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Trishula + Bell

Men’s Rabari Wedding Ring

Companion Piece

Location: Dolkha Bhimsem Temple, Northern Nepal

Age: Contemporary

Composite: Metal

Collected by: Jackal

Age: unknown, at least 60 years

Location: Kachchh, India

Composite: Alloy

Collected by: Sophie Ray Lee, from the HiHiRi PiPiRi Collection

For nearly all recorded history, offerings such as the one displayed here constituted the most generous form of layman and royal donation. Temples, monasteries, churches etc. were centres of concentrated wealth around which markets would flourish. Donated coins, bells and bars or bracelets were melted down to make idols and temple architecture. In return, temples offered credit and loans, and rites for the community. Their wealth (as bullion) was the envy of kings and states who would periodically raid temples, confiscate metal objects and use them to mint new coins and finance standing armies (example King Harsha). Today the value of metals has been debased and no longer constitutes the foundation of wealth for temple complexes.

Discarded tridents and bells behind Dolkha Bhimsem Temple