For centuries, village women would buy silver jewellery in times of wealth, only to sell it in periods of distress. Given the superstitious horror of possessing something second-hand, no village woman would dream of buying used silver, so the silversmith tossed the object into the smelting pot to fashion a new piece with it. In the meantime, city women were discovering the cachet of silver, and as they had no compunctions about wearing second-hand jewellery, "old silver" (a more felicitous term than second-hand ornaments) came to occupy its own niche in the urban market.

For silver jewellery to be called silver in the first place, meant that it has to consist of a minimum purity of 50 per cent, the rest being made up of alloys that differ from state to state. Tradition, again determined exactly how much silver was to be used in each area. Thus silver ornaments in Gujarat usually came to consist of 70 per cent, while in neighbouring Rajasthan, 85 per cent was the norm.

Today's woman who wear silver as a fashion has the choice of old silver, new silver made into traditional designs or oxidised to give it 'an old' look, and sterling silver, made with the Western market in mind. She may wear a pendant from Karnataka, earrings from Himachal Pradesh, a waistband from Rajkot, Gujarat and anklets from Salem, with panache, but rural women from any of these areas would look at the sight with mirth.

The too, the city sophisticates may find the jingle of silver beads on her bracelets utterly charming, completely unaware of their original purpose. Legend has it that the hollow beads were arranged around anklets and bracelets to give off a jingling sound when hands and feet were in motion, so that mothers-in-law could keep an unobtrusive watch on their daughters-in-law!