Important Notice

Contemporary in design yet retaining the traditional crescent, this maang tika is centred on a pear-shaped emerald with an immediate surround of circular rose-cut diamonds and a further surround of pear-shaped and oval rose-cut diamonds. The central flower is attached to curving openwork motifs set with full-cut diamonds, also suspending two chains set with triangular and circular rose-cut diamonds symbolising the crescent. Accompanied by a row of rose-cut diamonds as support.

Emerald: 0.47 carat
Diamond rose-cut: 2.56 carats
Diamond: 0.20 carat
Gross weight: 4.33 grams


A maang tika is a forehead ornament worn where the hair is parted (maang), hanging down till the centre of the forehead. It is traditionally considered an essential part of a woman's ornamentation, and is one of the adornments that is, in some parts of the country, an auspicious symbol of marital felicity. Maang tikas are typically made of a precious metal and have a face set with gemstones, often with intricate enamelling on the reverse. They were prominently depicted in miniature paintings, and in the Mughal period, they were often made of pearls. Italian writer and traveller Niccolao Manucci, who wrote a memoir about the Indian subcontinent during the Mughal era, described them as, "Upon the middle of the head is a bunch of pearls... with a valuable ornament of costly stones formed into the shape of the sun, or moon, or some star, or at times imitating different flowers. This suits them exceedingly well." (Quoted in "Women's Jewelry in Aurangzeb's Court," Oppi Untracht, Traditional Jewelry of India, London: Thames and Hudson, 1997, p. 347)

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