The paunchi, also called poonchi in the hills, is one of those rare ornaments that belongs, with equal conviction, to two entirely distinct traditions separated by geography, climate, and culture, yet united by the same instinct: that the wrist is a sacred site, and what is tied there carries meaning.

In Rajasthan, the paunchi is a festive ornamentation worn by women at weddings and celebrations as an assertion of identity and abundance. Rajasthani paunchis have historically been set with glass, kundan, and meenakari, their surfaces so worked with pattern and stone that the wrist beneath them becomes almost incidental — a canvas for something larger than adornment.

In Garhwal, the paunchi descends from a different tradition. Here, the bracelet is tied rather than clasped, secured with thread in a gesture that echoes the raksha bandhan of the hills: protection, blessing, the act of binding something good to the body and asking it to stay. The Garhwali poonchi is worn at harvests, at jaagar ceremonies, at the moments when the community gathers, and the individual becomes part of something older than herself.

This piece holds both inheritances in a single wrist's width.

The Piece

Multiple panels of clear quartz, each one floral-carved, the petals pressed into the stone's surface with patience, are set across the paunchi in a continuous band.  Simulated kundan stones in red, white, and green are set across the quartz in an alternating floral pattern; the red of festival and vermillion, the white of clarity and marble courtyards, the green of nature. Each stone is set in 92.5 gold-plated silver in the kundan tradition: metal pressed gently around the stone by hand, no prong, no claw, just gold embracing colour. The quartz beneath glows faintly through and around the stones.

The paunchi closes on a single red thread, the traditional closure, tied at the wrist the way it has always been tied, in both the desert and the hills. Not a clasp. Not a mechanism. A thread. The most ancient fastening there is, and still the most certain.

This is a festive piece in the fullest sense — not merely decorative for an occasion, but carrying the occasion within it. The harvest. The wedding. The ceremony that begins when the paunchi is tied and ends when it is carefully, reluctantly, removed.

One of a kind. There will not be another exactly like this.

The Details:

• Metal: 92.5 silver with gold plating
• Stones: Simulated kundan — red, white, green; alternating floral pattern
• Base: Multiple floral-carved clear quartz panels
• Setting: Kundan (hand-pressed gold-plated silver setting)
• Closure: Single red thread, traditional paunchi tie
• Heritage: Rajasthani and Garhwali paunchi tradition
• Wear: Festive occasions, weddings, ceremonies, gifting
• Character: One of a kind, heirloom, museum-worthy, irreplaceable
• Crafted by artisans from Rajasthan, India

This is a one-of-a-kind piece. Once it sells, this exact piece is gone.