Silver Lining

The Amrapali Museum in Jaipur is a unique repository of India’s extraordinary silver-crafting finds Varun Rana

At first, I mistake it for a grand haveli. But Amrapali’s corporate headquarters on Jaipur’s Ashok Road—about 15 minutes from the historic jewellery hub of Johri Bazaar—is an apt location for this silver jewellery business, founded a mere 40 years ago in the heart of India’s precious gemstone capital. And in this building, there are treasures that any haveli, or even a palace, could only dream of hoarding.

Once inside its tall, peacock-filigreed gates, I’m greeted by an imposing silver-plated chariot, displayed against a vivid red wall to my right. To my left, a spiral marble staircase leads up to the showroom from where a global empire of silver, and now even gold and gems, is managed.

But today, a sunny summer morning, I’m not going upstairs. My destination lies right in front of the gates I’ve just walked through. A small white door opens into a darkened hall. A flat-screen TV is playing interviews with Rajiv Arora and Rajesh Ajmera, Amrapali’s intrepid founders, who scoured the country in their trusty Maruti 800 through the ’70s and ’80s to collect silver (and some gold) artefacts that eventually led to the founding of their label in 1978—and in January this year, they opened the Amrapali Museum.