Rajputi
Rajput-court silhouettes, hand-set as fashion jewellery.
Origin
Rajputi — also spelled *rajwadi*, from *raj* (royal) — describes the wedding-era jewellery vocabulary of the Rajput kingdoms of Rajasthan: principally Jaipur (Kachhwaha), Udaipur and Mewar (Sisodia), Jodhpur and Marwar (Rathore), and Bikaner. The style consolidated between roughly the 16th and 19th centuries, alongside the temple-architecture and miniature-painting flourishes of the same courts.
Rajputi is identified less by a single technical move and more by a complete layout language: heavy gold-plated bases, broad chokers (*kanthi*, *aad*) that fill the collarbone, long necklaces (*ranihaar*) that fall to the navel, large maang tikkas, naths, and the bird and animal motif vocabulary of the desert kingdoms — peacock, elephant, parrot, lotus, and the rising sun (the surya emblem of the Sisodia house of Udaipur).
The traditional technique combines kundan stone-setting on the visible face with meenakari enamel on the reverse — both court techniques inherited from the shared Mughal-Rajput workshop tradition — but the giveaway is the layout. Rajputi pieces are scaled for the seven-day Rajput wedding (haldi, mehendi, sangeet, baraat, pheras, reception, vidaai), where the bride is the photographic centre of every frame and the jewellery has to read across daylight, candlelight, and indoor reception lighting.
Most rajputi pieces are built on a gold-plated german-silver base — the alloy of choice for Indian bridal because it takes plating evenly and holds the weight of a full choker without bending. Motifs are hand-engraved and meena-detailed; in the traditional craft, the stones are kundan-set.
Nandai reinterprets these traditional steps in fashion-jewellery materials — gold-plated brass and german-silver bases, kundan-style coloured stones, and enamel-style detailing — making the rajwadi silhouette accessible at fashion-jewellery prices.
How a traditional Rajputi piece is made.
- Step 1 illustration is pending workshop photography.
Naksh · layout drawing
The full bridal set — choker, long haar, maang tikka, jhumka pair — is drawn at scale before any metal is cut, to balance proportions.
- Step 2 illustration is pending workshop photography.
Saanch · base casting
German-silver or brass is poured into hand-cut moulds for each motif component, then gold-plated to a 1+ micron antique finish.
Nakkashi · motif engraving
Peacock, elephant, lotus, and sun motifs are hand-engraved into each casting, then meena-detailed on the reverse face for hidden colour.
- Step 4 illustration is pending workshop photography.
Jadai · assembly
Stone-setting is done last; the final piece is strung on silk thread with a hand-soldered hook and a safety chain at the clasp.
Our Rajputi-inspired edit.
In the words of the master.
A rajputi necklace should sing in haldi sunlight, in candlelight at sangeet, and in the camera flash at vidaai. One silhouette, three lights.
Trained in traditional rajputi design, now crafting fashion-jewellery pieces that bring the silhouette to a wider audience.
TODO: commission a portrait + wedding-fitting interview with the named artisan and a real bride during a seven-day shoot.