PROBABLY KERALA, SOUTH INDIA, 18TH/19TH CENTURY

The form of this necklace is a reference to the flower garlands which have a variety of functions in Indian secular and religious traditions, used for purposes as diverse as welcoming a guest, giving offerings to a temple deity, or wishing well for a bride and groom. The special association of flowers in Hinduism extends to their relationship with particular deities: the spirit of Sridevi is believed to inhabit flower garlands, while Kamadeva is sometimes referred to as Kusumayudha (armed with flowers) and Push-pa-sara (whose arrows are flowers). Though such garlands would begin to wither and fade, by imitating their forms using durable materials a garland - and its positive associations - might become permanent (Oppi Untracht, Traditional Jewelry of India, London, 1997, p.33).

The jasmine bud necklace is particularly associated with Tamil-speaking areas in the South of India. The wearing of Jasmine buds has a long history there: the Silappatikaram, a 2nd century Tamil epic, at one point describes the tragic lover Kovalan wearing 'a garland of jasmine buds, their hearts forced open by bees' (Usha R. Bala Krishnan and Meera Sushil Kumar, Dance of the Peacock: Jewellery Traditions of India, Mumbai, 1999, p.102). Necklaces similar to the present lot, though slightly smaller in size, include those in the Barbier-Muller Museum, Geneva (acc.no.2504-104) and in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (acc.no.2008.190.308). A still more similar example, with buds which also terminate in rounded finials, is in the Freer Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. (acc.no.1990.4).