Distinguished by its intricate workmanship, this extraordinary armlet (vanki) is made of repoussé and chased gold, opalescent glass beads, and an inset gray topaz. It epitomizes a traditional type of ornament worn by southern Indian Hindu women on their upper arms. The armlet features delicate openwork panels of micro-repoussé and chased gold filigree images of human, animal, and mythological figures. They are set in horizontal registers defined by arches with pearl borders for the primary figural row and, for the subsidiary figures, amidst a lace-like background of scrolling vines. Plain sheet gold is used as the support backing for the figural matrix. The inner surface is not enameled, as would often be the case with northern Indian jewelry. The armlet’s design program consists of various inhabitants drawn primarily from India’s rich corpus of mythology. The central image on the front depicts the Hindu god Krishna dancing triumphantly on Kaliya, a serpent king who had terrorized the countryside before being vanquished by Krishna and converted to his worship. Krishna and Kaliya are flanked by female attendants waving honorific fly whisks symbolic of Krishna’s divine status. Additional figures include, at the top of the armlet, a "face of glory" (kirtimukha) paired with peacocks and, along its sides, winged griffins, elephants, tigers, and rearing lions.

• Markel, Stephen. Mughal and Early Modern Metalware from South Asia at LACMA: An Online Scholarly Catalogue. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2020. https://archive.org/details/mughal-metalware (accessed September 7, 2021).
• McGill, Forrest, editor. Beyond Bollywood: 2000 Years of Dance in the Arts of South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Himalayan Region. San Francisco, CA: Asian Art Museum, 2022.