In the brilliant qawwali from Barsaat ki Raat (of 1960) written by Sahir Ludhianvi, as the competition reaches its climactic conclusion, Bharat Bhushan sings :
“Jab jab Krishn ki bansi baaji,
Nikali Raadhaa saj ke
Jaan ajaan ka dhyaan bhulaa ke,
Lok laaj ko taj ke . . .”
When Krishna played his flute
Radha emerged, dressed up
Forgetting all she was taught
She left the honour of society
Here’s that saaj, the dress Radha wore.
Then, again, from the Amarushataka comes this:
Somehow she
got through the day
anticipating
the hundred pleasures of night.
Her dear one’s returned !
But now it’s time to enter the bedchamber
and relatives
won’t stop their dull conversation.
Mad with desire the girl finally cries
“something bit me”
shakes her skirt wildly
and knocks over
the lamp —
This is that skirt, shaken wildly in pretence. In pretence, mind you, so that she may immerse herself in what her heart desires.
And then there’s the expressive twirl of the flamenco dancer as Mrs.Gopali Chakrabori-Ghosh has so well elucidated. Or the “Chun-Chun” of Mrs. Varsha Desai that recalls, from 1951's Hindi film ‘Humlog’, a toothsome Shyama singing with the incandescent innocence of young love to Balraj Sahni:
“Chhun chhun chhun bajé payal mori,
bajé payal mori
Aaja chorii chorii
aaja chori-chori . . .“
Lata Mangeshkar made the song memorable, the finer nuances of youthful, angelic love captured perfectly and indelibly in that inimitable voice that rises beyond melody to sacredness.
This jewel has transcended any one interpretation, ours, to include within it those of all you who admire, appreciate and applaud it. What started out as Radha’s 'chaahat' and her 'chaniya-choli' that she wore on her trysts with Krishna has now reached beyond Indian culture and mythology and all associative romances therein to a greater world of each of your interpretations. That’s what art’s supposed to be. No-one, least of all the artist, can actually claim to own a piece of art in the entirety of its meaning. It’s art if we think and feel it’s art. And in that manner it must speak to us in ways only we, each of us independently, can determine. Yet, its universal beauty is at the same time upheld without any equivocation.
What else can we say specifically about this necklace?
Just as a banjara skirt might be constructed, this too is a layered jewel, it’s motifs drawn in naksha (the floriated sections), filigree (the rickrack rows), a sudden Manipuri sat-karai segment, and the katai topas and inverted mangoes bookending the piece.
The double row of kadamphul jhumurs, with polished discs in between, edging the jewel, you’ve seen in the earrings, as you have the finial of two large naksha paisleys with a Manipuri pradip in-between, the latter also wedged in the centre of the aam-kalka border at the bottom. Here, a small sun rises between the naksha paisleys, a detail new but necessary.
After all, when the rituals of physical love are over and in the morning when we realise we’ve declared love by submitting our bodies to wanton pleasure, it gives us a sense of completion, as if love in its totality has been affirmed.
The wide faceted half-topa lined double-kamal chain continues the kadam-phul jhumurs and jhilimili drops of the centrepiece because of which the tintinnabulation is louder, more urgent in the necklace.
Be forewarned then, if you intend this to be your wedding jewel, your phool-sajja will probably end up being a rather jinglingly revealing one. And if your family and friends are discreet in their ‘ari-pata’, they’ll be in places ready to disrupt your first night of wedded love. Even tape-recorders (digital ones, or just phones, these days) have been known to be pressed into service.
Anyway, finally, you get to choose your jewel. Whether the Chaahat-Chaniya, modelled — in intricately handcrafted guinea gold imparted a vermilion finish — after the first heroine of celestial love’s garb when she yearned for her lover and united with him, suits you is for you to ponder. You have to feel the jewel and then feel it become you. Only then can you decide.
In the meantime, just love for love’s sake. To reduce true love to mere physical desire is a shame, and to say the motive of perpetuating the species leads to love is horribly reductive. It’s not the results that determine the act : it’s love because this, this and this came about — No! It’s the act that begets new life. And even otherwise, it’s love if you believe it’s love.
On that note, we leave you with the Chahaat-Chaniya and our wishes to see you love and be loved, unconditionally, always.