HISTORY OF LAC BANGLES

· Lac jewelry also referred to as lacquer jewelry originated in West Rajasthan and has
since then gained popularity across India.

· Its easy to find Lac jewelry in the local markets & old streets of Jaipur, Jodhpur, Udaipur
etc. in versatile designs, which adds uniqueness to its beauty. Lac bangles in particular
are considered auspicious for the newly married brides to the extent that it has become
a ubiquitous accessory for the newly married.

· Lac bangle making is an art, as old as the establishment of Jaipur city. The king of Amer
summoned the most initial craftsmen from the Manoharpur district of Uttar Pradesh.
Once the capital city was instituted, these Manihar craftsmen also shifted their
vocational base from Amer to Jaipur. The lane is dotted with countless bangle selling
shops mostly managed by the muslim Manihari women while their men are away at the
kilns and furnaces melting and preparing the raw-material.

· The antiquity of this natural resin goes as back as the vedas, where the Laksha taru (or
Palas) in Sanskrit, or the Lac tree has been mentioned. In the Atharva Veda, there is a
small chapter devoted to the description of Lac insect, its habits and usefulness. The
story of the notorious Lac palace built by the Kauravas in a plot to eliminate the
Pandavas, in an episode from the 3000-year-old Mahabharata epic sheds more light on
the history of this material.

· Crimson red, plant sucking, tiny insects such as Laccifer lacca, Carteria lacca and
Tachardia lacca colonize the branches of selected species of host trees and secrete a
natural scarlet resin known as Lac. Later the different layers of resin residue on the
coated branches of the host trees are scraped off as long sticks known as sticklac,
crushed, sieved and washed several times to remove impurities till it shows up in natural
red color. This Lac, acquired from Balrampur in Uttar Pradesh is further heated to settle
down the impurities and get the best of it floating on the surface. To this molten Lac,
which is originally brick red in color, the bangle makers further add wax (beroza) to
increase the cohesiveness, titanium (Ghea pathar) to increase the volume and coloring
agents. Generally the quantity of talc varies from 5% to 95% and is highly instrumental in
determining the quality of the Lac bangles.

· The Rajasthani rituals are known to require specific traditional ornamentations and
different festivals seek different ensembles. Hence the sale of these bangles surges
during local celebrations such as teej, the marwari festival of gangaur, karva chauth, holi,
weddings and special ceremonies for the mothers-to-be. In fact, each celebration can be
identified with a distinct style of bangle design. For instance, a wedding in the family
calls for the gulali choodha or the red colored bangle or the hare bandon ka choodha,
the green colored bangle. Pink colored bangles are worn exclusively during holi. Besides
bangles, rings, toe rings (bichchua), anklets (payal), nose rings, neck pieces, Bala,
 Bajuband, Rakhi, Gajra, Gokhru, Timaniyan and maathe ka tika make prized slections for
the visiting female clientele.

· LAC BANGLES IN PANDHARPUR

Pandharpur being a holly area and the dwelling house of Lord Vithala, pilgrims go to Pandharpur
and women depart wearing bangles as a part of a holy ritual. Lac bangles with appealing colours
and cultural styles have grow to be more elegant for these days’s jet-set women. however, in
Pandharpur, best conventional bangles are synthetic. keeping a check at the state-of-the-art
traits from across the u . s . a . and the globe, the lac bangle-makers need to evolve to the
current traits. There are around 30 bangle producers in Pandharpur, who have been
manufacturing them via the identical traditional methods from 5 generations. it's far the primary
source of income that helps their livelihood. Their popular of residing is as but now not upto the
mark. if they foresee it as their future source of livelihood and intention to survive and at the
equal time upgrade their widespread of living, they want to trade the technique of
manufacturing.