Teardrop Stone Line Payal with Rope Bezels

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.

What you are looking at

No centrepiece, no pendant, no variation — just one shape repeated the whole way round the ankle. Teardrop cabochons, each set in a bezel edged with twisted rope wire, each joined to the next by a short plain bar. The stones all face the same direction, so the line reads as a current flowing round the ankle rather than as a row of separate settings.

Repetition is the oldest device in Indian ornament and the hardest to get right, because everything depends on the single unit being worth repeating. Here it is the rope bezel that carries it: that twisted wire border catches light along its spiral at every setting, so what could have been a flat line of colour has a bright moving edge all the way along.

The cabochons are domed rather than faceted, which gives each stone one soft highlight instead of a scatter of sparks. Against the blackened rope bezels the effect is closer to old silver set with real stones than most pieces at this price manage.

At the clasp ends hang clusters of ghungroo bells, so there is a light sound at the back of the ankle without a fringe along the length.

Metal and stones

A word on the stones, because it matters when you are choosing a colour. These are glass and cubic zirconia, not gemstones, cut and polished and set by hand into closed metal bezels. That is the traditional setting for Indian costume jewellery and it does two useful things: the closed back holds the stone securely against the knocks an anklet takes, and it puts a dark oxidised rim around every stone so the colour reads clearly instead of washing out against the metal.

Colours and availability

It also means the colours are saturated rather than subtle. A sea green here is a true green-blue, a ruby is a deep pink-red, and the baby pink is pale and milky rather than bright. The photographs on each swatch are of that exact colourway, so trust them over the colour name.

Three colourways are stocked. Sea Green is the best-stocked and the most striking against the oxidised grey. Baby Pink is the pale milky option shown in the main photograph. Blue is the deepest, with only one pair available.

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.

When to wear it

Because the stones run the full length, this anklet is best worn where the whole ankle shows — with a saree, a cotton kurta, or bare ankles in summer. Under a trouser hem you would see perhaps three stones, which wastes the design.

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.

Keeping it looking right

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 and it is also what loosens a bezel-set stone over time, so slip it off before bathing. A dry soft cloth is the whole cleaning routine — never a silver polish or a dip, which strip the blackening the design depends on and can fog the stones.