ARTISAN RUDRAKSHA BEADS

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Rudraksha demand is day by day increasing  due to its important properties.  Rudraksha beads are available from Ek Mukhi to Twenty One Mukhi. Approximately ninety percent Rudraksha are Five Mukhi.  Rudraksha from Four Mukhi to Six Mukhi are more commonly available. Round Ek Mukhi Rudraksha is extremely rare and is priceless. Rudraksha from Nine Mukhi to Fourteen Mukhi and Gauri-Shankar are rare. Rudraksha from Fifteen Mukhi to Twenty One Mukhi,  large Gauri-Shankar beads more than 13 mukhi onwards and Trijuti are extremely rare and therefore expensive.  Due to its  rarity and high cost, there are large no. of artisan beads or fake Rudraksha beads that are floating in the market. Artisans in this business are expert in making fake beads or tampered beads by different methods.

Fake Round Ek Mukhi Rudraksha :

Round Ek Mukhi  Fake Rudraksha beads are made by different ways. The most common method adopted is by sealing all other  clefts except one, or by removing  all extra clefts skillfully.  Clefts are generally sealed using special type of synthetic material or by natural  resin material of plant origin.  Clefts are also sealed by pasting skillfully  very small pieces of other Rudraksha beads in a cleft region. Artisan Ek Mukhi Rudraksha are also made from heart wood of the plant species Aquillaria agallocha and Chestnut (Akroad) Castanea sativa.  Another method is by making small beads from a resinous material.  Large oval and round Ek Mukhi beads are made by making a ball of crushed Rudraksha with resin as a binding material.  Filling material  generally used in such beads is lac, gum of plant origin, honeybee comb wax, or crushed pieces of normal Rudraksha.  Rarely special type of clay is also used.  Large sized perfectly round Ek Mukhi beads upto four inches diameter are also made from fruits of the plant Couroptia sps.  (Canon ball tree).  Such large sized Rudraksha beads, are generally with Shiva pindi and a hood of cobra.  These beads look very beautiful and is a good piece of art work.

Fake Haridwar Ek Mukhi Oval Rudraksha ( Haridwar Ek Mukhi ) :

Due to extreme rarity of round Ek Mukhi Rudraksha, oval Ek Mukhi Rudraksha is commonly sold in the market.  Oval Rudraksha beads are the fruits of commonly available species Elaeocarpus serratus.  Stones of this species are generally three mukhi and are commonly known as Indian oval three mukhi Rudraksha.  Under this species approximately ninety per cent stones are three mukhi, seven to eight per cent stones are two mukhi and hardly one or two per cent stones in this type are  no doubt genuine One Mukhi. Few people who are not much conversant with botanical species description and research are of the opinion that One Mukhi and two mukhi stones in this type does not exist, and if available are tampered from the normal three mukhi stones.  In botanical description of the species Elaeocarpus serratus, it is clearly mentioned that ovary  in this species is from one celled to three celled.  (Reference : Flora of Bombay Presidency  Vol. II by Cooke).  Ovary further develops in stones from one cleft to three clefts.  However, most of the Ek Mukhi available in the market are the tampered stones from a normal three mukhi, made either by sealing two clefts with resin or by skillfully removing the other two clefts leaving one cleft intact.  Artisan Ek Mukhi beads in this type can easily be identified by boiling such beads in water in a pressure cooker at 120º Celsius for half an hour.  This removes the sealing resin matter easily.  Beads in which two clefts are skillfully removed by sharp cuts can easily be detected  by studying ornamentation pattern of the bead.  Oval Ek Mukhi beads are the morphological variation of oval three mukhi beads, as it clearly shows the presence of two rudimentary locules and only one fully developed locule with a single seed.  Interestingly this anatomical character is same for all the stones under this species in-spite of the number of clefts present.

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