SULEMANI & SOLOMON BEADS
A Journey Through Time, Belief, and Beauty
 
THE NAMES WE GIVE TO BEADS
In the vibrant world of ancient beads, names matter. They carry with them entire histories, beliefs, and worldviews. One such pair of names—Sulemani and Babagoria—invites us into the layered world of agate beads originating in Central India. While both terms describe the same category of black or brownish agate beads with white stripes, each name tells a very different story.

Babagoria Beads
Bead historian Jamey Allen argues that the most historically accurate name might be Babagoria, a term rooted in the local dialects near Central Indian excavation sites. In this context, 'Baba' means holy man and 'Goria' (a dialectical variant of goriya) means bead - thus, Babagoria - Holy Man’s Bead.
 
Interestingly, the ancient agate mines of Ratanpur, Gujarat, were once called Baba Ghori, echoing this dual sacred-commercial identity. These beads were worn by saints, and their holiness was thought to be reciprocal: the beads conferred spiritual status on the wearer, and the sanctity of the wearer blessed the bead.

Yet, the term Babagoria may no longer be culturally appropriate. With 'goria' also meaning white-skinned in some South Asian contexts, the term carries potential racial or colonial undertones.
 
Sulemani Beads 
Sulemani is the more globally recognized name today. It refers to a particular kind of black or brown agate—often with one or more white stripes—that gained prominence in Islamic India, especially among the Sufis from the 12th century onward. Sulemani agate, also known locally as Sulemani Hakik, is revered across Indic and Islamic traditions for its spiritual properties - believed to offer grounding, clarity, and protection from negativity. It furthermore connects the beads to the legendary King Solomon (Suleman), who in Islamic lore was a master of wisdom and spiritual forces.
 
Before these beads became Sufi prayer tools, Sulemani beads had already lived long, complex lives. They were in circulation centuries—perhaps millennia—before the rise of Islam in India. Archaeological evidence and burial contexts suggest that many of the beads were originally created as funerary objects, religious amulets, or high-status trade items in pre-Islamic India.

What the Sufis encountered were not newly fashioned talismans, but ancient relics infused with earlier layers of spiritual and social meaning. By incorporating them into tasbih (prayer beads), they layered Islamic mysticism over an older sacred grammar. This recontextualization didn’t erase the beads’ origins—it deepened them. The Sulemani bead thus became a vessel of multiple spiritual inheritances, carrying echoes of the distant dead and the prayers of the living.

Bhaisajya Guru Beads
Long before the arrival of Islam, these beads were used in Buddhist malas, especially in Afghanistan, a predominantly Buddhist region until around 1000 AD. In Mahayana Buddhism, these are known as Bhaisajyaguru beads, named after the Medicine Buddha. These beads are believed to remove disease, prolong life, and carry blessings of previous enlightened beings who may have worn them.
If a spiritually resonant name were to be applied retrospectively, 'Bhaisajya Guru beads' — in reference to the Medicine Buddha, protector and healer — might capture the contemplative and protective nature these beads have come to represent.

WHY WE PREFER 'SULEMANI'
In recognition of the current global discourse - we prefer the name Sulemani. This choice avoids confusion or misinterpretation.
 

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ANCIENT USAGE: FROM RITUAL TO CURRENCY
Beads like these were originally not just adornments or religious items - they were status symbols, amulets, and eventually currency. In tribal cultures, like the Konyak of Nagaland, a bead necklace once equaled the value of a Nepali slave. Shocking as that sounds today, it speaks to the intrinsic and societal value placed on beads.

During the Indus Valley Civilization, beads were more likely markers of social class than currency. But post-Indus, as societies grew more complex and trade expanded, beads transitioned into 'Niksha' - a form of circulating money. To fulfill their new economic role, beads needed to be portable, attractive, and rare. And as with all currency, this necessitated a shift toward uniformity.
 

FROM UNIQUENESS TO UNIFORMITY
As beads evolved into currency, artistry gave way to standardization. Like Ford’s assembly-line cars, the spiritual and aesthetic individuality of earlier beads was gradually replaced by the economic logic of mass production. Once beads functioned as cash, they needed to be recognizable and trusted across vast trade networks. This meant adhering to shared visual features—shapes, finishes, colors—that could serve as a common denominator for traders separated by geography, culture, and language.

This shift helps explain the stark transition from the intricate, handcrafted beads of the Indus Valley to the more uniform, oil-cooked Sulemani beads of later periods.

That said, Sulemani beads were never fully homogenous. Variations in heat treatment, regional style, and cultural purpose still left room for diversity within the emerging standard.
 
The Evolution of the Single Line Sulemani bead
Here comes an example of how commodification shapes beads - even today. Among contemporary collectors, one of the most sought-after types is the so-called single-line Sulemani bead.

The obsession with this bead’s specific form and design has grown in parallel with the demand for alternative currency-like assets in China. Today, these beads are among the most expensive in the Far East, sometimes selling for more than three times their weight in gold.

However, there is no strong archaeological or textual evidence to suggest that single-line agate beads were recognized as a distinct or especially venerated category in ancient India. Beads from that period were valued primarily for their material quality, skilled craftsmanship, and symbolic form. While Hindu and Buddhist traditions deeply embraced sacred geometry—including motifs echoing the lingam and yoni, Shiva–Shakti dualities, mandalas, and protective eye patterns—there is no indication that the single white line motif held particular spiritual significance in that early context.

These older traditions often embedded cosmic and metaphysical ideas into shapes and patterns, and such meanings may have subtly informed how certain beads were perceived.

Even as early as the 8th century onward, Islamic influence slowly introduced new symbolic meanings to beads across South Asia and the Middle East. The single-line Sulemani gradually came to represent:

Spiritual protection - Focus during prayer (dhikr) - The oneness of God
 
These associations likely retroactively elevated the single-line bead’s spiritual status—especially given their documented presence in Sufi prayer chains. But their evolution wasn’t driven by symbolism alone. One practical factor was the need for a universally recognized form of currency along the pilgrimage routes from India to Mecca. During these long journeys, a strand of Sulemani beads worn around the neck often functioned like an early credit system.

In such a chain, only a few beads might feature the coveted single white line—these held the highest value. Beads with two or more lines, or simpler patterns, served more transactional purposes: paying for food, shelter, or a night’s rest in a caravanserai. In this context, the single-line Sulemani wasn’t just a spiritual token—it was a high-denomination bead in a mobile, wearable economy.
 
A Story From Persia - History is Always Complex
Still, compelling anecdotal evidence suggests a deeper and more complex history. One of the most respected bead collectors I know — who prefers to remain unnamed — shared that in Iran, a substantial cache of large, locally-made single-line Sulemani beads was unearthed, dating back over 1,500 years, to the Sassanian period. This may point to a pre-Islamic Persian commercial, aesthetic and/or spiritual preference for the black bead with a single white line.
 
Given that many of the Sufis who later traveled to and settled in India hailed from Persia, it is possible that they carried with them not only spiritual teachings but also a reverence for this specific bead form — which then took root and evolved within Indian devotional culture.
 
The Chinese Take-Over
Now, there's a huge leap from the Islamic use of single-line Sulemanis to the average contemporary Chinese collector, who typically has no understanding of bead history whatsoever. For them, these beads function purely as investment objects—assets to be traded like rising stocks.
What began as objects of spiritual, artistic, and communal meaning have become speculative assets, bought and sold by people with no real connection to the traditions that created them.
 
Yet it's too simple and one-sided to mock a society that has, in just one generation, risen from widespread poverty and illiteracy to a relatively stable middle class. The scale of what Communist China has achieved is often underestimated in the West. I would call it a miracle.
 
The West Copies China  
What deserves more critique, frankly, is the generation of Western collectors who blindly adopt this stripped-down, commercial narrative. Western collectors should know better. They often have the resources, the access to scholarship, and the time to investigate deeper histories. But many don’t. Instead, they adopt the most simplistic, market-friendly narrative, swallowing it whole because it fits into a neat story of rarity and rising value. It’s lazy collecting disguised as connoisseurship.
But now, the tide appears to be turning—and it’s the West that’s becoming the copycat, adopting not just the beads, but the market-driven mindset once critiqued in the East.
 

TWO TYPES OF SULEMANI BEADS
Bead expert Malik Hakila, a true 'hands on' expert  in the world of ancient beads and a longtime practitioner with a bead factory in Cambay, Gujarat, offers a striking perspective: that the oldest so-called Sulemani beads—particularly those that appear heated without oil or sugar might not be Sulemani at all. The two techniques even for some time coexisted. According to Hakila, these beads may have been crafted from an entirely different and now-lost variety of agate, distinct in both mineral composition and visual quality. Let us have a deeper look.

Oil-Cooked Beads: The more common type, these beads were cooked in oil, a technique that preserved the agate’s strength and partial translucency. This method became dominant around 2300 years ago, coinciding with the rise of bead-currency. Their consistent appearance made them ideal for trade. Below you can see some typical specimens:
 

 
Older Dry Fire-Treated Beads:
Below you can observe a different kind of ancient beads. Much rarer, older and artistically superior, these beads were heated at high temperatures without oil, resulting in striking black-and-white banding, gray tones, and matte finishes. These bead in general have much larger holes indicating their superior age.

But this ancient method made the beads brittle. Cracks, scars, and even sudden breakages were common.
 

Some experts suggest that these beads may have even acquired their unique patina from funeral pyres, though intentional artistry seems more likely in most cases. Their matte finish, surface cracks, and large perforation holes suggest a dry-fire treatment, a high-heat process without oil that often made the stone brittle but visually striking. However, funeral pyre heated beads for sure have made their way into the collections of ancient beads today. Here is my best guess for a funeral heated bead, ashy, dry and brittle:

ARE THEY EVEN SULEMANI?
Here comes an important observation that leads us away from the funeral pyres: The more swirling patterns in the pre-oil treated beads cannot arise from heating.

The dry cooked beads appear older, rarer, and more mysterious. They are usually white or grey with chaotic black banding and swirling patterns that resist standardization. They often displays eye motiffs or other interesting geometric patterns that do not look accidental:

What’s most fascinating is that, according to Malik Hakila, no one today knows the original source of this mysterious stone. A great part, but not all, of the dry cooked beads seem to be made from a distinct, now-extinct variety of agate no longer found or identified in the modern world. This type of agate is not found in the currently active producing regions, nor is there a known deposit that matches its unique properties. This suggests that these beads could represent not only a different older technique, but an entirely different geological and cultural lineage - possibly predating the historic trade centers like Ratanpur and Cambay.

If true, this throws into question our assumptions about naming, categorization, and provenance. These enigmatic beads resist reduction to labels. Their origin is unknown, their beauty unmistakable, and their story still unfolding.
 

SOLOMON BEADS
A New Name for an Ancient Mystery
Inspired by Malik Hakila’s insight that some of the oldest, uncooked agate beads likely originate from unknown and now-lost mines, I propose a new poetic term: Solomon Beads. These remain within the broader category of Sulemani beads, yet form a distinct subgroup.

The name evokes the legend of King Solomon’s mines—mysterious sources of wisdom, magic, and hidden wealth lost to history. Like those mythical mines, the original geological source of these beads remains unknown.
 
Solomon Beads vs. Sulemani Beads: A Definition
Solomon beads differ in both appearance and material qualities. Their larger perforation holes suggest greater antiquity, while their matte surface hints at ancient, dry-heating techniques - or perhaps long-term burial in arid soils.

Whereas Sulemani beads are typically black with white stripes, marked by relatively uniform banding and a glossy, oil-cooked finish, Solomon beads tend to be white or gray with black lines. A rough comparison might look like this:
 

The pale or white background of Solomon beads is largely due to the stone not being penetrated by hot oil or sugar. But the contrast is more than technical. The black lines on Solomon beads have a distinct visual identity—they are deliberate, expressive. The "artist’s brush" in these beads is black, not white, and what it paints is uniquely different.

While some Solomon patterns are straight, many are fractured, swirling, and unpredictable—a chaotic beauty shaped by stone, fire, and time. The bead shown below does not exhibit the clean, parallel lines typical of Sulemani beads, but rather complex, circular swirls characteristic of volcanic-formed agate. This kind of agate resists symmetry; it doesn't produce neat banding but instead reveals a fluid, organic motion—spirals within stone, circles within circles.

Such material naturally invites symbolic interpretation. While Buddhism makes use of sacred geometry, it is perhaps Hinduism—with its dense network of cosmic patterns, mandalas, and metaphysical diagrams like the yantra, yoni, lingam, and bindu—that most richly embodies this layered visual language. Volcanic agate was more than just visually compelling; it served as the perfect medium for expressing sacred meanings in Hinduism’s multifaceted religious landscape.

In contrast, the uniform, single-line patterns of Sulemani beads reflect more centralized, cohesive religious and political systems, such as those represented by Islam or imperial China.

In fact, some beads—like the one depicted below—may deserve categorization under terms more rooted in the Hindu cultural context. Yet for clarity, and to avoid adding further confusion to an already complex field, we retain the term Solomon as a subgroup within Sulemani.

Thirty years ago, I received the Solomon bead shown below as a gift from my friend Professor Bhandari, who had sourced it from Rakhigarhi, an Indus Valley site in Haryana:

This suggests that the roots of these extraordinary beads may lie deep within the Indus Valley Civilization, one of the world’s oldest urban cultures.
 
In summary, these beads are not merely earlier forms of Sulemani; they represent something else entirely. With origins shrouded in mystery, often shaped from distinct volcanic materials, and marked by irregular, deeply expressive patterns, they merit their own category:
 
Solomon Beads - vessels of complex mystery and living hindu history.
 

 Solomon Beads Are Converging Towards Extinction
Ironically, as Eastern interest in ancient beads grows, authentic Solomon beads are becoming harder to find—not because they've vanished, but because they’re being altered. In Jaipur, traders refurbish these once-distinctive beads by boiling them in oil, darkening their natural hues to mimic the classic Sulemani agates. The goal is aesthetic: to appeal to markets that prize the deep, dark luster of traditional Sulemanis. But in the process, the original identity of the Solomon bead is erased. This transformation, driven by demand and profit, has led to a strange reversal—true Solomon beads are disappearing, not through loss or decay, but through reinvention. Once modified, they are exported to China, re-entering the market under a new guise. The irony is sharp: in trying to preserve or enhance the value of these beads, we lose their true story. What remains is not a relic, but a replica crafted by modern hands.
 
I can only hope that the few genuine Solomon beads I still hold will find homes far from this commodified compulsion to turn them into cyborgs.
 

 
PLASTIC VS. PLANETARY
Some collectors in Asia reject fire-treated beads because of their imperfections. But I see them differently. To me, they resemble exoplanets, fragile worlds swirling in forgotten skies. They are maps of inner journeys, companions for meditation, vessels of story.
 

CRACKED BEAUTY IS MY RELIGION
My belief system centers on beauty - not surface-level prettiness, but transcendent beauty found in the imperfect. These scarred beads are sublime, revealing the play of time, fire, and soul. They are hubs where the soul and the zero meet, where the observer creates the observed.

In that sense, what we call these beads matters. Whether you say Sulemani, Solomon, Babagoria, or Bhaisajyaguru, each name tells a story - and in turn, shapes reality.

For me, I choose Sulemani, not only for global clarity but also to honor the evolving layers of meaning, faith, and craft behind these humble, powerful objects.

And I will always bow to the bead that bears the scar.
 

The wonderful beads SM 53,54 and 55 just below are ancient. However, they were found without hole. So the finders of the beads drilled new holes in them. Unfortunately, my scanner is somehow not able to catch the true translucent beauty of these beads.