The anklet — a band, chain, or ornamental ring worn around the ankle — is among the oldest and most geographically widespread forms of personal adornment known to archaeology. Recovered from burial sites in ancient Egypt, depicted in the sculpture of classical Greece and Rome, codified in the ritual dress of South Asia, and persistent in the contemporary jewellery market, the anklet occupies a distinctive position in the history of ornament: it is simultaneously intimate and visible, modest in scale yet often laden with social, marital, and spiritual significance. Known in Hindi and Urdu as payal or pajeb, in Tamil as kolusu, and by numerous other regional names across the subcontinent, the ankle ornament has attracted the attention of archaeologists, ethnographers, and jewellery historians in roughly equal measure.

Ancient Origins

The earliest securely dated ankle ornaments come from ancient Egypt, where gold and electrum examples have been recovered from tombs spanning the Middle and New Kingdom periods (roughly 2055–1070 BCE). Egyptian anklets were typically rigid bangles or flexible linked chains, worn by women of high social standing and, in funerary contexts, intended to accompany the deceased into the afterlife. The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the British Museum both hold Egyptian examples that demonstrate considerable goldsmithing refinement, including granulation and inlay work with carnelian, turquoise, and lapis lazuli.

In Mesopotamia, cylinder-seal impressions and terracotta figurines from the third and second millennia BCE depict female figures wearing multiple ankle ornaments, suggesting that stacking — wearing several anklets simultaneously on one or both legs — was already an established aesthetic convention. Archaeological finds from the Indus Valley Civilisation (c. 2600–1900 BCE) at sites including Mohenjo-daro and Harappa include shell, terracotta, and copper ankle rings, indicating that the tradition on the Indian subcontinent predates the Vedic period by many centuries.

Classical Greek and Roman cultures produced ankle ornaments in gold and bronze, though the form was less central to their jewellery vocabulary than it was in Egypt or South Asia. Roman examples, some set with glass paste or semi-precious stones, have been recovered from sites across the empire, from Britain to North Africa, suggesting that the form travelled with Roman material culture rather than arising independently in each region.

South Asian Traditions: Payal and Pajeb

It is in South Asia that the anklet tradition achieved its greatest elaboration, both technically and symbolically. The payal (also spelled payal or payel in Bengali) and pajeb are worn principally by women and carry a complex of meanings that vary by region, religion, and social context. In Hindu tradition, the anklet is closely associated with marriage: the sound of silver bells attached to the ornament — a feature known as ghungroo when the bells are larger and used in classical dance — announces the presence and movement of the wearer. Silver is the preferred metal for anklets worn on the feet in many Hindu traditions, as gold, considered sacred and associated with the goddess Lakshmi, is conventionally not worn below the waist.

The forms taken by South Asian anklets are extraordinarily varied. Among the principal types are:

• Kara: a rigid bangle-style anklet, typically in silver, worn in pairs. Common across North India and Pakistan.
• Payal with ghungroo: a flexible chain anklet hung with small hollow silver bells that produce a characteristic tinkling sound with movement. Associated with bridal and festive dress throughout North and Central India.
• Kolusu: the South Indian form, typically heavier and more architecturally structured than North Indian equivalents, often in silver with repousse or cast decoration. Tamil Nadu and Kerala traditions are particularly noted for their elaborate kolusu designs.
• Toda and tribal forms: communities in Rajasthan, Gujarat, and tribal belts of central India produce anklets of considerable weight — sometimes several hundred grams — in silver with geometric or zoomorphic decoration. These serve as wearable stores of wealth as well as markers of community identity.

Gemstone setting in South Asian anklets, while less universal than in necklaces or earrings, is well documented. Kundan-set examples incorporating polki diamonds, rubies, and emeralds were produced for aristocratic and royal patrons during the Mughal period and continued under the successor states. The Victoria and Albert Museum's Mughal collection includes ankle ornaments of this type, some attributable to the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, that demonstrate the integration of the anklet into the full suite of court jewellery.

The Middle East and North Africa

Across the Arab world and North Africa, the anklet — known in Arabic as khalkhāl (خلخال) — has been documented in continuous use from pre-Islamic antiquity through the present day. Bedouin and Berber silversmithing traditions produced anklets of considerable weight and complexity, often incorporating niello work, coin pendants, and coral or amber beads. In Yemen, Oman, and the Gulf states, silver anklets formed part of the bridal trousseau and were worn in pairs. As with South Asian traditions, the sound produced by the ornament — whether from bells, chains, or pendant elements — was considered an integral part of its aesthetic and social function.

The khalkhāl appears in classical Arabic poetry as a metonym for femininity and grace, and its literary presence reinforces the view that the ankle ornament was culturally central rather than peripheral in these societies. Heavy silver examples from Morocco and Algeria, now held in museum collections including the Musée du quai Branly in Paris, demonstrate the technical accomplishment of North African silversmiths working in this tradition.

Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia

In sub-Saharan Africa, ankle ornaments in bronze, iron, and brass are documented across a wide range of cultures. Among the Akan peoples of Ghana, cast-brass anklets were associated with wealth and status. In Ethiopia, large silver anklets form part of the traditional dress of several communities, including the Hamar and Mursi peoples of the Omo Valley, where they carry explicit markers of social and marital status.

In Southeast Asia, anklets feature in the traditional dress of communities across Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, and Cambodia, often in silver and sometimes incorporating glass beads or small gemstones. The hill tribes of northern Thailand and the Shan States of Myanmar are particularly noted for their silver ankle ornaments, which, like their South Asian counterparts, function simultaneously as adornment and portable wealth.

Classical Dance and Performance

In the Indian classical dance traditions — Bharatanatyam, Kathak, Odissi, Kuchipudi, and others — the ankle ornament takes on a specialised form as the ghungroo: a string or pad of small metal bells tied around the ankle of the dancer. The ghungroo is not merely decorative but is a percussion instrument, its sound integral to the rhythmic vocabulary of the performance. The number of bells worn — which can range from a few dozen to several hundred — varies by tradition and the dancer's level of advancement. The ghungroo is treated with considerable reverence; in many traditions, the dancer touches the bells to their forehead before and after performance, and the first tying of the ghungroo on a student marks a formal initiation into the dance tradition.

Western Traditions and the Contemporary Market

In Western Europe and North America, the anklet has occupied a more ambiguous cultural position. During the nineteenth century, ankle ornaments were largely absent from mainstream European jewellery fashion, in part because floor-length skirts rendered the ankle invisible. The anklet gained visibility in Western fashion during the twentieth century, particularly from the 1930s onwards as hemlines rose. By the mid-twentieth century, delicate gold or silver chain anklets had become a recognised category of fashion jewellery in Europe and North America, though they never achieved the symbolic weight they carry in South Asian or Middle Eastern traditions.

The contemporary jewellery market offers anklets across a wide range of price points and materials. At the fine jewellery end, anklets set with diamonds, sapphires, and other coloured stones are produced by major houses and independent goldsmiths. The form has benefited from the broader revival of interest in body jewellery and layered adornment that has characterised fine jewellery fashion since the early 2000s. Gold chain anklets, sometimes incorporating small gemstone-set charms, have been offered by houses including Cartier, Tiffany, and numerous independent designers.

In South Asia, the market for traditional payal and kolusu remains robust, driven by bridal demand. Hallmarked silver anklets are sold in quantity in jewellery markets from Mumbai to Chennai, and the form has also been updated by contemporary Indian designers who work in gold with diamond and coloured-stone setting while retaining traditional structural forms.

Materials and Craftsmanship

The materials used in anklet construction reflect the full range of jewellery-making traditions globally. Silver predominates in South Asian, Middle Eastern, and North African traditions, partly for cultural reasons and partly because silver's lower cost relative to gold permits the heavier gauges that these traditions favour. Gold anklets are produced in South Asia for aristocratic and bridal contexts, and in the contemporary Western market gold — typically 14 or 18 carat — is the standard fine-jewellery material.

Gemstones used in anklet setting include diamonds, rubies, emeralds, sapphires, and a range of semi-precious stones. Coral and amber appear frequently in North African and Central Asian examples, valued both aesthetically and for their perceived protective properties. Shell, bone, and glass beads feature in tribal and folk traditions across Africa and Asia.

Construction techniques span the full vocabulary of the jeweller's craft: casting, forging, repoussé, chasing, filigree, granulation, kundan setting, and chain-making. The production of payal with integrated bells requires the additional skill of hollow-form silversmithing to produce the bells themselves, which must be precisely sized to achieve the desired acoustic quality.

Museum Collections and Scholarship

Major public collections with significant holdings of historical anklets include the Victoria and Albert Museum (particularly strong in South Asian and Middle Eastern examples), the British Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Musée du quai Branly, and the National Museum of India in New Delhi. The V&A's South Asian jewellery collection includes Mughal-period gem-set examples alongside nineteenth-century tribal silver, providing a useful survey of the range of the tradition.

Scholarly treatment of the anklet has been somewhat dispersed across the broader literature on jewellery history, body adornment, and material culture. Oppi Untracht's Traditional Jewelry of India (1997) remains a standard reference for South Asian forms, with detailed coverage of regional variations in payal and kolusu design. Marianne Strauss and other scholars working on ancient Near Eastern and Egyptian jewellery have addressed ankle ornaments in the context of broader studies of ancient adornment.

Further Reading

• Victoria and Albert Museum — Jewellery Collection
• Metropolitan Museum of Art — History of Jewelry
• GIA — History of Jewelry and Adornment