Earrings have a special status in Indian jewellery; they are highly decorative and beautify the face. Moreover, they are a sign of identification for their wearers or for a geographic region. These signs of identity and social status are mostly given up in urban areas, where earrings are mostly machine-made fancy items without any particular meaning. Because of discomfort in wearing big silver ear ornaments are also more and more replaced by small and light fashionable gold earrings.

 Malevolent spirits, the butas, are believed to enter the body through the ear apertures and may cause damage to the neighbouring brain. The openings must therefore be protected by earrings as amulets, causing a constant stimulation of the so-called marma points, which are similar to the modern acupuncture points.

Earrings can be used as investment, although the material value is often very little. A jeweller often functions as a pawn-broker or banker.

Evolution from natural models

Nagaland Tong Pang

Ideas for Indian ear ornament designs are mostly taken from nature. Adivasi still use natural materials as ear ornaments, like palm leaf scrolls, bamboo sticks, wood or shola pith. The reason for using metal instead is primarily the wish to stabilise the fragile natural pieces and to gain prestige by using silver or gold.

The most beautiful and elegant natural models were of course flowers. The sanskrit word karnphul for large ear discs means "flower of the ear". Favourites are flowers like marigold and lotus, which are also important in religious ceremonies

Leaves or rather their imitation in metal are as well used as earrings. Up to three small stylised leaflets may be fixed in the rim of the upper ear. Bigger, heart-shaped leaves are suspended by loop from the lobe.

Even snakes were in several areas used as models for earrings. The kings of the snakes are the Nagas, who guard the treasures of the nether world. Nagas are esteemed as the guardians of life energy and thereby a symbol of fertility.

Assam Keru

Assam Thuria

The "Seven Sisters" have their very distinctive unmistakable earrings, which all have a longstanding tradition and are still proudly worn in many regions.

Assamese jewellery tradition dates back to the Ahom kingdom. Jewellers started a revival of old designs in the 1960s, which has produced such interesting earrings as the lokaparo (pigeon), the joonbiri (crescent) or the dhol (drum). Apart from these, thuria are still worn, now often adjusted for narrow ear-holes. The main production centres of jewellery in Assam are Jorhat in upper and Barpeta in lower Assam. Earring types of lower Assam are the old crescent-shaped keru and the filigree or granulated thokasona. All artisans are native Assamese.  

From the Brahmaputra valley different are the hilly areas, which are inhabited by several tribal groups who have their own ornaments, like the Karbi Anglong with their huge silver ear-stud nothengpi.