Pomegranate Guide To Navaratna Jewellery
The first piece of jewellery that Katie sold was a Navaratna pendant and she was fascinated by this configuration of gemstones and the meaning behind it.
What does Navaratna mean?
Simply put, nava is nine whilst ratna refers to gemstones and the navaratna is therefore a combination of nine gemstones. When these gemstones are worn together they are considered particurlarly auspicious and protective.
Ancient Hindu cosmology deemed that the universe consisted of five planets, the sun, the moon and two personifications of the moon cycle and identifies certain gemstones connected to each of them. These nine entities are the nava-graha, the nine celestial Hindu deities and were believed to influence human destiny.
At the centre of the universe - and so at the centre of all navaratna ornaments in the form of a ruby gemstone - sits the sun as the supreme source of life and ruler of the other planets represented.
The number nine is also an important and significant number. Nine is the last of the single digits and represents the end of the cycle of the decimal system.
The nine stones & what they represent
- Ruby sits in the centre, the powerful sun around which all other planets (gemstones) are placed
- Pearl is the moon
- Emerald is Mercury
- Diamond is Venus
- Blue Sapphire is Saturn
- Yellow Sapphire or Topaz is Jupiter
- Zircon is the ascending node of the moon
- Cat’s Eye is the descending node of the moon
- Coral is Mars
The reason why particular gemstones became associated with the particular entities listed above derives from a myth about the demon Bala who with his enormous strength, went to Heaven with the intention of conquering Indra.
Instead Bala was slaughtered and dismembered by nine gods and each body part grabbed by one of the nine, transmuted into one of the gemstones mentioned.
Jewellery Meaning & Significance in India
Certainly jewellery in India has always been prized as personal adornment and as a store of wealth However jewellery is also prized for its significance, for the concept it stands for and ultimately for its power to act as a talisman and amulet for the wearer.
Each precious piece is seen to be suffused with powers to ward off evil or create protective and auspicious auras. There are many recurring motifs that we come across in traditional Indian jewellery: fish representing fertility, plant and seed forms for fecundity and reproduction.
Gemstones are also imbued with their own meanings and seen as having protective powers and healing powers, holding spiritual and cosmic attributes and a number of ancient Sanskrit texts are devoted to exploring these meanings.
View the Pomegranate range of Navaratna jewellery.