India is a country with rich diversity of history, culture, and heritage, witnessing an enormous range of jewellery that depicts not only an individual’s taste and aesthetic sense but also one’s traditions. A country with myriad of ardent jewellery lovers, we often have a wide assemblage of jewellery type to select from such as Kundan Jewellery, gold jewellery, Meenakari jewellery, diamond jewellery and the list goes on. Each jewellery type has a narrative behind it depicting its story and origin. Here we peek into the story of one such age-old art of Meenakari and understand its various types.
What is Meenakari?
Entailing from the land of Persia, the art of Meenakari has been traced back to the Parthian and Sassanid period of Iranian history. The beautiful art of Meenakari was introduced in India by the Mughals around 16th century when Raja Maan Singh of Amber invited skilled Meenakars from the Mughal palace in Lahore and bestowed Jaipur, Rajasthan with Meenakari. Many decades might have passed since then; however, same amplitude of skills and talent is required to create the age-old art of Meenakari.
Meenakari is an ancient art form of decorating metals like gold and silver with coloured enamels. Known for its gorgeous floral and intricate geometrical designs and colour combinations, Meenakari Jewellery exhibits a hint of royalty in very piece. The process of creating this remarkable art proceeds with coating groves or engravings in ornaments or objects with coloured enamels. Although, a variety of metals like brass, copper, silver, gold are used to craft various ornaments, but when it comes to jewellery, gold and silver are the perfect choice.
When creating Meenakari gold jewellery, the idea is to highlight pictures or figurines with vivid clarity by filling the grooves with enamel. It beautifully expresses various themes and occasion engraved on jewellery offering it an exquisite look. The artful palette of colours is definitely one of the most distinguished features of Meenakari making it a beautiful and outstanding art.
Types of Meenakari
Meenakari is a unique jewellery style like no other. Featuring intricate artwork, it offers from royal and classic designs to chic contemporary ornaments for every occasion. However, the age-old art has evolved over the time with skilful artisans and Meenakars displaying the wealth of talent and creativity. There are a variety of Meenakari jewellery that is crafted with combination of colours and patterns, defining distinct styles of Meenakari.
Ek Rang Khula Meena
This method of Ek Rang Khul Meena involves the use of single transparent colour of enamelling. The engraved areas are filled with single enamel exposing the outline of gold colour and displaying the figural details resulting in a beautiful creation.
Panch Rang Meena
Panch Rang Meena is a type of Meenakari jewellery that displays a combination of five colours of enamels of which two are shades of blue (opaque light blue and transparent dark blue) along with red, transparent green and opaque white, namely safed, fakhati, fakhta, khula nila, khula sabz.
The remarkable product is a beautiful blend of all five colours displaying complete harmony. The unmistakable outlines of pure gold in this style of Meenakri Jewellery add to the appeal and provide a sharp characterization to all five colours. The harmonious brightness of a Panchranga Meena Jewellery illuminates any attire, occasion and event.
Gulabi Meena/Banarasi Meena
A signature style of Meenakari of Varanasi, Gulabi Meena or Banarasi Meena is a collection of meenakari Jewellery with a touch of blush. The pink enamel used in it is obtained from Gulab or rose flower and it is a widely prevalent ornament style in Varanasi. This type of Meenakari art involves applying pink colour enamel on an opaque white background. However, while using single enamel colour to fill around an opaque pattern, various other colours of grounds are put to use like lal zamin/transparent red ground, sabz zamin/transparent green ground and nil zamin/transparent blue ground. The colours provide a beautiful contrats and highlight the subject.
The pink enamel is usually used to paint flowers in the pattern. The remaining areas are painted with other colours using “champlevé” style. Thus, Gulabi Meena is often referred to as a mixed style of enamelling. The makers of this unique style of Meenakari jewellery take a lot of pride in their craft.
Bandh Meena Khaka
Band Meena Khaka is crafted with application of a thick layer of opaque enamel outlined on a yellow gold base. Usually, transparent colour enamel is surrounded by opaque enamel cartouche. The contrast it creates highlights the gold frame and offers an enthralling finish product. This style of Meenakari artfully combines the shades that are prepared using other colours like pink, parrot green and turquoise. The art is used in creating charming jhumkas and earrings.
Stone Carving and Enamelling
In this type of artwork, the artisans combine kundan with enamelling, offering a beautiful amalgamation of two styles. A particular design of stone carving is engraved by creating a deep impression on the metal surface. Combing various kundans and stones, they are highlighted with Meena or enamelling.
Every piece of Meenakari ornament created by artisans is unique and spellbinding and the jewellery designed is a proof that gold ornaments handcrafted in India cannot be found anywhere else. Jagan Nath Jewellers, the foremost meenakari jewelers in Bhiwani are proud to present their bewitching collection of Meenakari Jewellery in Bhiwani. With quality as top priority, JNML Saraf offers a wide collection of traditional as well as contemporary meenakari Jewellery set in Bhiwani.