Tribal Silver Ganesh & Lakshmi Amulet - 19th Century

This 19th century silver kanchha amulet from Rajasthan brings together Ganesh and Lakshmi, a pairing long favoured across the region for its combined promise of prosperity, wellbeing and the removal of obstacles. The two deities sit in a compact rectangular, shrine-like panel framed by a dense mandaliya-style border of flowers and beadwork, forming a small portable vastu or sacred house-plan. Its four flower-shaped terminals conceal the suspension loops, where a cord or woollen thread would once have been passed so the amulet could be worn openly on the chest during daily life, work and travel.

Among rural Rajasthani and Gujarati communities, such plaque amulets were chosen with care, guided by family tradition, personal devotion and the specific blessings the wearer hoped to invite. Lakshmi offers abundance, fertility and household fortune, while Ganesh is invoked at every beginning to safeguard new ventures. When worn, the amulet was believed to draw the deities’ shakti directly to the body, offering a blessing of protection, smooth progress and sustained prosperity. The softened surfaces and mellow patina of this example suggest long, steady devotional use.

Using the thappa method, a silversmith would heat and anneal a sheet of thick silver, then stamp it over a carved brass die (happ) to raise the figures of Ganesh and Lakshmi. The edges were trimmed, the beading defined with small hammer blows and the floral terminals soldered in place to form the suspension loops. This combination of die-stamped relief and applied ornament is typical of the rectangular patri-style amulets produced for local devotional use.

• Origin: Rajasthan, India
• Date: 19th century
• Material: Solid silver
• Form: Rectangular kanchha or mandaliya-style plaque with floral borders and four flower-form suspension loops
• Depiction: Ganesh and Lakshmi in die-stamped relief within a floral frame
• Construction: Traditional thappa stamping over brass die (happ) with trimmed and beaded borders
• Weight: 44g
• Function: Protective and auspicious deity amulet intended for wear on the body
• Reference: Comparable Rajasthan plaque amulets illustrated in Oppi Untracht, Traditional Jewellery of India, especially the square and rectangular Ganesh–Lakshmi forms

A resonant Rajasthani silver plaque amulet uniting Ganesh and Lakshmi in a finely worked symbol of protection and prosperity.