Abstract
This article proposes that Mughal jewelry and gemstones had a social life. The way
royal karkhana manufactured and emperors and royal family members circulated,
controlled and gifted, determined the value of jewelry. The social and economic
value was not inherited in jewelry, rather how it was understood and judged by
people and how jewelry resisted the desire of people to possess them. The process of
manufacturing involved a specialized knowledge employed in royal karkhana. The
control over this knowledge also made the jewelry rare in medieval Indian society.