savudi / சவுடி

#Savudi is a ear-ornament worn by women in rural parts of southern #tamilnadu the practice of wearing these heavy pieces of #jewellery, on elongated ear which continuously give gentle pressure to that part of the ear that activates the brain and the glands in the head with the result that the person remains alert and energised. When a little heavier ornament is used the ear gets stretched and gives an appearance of a larger ear. Thus in the single act of wearing the ear #ornament with two advantages are drawn of increasing the brain activity and getting larger ears. Thus the idea of piercing the ear early in childhood and stretching the ear by the gentle pull of the ornament comes with twin purposes  one real and another symbolic. The real purpose is that the pull keeps the brain always alert and efficient. The symbolic reason is that the stretched ear looks large thereby capable of gathering or listening sounds. Some also believes that the longer it stretches the longer her life will be.

The savudi /#savadu is similar to the #thandatti but is shaped into multiple rings and each one is adorned with four to five rings weighing roughly it will be around 96 grams in total. In sculptures we could see more that 10 rings were adorened by women's in those days. There heavy pair of earrings which shows the wealth and social status too.These savudi's outer part is covered with gold while it’s hollow interiors are filled with lacquer which is then moulded into a circle shape and weard by women's. According to the region the shape and designs the heavy earrings go by various names like #pampadam, #olakadukan, thandatti, #mudichukadukkan. In this collage we could see the savudi/savudu the ear ornament were shown in nayaka period women sculptures in the temples of southern tamilnadu. From this we could understand the continuity and usage of this ornaments were still in exist and used by older womens in that locality.

--#Ramu.Rm.N