Abstract
The glass bangle in South Asia is a widely distributed artefact with recognized spatio-temporal variation. Often considered only as an addendum to widely traded glass beads, it remains an understudied class of archaeologically recovered glass objects. This paper argues there is much to be learnt from the historicity of glass bangles beyond the present debate that has dwelled on their ‘antiquity’. Towards this end, the paper provides a review of the techniques by which bangles were produced in South Asia. It argues that markedly different sociologies of artisan-group organization, scale of production, patron-craftsmen relations, and workshop location including itinerant production, distinguish the two major techniques, namely: the ‘Khalbut’ and the ‘two-mandrel’ methods. Building on this discussion, the paper provides a short archaeological history of the glass bangle up to the early medieval Period. It highlights the historically specific nature of marked patterns of regional, typological and chemical variation each indicating shifts in glass bangle production, use and valuation.
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Notes
- 1.
The term marvering refers to the use of a flat clean surface or tool to roll warm glass on during the manufacturing process. The process allows for the craftsperson to shape the glass. Once additional coloured or prepared glasses are added to the pre-form being worked, it can be marvered again and this simple combination of steps is used to create a range of effects.
- 2.
As an exception Dikshit (1969) records that at Pemgiri the bangle-making community he met with referred to this tool as the sundari.
- 3.
This involving pulling not one bead, but ‘drawing’ an entire spiral from the melt onto a rotating cylinder/belan. This was achieved at first, it seems beginning in the 1920s, by using a team of four workers, and then later by the 1950s with the use of a mechanized rotating cylinder. The spiral is then cut, and the resulting open rings are individually and labouriously joined on a flame/gas lamp (often by children and women). While the labour force required for the stage of juḍai is thus enlarged, the total volume produced offsets this and keeps wages exploitatively low. Up to 50,000 bangles can be produced at each factory a day, and the endless capacity for the exploitation of labor has ensured that these bangles are the definitive twentieth-century type.
- 4.
The term arris is typically defined as ‘a sharp edge formed by the meeting of two flat or curved surfaces’. It is introduced here in this technical sense to draw attention to the dexterity and skill which making bangles of particular cross sections were demanded. A common example in the South Asian record, are ‘triangular’ bangles defined by such sharp arris (see Fig. 4, e.g. from KSK).
- 5.
This section is summarized from a longer reconsideration of the archaeological history of the glass bangle under preparation. Trivedi 2020 provides a wider historiographic argument and a detailed account of medieval bangles not covered here.
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Trivedi, M. (2021). Glass Bangles in South Asia: Production, Variability and Historicity. In: Kanungo, A.K., Dussubieux, L. (eds) Ancient Glass of South Asia. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-3656-1_15
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