Jadau (sometimes jadtar or jaratkari) is one of the principal traditional jewellery techniques of the Indian subcontinent. It is a setting and construction style rather than a single category of jewel, and it provides the structural foundation for several of the great Indian jewellery traditions — most importantly Mughal court jewellery from the sixteenth century onward, and the Polki, Kundan and the carved-gem temple-jewellery traditions that descend from it. The technique is still practised in the present day, with Jaipur and Bikaner as the principal living centres.

Construction and method

The defining feature of jadau is the absence of prongs or claws. Gem material — typically uncut natural diamond crystals (in Polki form), table-cut diamonds, flat-cut polki, foiled or unfoiled coloured stones, and flat carved gem panels — is set by surrounding each stone with a strip of kundan, very thin pure-gold (24-carat) foil or wire, which is worked at room temperature with steel tools to flow around the stone and lock it into a pre-prepared seat in the body of the jewel. The body of the jewel is itself made of a heavier alloy gold (typically 18 to 22 carat), shaped, granulated and chased in advance, and the kundan setting is performed only at the final stage with the stones in position.

Because pure gold is malleable enough to flow at room temperature under hammer and burnisher pressure, the technique allows extremely close-set, prongless mounts in which the gem material appears almost to float on a smooth gold ground. The setting also accommodates flat-backed and irregular stones (which would be impossible to prong) and supports the foil-backed compositions characteristic of Mughal-period work. The reverse of a jadau jewel is conventionally enamelled (the meenakari tradition of Jaipur), so that the piece is reversible and equally finished on both sides.

Historical development

The technique reached its highest form under the Mughal emperors of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The Mughal court, with access to the Golconda diamond mines, the Kashmir sapphire and Burmese ruby trade, and a generationally stable concentration of skilled metalworkers in the imperial workshops, produced jadau jewels of a complexity and gem density unmatched in the contemporary European tradition. Surviving Mughal jadau pieces in the al-Sabah Collection (Kuwait), the Khalili Collection (London) and the Jaipur Royal Collection give the principal material record.

The Rajput courts of Rajasthan, particularly Jaipur, Jodhpur, Bikaner and Udaipur, absorbed and adapted the Mughal technique through the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, blending it with their existing temple-jewellery traditions. Jaipur in particular emerged as the post-Mughal centre, and the city's combined kundan-meenakari workshops continue today to produce both restoration work for older pieces and new commissions in the traditional style.

Variants and related traditions

Several distinct sub-styles fall within the jadau category. Polki denotes jadau set with uncut, flat-cleaved natural diamond crystals. Kundan denotes the setting technique itself but is also used colloquially for the broader jadau-set jewels of north India. Meenakari denotes the reverse-side enamel work that conventionally accompanies fine jadau. Bikaneri meenakari, with its distinctive red-and-green palette on a white ground, is the regional Bikaner variant of the reverse work. Thewa, a related but distinct technique from Pratapgarh, fuses gold-leaf cut-work onto coloured glass and is sometimes confused with jadau but is technically different.

Contemporary use

Jadau remains the dominant technique for high-end Indian bridal jewellery, particularly in north India where the Polki bridal set (raani haar, matha patti, tikka, bajuband, kamarbandh) is still the standard for the wealthy bride. The market is significant: Indian wedding-jewellery spending in the high-end segment is dominated by jadau and Polki, and houses including Sunita Shekhawat, Tribhovandas Bhimji Zaveri, Birdhichand Ghanshyamdas, the Gem Palace Jaipur, Hazoorilal Legacy and Amrapali have built reputations on the technique. The work is also exported under the broader "Indian high-jewellery" rubric to the Gulf, Southeast Asian and diaspora markets, and a small but growing presence appears in European and North American auction catalogues, particularly through Christie's South Asian sales.

Identification and condition

For the trade buyer, the principal identification points are the absence of prongs, the visible kundan-foil border around each stone, the meenakari reverse and the use of foiled or unfoiled flat-cut and uncut diamond crystals rather than modern brilliant cuts. Condition issues to watch for include kundan that has lifted or oxidised (a common issue with pieces over fifty years old), enamel loss on the reverse, and modern restoration in which traditional foil-backed flat-cut diamonds have been replaced with brilliant-cut substitutes, which materially changes the character of the jewel.