Medha handed out tilgul and sought blessings from the elders while wearing a black silk saree and white beads. She told the children to take this tilgul sweet and talk as sweetly as possible. She had her first Sankranti festival after marriage. The beads she wore were not pearls. She passed out the same candy to her family that was spiked around her neck.
The sugar balls that are usually distributed in temples around the country are similar to Tilgul. They are also used to make special jewelry in Maharashtra. Halwa dagine is worn by newlyweds to celebrate their first Sankranti festival as a couple, and by newborn babies on their first Sankranti. The jewelry for the baby showers can be used by pregnant women.
Sankranti is celebrated in January when the sun moves northward and the harvest season begins. Sweets made with sesame seed are popular. Maharashtra's halwa dagine symbolizes the wearer's hope for future blessings since Sankranti is a festival of abundance.
The women of each household made the beads for halwa dagine at home in the early mornings before the day turned warmer. The cooler temperature allowed the spikes to form. My mother remembers her mother-in-law making halwa. She says they strung the beads to make jewelry. I saw my aunt wear halwa dagine when she was pregnant.
The festivities began before January in her day. Women from the household gathered to make ornaments.
The process is time consuming. Cooks put sugar syrup over sesame seeds in a pan on low heat. The seeds are stirred to separate them. My mother says it takes five to seven days to make a bead. She says that the next layer of sugar syrup can only be added after the previous one has hardened. A cup of sugar can cover just two sesame seeds. Women used pumpkin seeds instead of sesame for larger beads.
A set of clothes. Alamy Stock Photo has pictures of Dinodia.
The women would store the beads away from the water. These artisans patiently tied the beads with thread into designs because they lack a hole for string.
Similar to how Portuguese confeito and Japanese Konpeito confections are manufactured, the method of making halwa beads is similar. Konpeito are traditional gifts for weddings and childbirths, and confeito almonds are also distributed during marriage celebrations in many European countries. Sugar-ball jewelry is a tradition in Maharashtra.
The ancient India has sugar sweets. Sugar, known as sakkara in Sanskrit, was made from a native crop of the subcontinent. The method of making sugar was called khanda. The English word for candy is derived from Sanskrit.
After travelling as a luxury commodity via trade routes to the rest of the world, it became shakkar in Persian, sucre in French and sugar in English. It is not clear when sugar balls began to be used for jewelry in western India. They may have been a stand-in for more expensive pearls, but their true origin is not known.
In this photo, there are two people wearing halwa dagine for Sankranti. Shoma Abhyankar is a person.
The tradition of making jewelry from waleem is not well known. The tradition of making jewelry out of halwa dates back a century. She says the tradition goes back to the previous two generations if memories of 75-year-old elders from various families are to be believed.
Some women still make their own sugar ornaments, though the art is slowly disappearing from homes. Pushpa Date is a small-scale businessman who creates jewelry such as necklaces, bangles and amulets. The families in her neighborhood are the ones who demand the most. She says she made the beads at home. I sometimes buy the halwa to make jewelry.
Few people have the time or patience to make jewelry or halwa beads. Commercial establishments have stepped up to provide a variety of ornaments and designs in response to the need for halwa dagine. After seeing her mother-in-law make sugar jewelry, the owner of the famous snack and sweet business began selling halwa dagine. Local women are employed by Patankar to prepare halwa three to four months before January and sell jewelry for both women and men. A set, which may include a tiara, necklace, nose pin, hair adornments, waistbands, bangles, toe rings and more, is usually between 2,500 and 3000 rupee.
The modern take on halwa dagine is on paper.
Customers were asked to send in pictures of family members in their jewelry. The response was more than enthusiastic. A customer sent a photo of their daughter-in-law, a Japanese girl, dressed up in typical Maharashtrian attire complete with halwa jewelry.
The jewelry of yore looks different now. It has been streamlined for convenience. Elaborate pieces are hard to make and take a lot of time to knot. Some of the commercially available jewelry is made by sticking beads on designs cut out of cardboard or foam sheets.
Halwa dagine is a part of a special holiday. The ornaments can be passed on from sibling to sibling as they marry. The lovely jewelry can always be dismantled and eaten with gusto, even for those who are unwilling to pack the beads away.
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