THE JEWELS OF NATURE

Sri Lanka is noted for its creation of two very particular styles of jewellery. The southern style, coming from around Galle, places the stone as central to the design, with the metal merely there to hold the gems in place. The style is more western in origin.

More distinctive however is the second tradition – that of filigree jewellery, a refinement associated with the Kandyan kingdom. This places the metal work first and foremost with delicate patterns made in gold and silver but put together with such boldness as to make each piece utterly unmissable.

The filigree work is very intricate, much of it done by hand. The designs used blends the most traditional Sinhala designs with South Indian styles of the 16th and 17th centuries, arising from the frequent intermarriages of Kandyan kings to South Indian royal families, the queens bringing with them Indian goldsmiths to the island. This migration of experts merged with the feudal caste divisions in the Kandyan kingdom to create families that specialised in filigree work. The work because so specialised that different villages around Kandy become associated with single pieces: crowns, tiaras, bangles, necklaces, rings, anklets, and girdles.

Its motifs include flowers, leaves, and birds that give their name to the different designs - for example, a classic Kandyan necklace is called the “pol mal malaya” or coconut flower garland, created by large golden beads linked together with strands of gold.

The jewellery was much ransacked during the colonial era – but it remains precisely the sort of item that figures large at weddings, and in family wills as it is bequeathed down the generations; and is a determiner of status – of wealth and prosperity.

Many of the well-known jewellers in Kandy sell newly created versions of this filigree work – Hemachandras,
Shri Nadika or Viswakula Sons, for example and older pieces can sometimes be found in such antique shops as Warunas in Peradeniya.