The house

Ahankaraka

A temple jewellery house in Coimbatore. We make a small number of pieces, largely by hand, in the ornament tradition of the South, for the woman who is buying for herself.

A woman in a temple necklace, jhumka earrings and a maang tikka.

The name

Ahaṅkāra, the sense of I am

In the Sanskrit tradition, ahaṅkāra is the faculty of self-identity: the steady knowledge that one exists, distinct and whole. The word is usually translated as ego, which is a narrowing of it. What it describes is closer to the awareness of one's own being.

We added the agentive suffix, and the name means that which makes the self.

A name is a promise, and this one decides how the work looks. Nothing the house makes is designed to be approved of.

What the house believes

Three convictions, and every piece begins in one of them

  1. Self-worth

    A piece reflects a value already settled. It is not a request for one. We design for the woman who adorns herself the way she lights a lamp at dusk, which is to say not for an audience.

  2. Identity

    Temple jewellery is a language of belonging, to a place and to a lineage. We keep its grammar intact and let each woman speak it in her own voice.

  3. Inner sovereignty

    To be sovereign is to answer to yourself first. The forms are deliberate and unhurried, and they are made for a woman who has stopped asking permission.

How a piece is made

Five stages, and each one earns the next

  1. Design

    Every piece begins as a drawing. The motifs are taken from temple gopurams, from the lotus and the peacock, and from the deities of the South. Proportion is settled here, by eye, before any metal is worked.

  2. Source

    Hand-cut kemp, ruby-toned stones and river pearls, from partners we know by name. Material is chosen for how it ages rather than for how it first shines.

  3. Set

    Stones are seated one at a time into hand-raised collets and pressed close, in the temple manner. This is the slowest stage and the one we refuse to hurry.

  4. Polish

    The antique finish is coaxed rather than forced. We polish for depth of light rather than flash, which is why a piece glows and does not glare.

  5. Inspect

    Each piece is read against the light and against the original drawing. Clasps are tested, settings pressed, weight confirmed. Only then does it carry the name.

Materials

A short list, and what each one is

Antique gold finish
A finish, not a metal. This is fashion jewellery and the house says so plainly. The finish is warm and low rather than bright, and it is a coating, which is why the care card asks you to keep a piece dry and store it airtight.
Kemp
The red temple stone of the South, hand-cut and seated close in the setting so the collet appears to hold the colour rather than clamp it.
Pearl
River pearls, matched by hand for size and lustre. They are a natural material, so no two strands are identical.
Two women in temple necklaces and bangles, before a wall of jasmine strings.

The standard

Made to be kept

We hold a piece to the standard of something meant to outlast its owner. A clasp should close with the same certainty in twenty years as on the first evening, and a setting should hold its stone through a life of wearing rather than a season of display. The industry measures itself in volume. We measure in how long a piece stays worn.

Because each is made in small numbers and largely by hand, no two are identical. The faint mark of the karigar's tool is not a flaw to be hidden. It is the evidence that a person made the thing you are wearing.