that right?
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  SARAH CORBETT April 28, 2014 at 1:29pm

  beautiful piece
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  Eva Baby April 28, 2014 at 6:30pm

   a wonderful, interesting and well-balanced necklace. The middle pendant is gorgeous.
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  Preethi April 28, 2014 at 8:40pm

  Nice amulet. I read that these yoni or ficus leaf shaped amulets were intended as modesty pieces, guarded a part of the body from the entry of evil spirits and that the patterns on them (sun, flowers) are symbols of fertility. Children are seen wearing such amulets strung on a waist/hip chain.
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  Rashantha Devanesan April 29, 2014 at 3:50am

  Preethi, that is so in India, i have worked on a few of those pendant as well. But like i said in my description, the Bo Leaf is considered sacred and in Sri Lanka is not used for that purpose.  If you notice, the leaf has a rounder shape than the ficus leaf shaped amulet of India.
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  Preethi April 29, 2014 at 8:11am

  Thank you for the response, Rashantha. I find the cross-cultural influences and cross-border similarities and differences between Indian Tamil, Sri Lankan Tamil and Sinhalese jewellery absolutely fascinating - not just the aspect of design, but particularly the symbolism and iconography.

  Thrilled that someone from the region is now on the forum :) and I'm looking forward to more information and discussions on Sri Lankan jewellery.

  I would love to hear about other reference books or papers on the topic - so far the only one I have found, sadly, is Coomaraswamy's Medieval Sinhalese art. But perhaps you have access to more in the country. Oppi Untracht, in his book Traditional jewellery of India, has written about similar amulets. I'll post a few images from that later this week hopefully.

  In the meantime, if you have access to images of such amulets being worn in Sri Lanka, please do share them. They would be a wonderful resource.
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  Rashantha Devanesan April 29, 2014 at 8:35am

  Preethi, although i am Sri Lankan (Tamil) i have only just become interested in old Sri Lankan Jewellery. The Influence of the Indian Subcontinent is so strong in the region that many pieces i found were hard to distinguish from Indian pieces and i was not sure if they had just "Travelled" there. Silver was worn mostly by the Sinhalese and the Muslims (Moors) , Tamils generally shunned silver in favour of gold, like in the south of India. the Sinhalese hail from North /east India (Orrissa) and thus their propensity to wearing silver rather than gold. the Kandyan kingdom of the early 14t 15h and 16th centuries took silver work to new heights, unfortunately, a lot of old silver has been melted and really old pieces are rare and quite expensive compared to Old Indian pieces. I will post a few more pictures of what i have collected so far, soon. Lovely to hear from you Preethi.
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  Rashantha Devanesan April 29, 2014 at 8:36am

  Are you Sri Lankan by any chance? :)
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  Preethi April 29, 2014 at 8:46am

  I'm from south India (south western coast to be precise) :)

  I was in Sri Lanka a few weeks ago and just as you say, found that old silver ornaments more expensive than in India. However, there is a thriving market for replicas in India and I find it hard to gauge how much of it is really old. The term "antique" is also used very loosely by merchants in India and "old" could mean anything from 20 years up.

  Looking forward to more photos and posts from you :)