Find India’s forgotten jewels in Usha Balakrishnan’s new book ‘Silver & Gold - Visions of Arcadia’

Explore Usha Balakrishnan's 'Silver & Gold' to uncover India's rich folk and tribal jewellery traditions in stunning detail.

The publication of Usha R. Balakrishnan’s Silver & Gold: Visions of Arcadia is good news for art lovers and jewellery enthusiasts alike. Any new book by Balakrishnan merits close attention: she is arguably the most authoritative historian of Indian jewellery, having written or co-authored some of the field’s most significant titles and exhibition catalogues. This includes Dance of the Peacock: Jewellery Traditions of India (1999), one of the most comprehensive works on the subject, alongside Oppi Untracht’s 1997 seminal volume.

A post shared by Amrapali Museum (@amrapalimuseum)

As chief curator of the World Diamond Museum, she edited Diamonds Across Time: Facets of Mankind (2020). Her research ranges from princely jewels, most notably those once owned by the Nizams of Hyderabad (acquired by the Indian government in 1995 and entrusted to her for study and documentation), to the creative genius of contemporary jewellers and lesser-known rural and tribal jewellery traditions.

Silver & Gold: Visions of Arcadia book | Photo Credit: Courtesy The Amrapali Museum

Jewellery historian Usha R. Balakrishnan | Photo Credit: Courtesy The Amrapali Museum

Part of a series edited by Pramod Kumar K.G. (co-founder of museum consulting company Eka Resources), and following Devdutt Pattanaik’s The Adornment of Gods (2022), Balakrishnan’s book documents hundreds of traditional Indian silver and gold jewels, largely from rural and tribal contexts. These works form part of the Amrapali Collection, of which about 800 pieces are displayed at their Jaipur museum.