Personal Ornaments of Men and Women

Decorating the different parts of the body by means of various ornaments has been in vogue since the pre-historic times among all the cultures. Early man had used the naturally available products from flora and fauna for this purpose. Indeed ornaments formed an integral part of dress. Various naturally available materials like clay, wood, shell, bone, conch, pearls, precious and semi-precious stones and metals are primarily used in ancient India to make different types of ornaments for bedecking different parts of the body. Both male and female loved to decorate different parts of the body like head, fore-head, ears, nose, neck, chest, shoulders, arms, fingers, hips, waist, legs and toes. A number of personal ornaments can be seen in the sculptures of this period and they are described as per the anatomy of the body from head to toe as following: