Black Bead Payal on Oxidised Snake Chain

Payal is simply the Hindi word for an anklet, and in most of India it is still the first piece of jewellery a girl is given and the last an older woman takes off. It is worn as a pair, one on each ankle, and traditionally it was meant to be heard as much as seen — the sound announced that someone was coming, which in a joint household was a courtesy rather than a performance.

About the design

A single flat black bead sits at the centre of this anklet, held between two coiled silver-tone spacers that both centre it and stop it sliding along the chain. Either side runs a snake chain — close-coiled, round in section, with no visible links — so the whole piece lies smooth against the ankle with nothing to press when a shoe or a hem rubs across it.

When to wear it

Black beads worn on the body are an old and widespread Indian practice, and the reasoning is the same one behind the blue nazar: a dark bead is thought to absorb or deflect an envious look. On an infant it is a nazariya, tied at the wrist or ankle almost from birth; on an adult it is quieter, usually a single bead on an anklet or in a mangalsutra. It is the least conspicuous protective charm in Indian jewellery, which is precisely why it is the most worn.

Metal and stones

German silver is the trade name for a bright white alloy of copper, nickel and zinc. It contains no silver at all. What it does have is a hard, cool-toned surface that takes an oxidised finish well and resists scratching better than plated brass, which is why almost every everyday Indian anklet is made to look like it.

The scale here is the point. One bead is small enough to vanish under a trouser hem and specific enough to be noticed when the ankle shows, which makes it easy to wear with Western clothes as well as Indian ones — and easy to wear every day without thinking about it.

If you want the same idea more visibly, the blue evil-eye anklets in this range carry one or four nazar beads; if you want something quieter still, the plain snake chain with bell clusters has no bead at all.

A note on wearing a pair rather than one. Single anklets have become common and there is nothing wrong with wearing one, but a pair sits differently: the two sounds fall slightly out of step as you walk, which is what produces the soft irregular jingle people associate with payal rather than a single repeating note.

Care

An anklet lives a harder life than any other piece of jewellery. It meets shoes, floors, door frames and bedsheets, and it is the piece most likely to be worn into the shower because taking it off is a nuisance. Water is what dulls an oxidised finish fastest, so slip it off before bathing where you can. A dry soft cloth is the whole cleaning routine — never a silver polish or a dip, which strip the blackening the design depends on.