The History of Terracotta Jewellery: 4,500 Years of Baked Earth

Long before gold and silver were within reach of most people, the earth itself was turned into ornament. Fired clay, or terracotta, is one of the oldest jewellery materials in India, and the story of how it has been worn stretches back more than four thousand years.

What "terracotta" means

The word comes from Italian and simply means "baked earth". It describes any clay that has been shaped and then fired until it hardens. Natural iron in the clay turns red-brown in the heat, which gives terracotta its familiar warm colour, though depending on the clay and the fire it can also come out buff, grey or nearly black.

Because clay is found almost everywhere, terracotta has been used by nearly every early civilisation for pots, bricks, toys and figures. What makes the Indian story unusual is how early, and how consistently, clay was also used to adorn the body.

Bangles in their thousands: the Indus Valley

The oldest Indian terracotta ornaments come from the cities of the Indus Valley Civilisation, such as Harappa and Mohenjo-daro, which flourished in their mature phase roughly between 2600 and 1900 BCE.

Archaeologists working at these sites have recovered terracotta bangles in very large numbers. At Mohenjo-daro they are counted in the thousands. Many were found broken, which has led researchers to suggest they were worn, cracked and thrown away much as glass bangles are today. Some were plain; others were painted. Fragments from Harappa show red trefoil (three-lobed) shapes outlined in white on a green background, the same motif that decorates the robe of the famous "priest-king" figure from Mohenjo-daro.

Clay figurines from the same cities show women wearing bangles stacked on both wrists and upper arms, anklets and beaded chokers. Ornament was clearly part of everyday life, and terracotta made it available to almost everyone.

These bangles were also technically sophisticated. A scientific study of a bangle fragment from Harappa found that the clay had been mixed with quartz, probably to stop it cracking as it dried, and possibly with an organic binder. The minerals that survived in the clay show that it was fired below about 860 °C, a level of kiln control the researchers describe as fairly advanced for its time.

Moulds, goddesses and a growing craft

After the Indus cities declined, terracotta did not disappear. In the centuries that followed, potters across northern India made clay figures of mother goddesses, animals and ordinary people. Over time their methods became more refined. Faces were pressed from moulds while bodies were modelled by hand, then whole figures were made from single moulds, and later from two-part moulds joined front to back. These same skills (moulding, pressing, fine detailing) are the ones still used to make terracotta beads and pendants today.

Bengal: where the temples are made of clay

If one region is synonymous with terracotta, it is the Bankura district of West Bengal, and especially the temple town of Bishnupur.

Under the Malla kings, Bishnupur's builders used fired brick and carved terracotta panels on a scale found almost nowhere else. The town's best-known temples were built over the seventeenth century:

• Rasmancha (1600), built by King Bir Hambir, regarded as the oldest of the brick temples.
• Shyam Rai Temple (1643), built by King Raghunath Singha.
• Jor Bangla Temple (1655), with its curved, hut-like roof in the Bengal chala style.
• Madan Mohan Temple (1694), built by King Durjana Singha Deva.

Their walls are covered in terracotta panels showing scenes from the epics, musicians, dancers and everyday life, and the dancers and courtly figures are themselves draped in necklaces, earrings and armlets.

The craft lives on nearby. In the village of Panchmura, around 22 km from Bishnupur, about 70 families of terracotta artists still work in clay. They are best known for the long-necked Bankura horse, which began as a votive offering and has become a symbol of Indian folk art, but they also make figurines, décor and jewellery. A Rural Craft Hub set up in the village by the Government of West Bengal with UNESCO helps keep the tradition going.

A living tradition across India

Bengal is not alone. Potters in Rajasthan, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Assam all have their own terracotta traditions, from votive figures used in tribal rituals to the everyday lamps and pots of village life. Terracotta jewellery grew naturally out of these skills: the same clay, the same kilns and the same eye for form, scaled down to beads, jhumkas and pendants.

Why terracotta jewellery is loved again

In recent decades terracotta jewellery has found a new audience. Some of the reasons are practical: it is light enough to wear all day, kind to the skin, and made from a natural material. Others are about meaning. A terracotta necklace carries the same earth, fire and handwork as the bangles of Harappa and the walls of Bishnupur. Today's artisans add modern finishes such as antique gold, oxidised silver and copper, hand-painted colour and contemporary shapes, but the heart of the craft is unchanged.

When you wear a terracotta set with a silk saree at a wedding or a festival, you are taking part in one of the oldest traditions of adornment in the world.

Explore our terracotta jewellery sets, or read how terracotta jewellery is made.