Lucky 13th c. gold and silver jewelry found in India

I know what you’re thinking: when is finding gold and silver jewelry not lucky? Hear me out.

Construction workers leveling a site for a volleyball court at Anurag Engineering College outside of Hyderabad uncovered a pot filled with gold and silver jewelry from the Kakatiya dynasty, between 1083 and 1323 A.D.

It contained 75 gold ornaments including ear tops, mangalsutrams, beads and armlets weighing 189 grams and silver ornaments consisting of 18 anklets weighing 550 grams.

“It is a rare occurrence to discover gold and silver caches on the eve of Akshaya Tritiya,” said Prof. P. Chenna Reddy.

“These rare jewellery [sic] including beads made of semi-precious stones will be kept on display at the Dr Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy AP State Museum on Monday to coincide with the International Museums Day celebrations,” he said.

Ashaya Tritiya is a Hindu and Jain holy day considered to bring good luck and prosperity. It’s an auspicious day to begin any business venture and any gifts you give on Ashaya Tritiya will bring many happy returns to giver and receiver, so it has become customary recently for people to give gifts of gold jewelry and gold coins in particular. This find, therefore, is crazy great luck for the college and the Department of Archaeology and Museums.

Also, the jewelry is really beautiful, lots of intricate gold work. You check out the shiny on this slideshow. Some of it looks really heavy. I’m not sure I’d wear these in my ears, for instance:

Gold 'vathulu' (earware), 13th century