SULEMANI
- BABAGORIA AGATE
BEADS
Sulemani is a recent Indian term for black onyx or
black/brownish agate with one or more white stripes.
That beads made out of this material are referred to as
Sulemani beads are due to the presence of Islamic
culture in India from the 12. Century onwards. The
Moslems, especially the Sufis preferred this type of
beads with one or more white stripes in their prayer
chains. However, they reused beads of a much older
origin and culture. A lot, but not all of the beads
displayed here are from central India. According to the
world-renowned bead expert Jamey Allen the term for most
of the agate displayed here should be Babagoria.
The term Babagoria is used by the local people in
Central India living close to the sites from where most
of these beads have been sourced. Goria means in their
language bead. Baba means a holy man. So the locals
called these beads, holy man beads. They have for
centuries given these beads to both Muslim Sufis and
holy men from the Hindu tradition.
It is worth mentioning that the ancient agate mines in
Ratanpur, Gujarat were called Baba Ghori. Babagoria
simply reflects the common ancient cultural context in
which all beads were seen. They were relics, amulets,
and talismans worn by holy men in a two-way exchange:
they made the person who wore them holy - the holy
person who wore them sanctified the beads.
However, most probably the term Babagoria was used by
the locals close to the ancient manufacturing places to
hype burial beads into sainthood, so they were more easy
to sell as sacred beads used by holy men.
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The beads
are
for sale
Inquire
through
bead ID
for price
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Illustration 1 - SM 1
Due to the Tibetan/Chinese demand single lined
Sulemani beads have become very expensive.
This bead is sourced from Afghanistan
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The term Sulemani was an Islamic renaming of beads
already in use
for magic, religious and currency purposes
for thousands
of years.
Black/brownish beads with white stripes were
used as objects of worship and in prayer malas by the
Buddhists of Asia and most probably
also before that, reaching back
to 700 B.C.
In prayer-malas beads are, out of practical reasons ball
shaped like the above bead in illustration 1.
These beads are in the Buddhist context often
referred to as Bhaisayaguru beads.
However, in Buddhist relic
caskets, stupas or in burial places there has been
excavated Sulemani beads in many other
shapes like the
long truncated convex bicone bead
shown in
illustration 2.
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Illustration 2 - SM 2
This bead
displayed has not, like the bead in
illustration
1 been
heat treated to
get the dark color.
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SULEMANI AGATE
Displayed in illustration 1, 2, 3 & 4 you can observe
variations of typical Sulemani
agate beads.
Note the blank shining surface of these
beads.
Cylinder shaped Sulemani
Onyx
beads
Onyx is virtually black agate
which is two-layered. In the case of sulemani beads the
layers are primarily consisting of black/brownish and
white.
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SM 3 -
17 * 11 mm |
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SM 4 -
14 * 9 mm
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SM 5 -
23 * 10 mm
Illustration 3
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Truncated Convex Bicone Sulemani Onyx
Beads
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Illustration 4
 
SM 6 - 22 * 14 mm
 
SM 7 - 23 * 13 mm
 
SM 8 - 23 * 12 mm
SM 9 - 15 * 10 mm
Pendant sulemani
SM 10 - 18 * 11 mm |
AGATE HEATED BY FIRE
Displayed in the illustrations 5,6 & 7 you will see a
different kind of black and white banded agate than the
beads shown above.
The patina of
these two kinds of agate is quite different.
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The difference in
patina
In illustration 5 the beads do not display the same kind of
glass-like shine as the beads in illustration 1,
2, 3
& 4. They have a more dusty, not reflective surface.
Greater contrast lines
Another characteristic is that the beads displayed in
illustration 5 show
greater contrast between the black, gray and white colors.
Black lines in white stone - not white lines in black
stone
Often the presence of white colored stone is, as you can
observe in illustration 6 dominating in this type of
agate:
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Illustration 6
SM 22 - 19 * 7,5 * 4 mm |
One could as a
general rule say that the typical Sulemani beads as
displayed in illustration 1, 2, 3 &
4 have
stripes of
white
in a black
stone where this other kind of
beads displayed in
illustration 4 & 5 have black stripes
in
white
agate.
50 shades of gray
It is also worth to note that this type of
agate stone often displays distinct bands of gray color
in many shades:
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Illustration 7
SM 23 -
22 * 6 * 5 mm
SM 24 -
25,5 * 18 * 5 mm
A wonderful bow bead.
Note the distinct
black,
gray and white color bands.
These beads were sourced from Burma.
They learned together with the spread of
Buddhism to manufacture these beads. |
The
absence of brown colors
Furthermore, this agate does not display brown or
brownish colors as you will often observe in the more
common Sulemani agate beads. An example of this brownish
color can be observed in these typical Sulemani/babagoria beads:
CHANGE THROUGH HEAT
TREATMENT
The difference between the
'normal' Sulemani beads and these more white, gray and
black beads is due to differences in the heat treatment
process. These beads have
been either deliberately or by accident been put in fire
making them more white-black-grayish. The change might
also be caused by the heat from a funeral pyre.
Great art through fire!
Whatever the reason... seen from an artistic viewpoint I love the appearance of these
beads much more than the more ordinary ones with their
brownish colors as you can observe above.
That leads me to the last theory, a theory I
believe is closest to the truth: These beads have been
deliberately produced to look like they do. They are
simply too beautiful to be a coincidental side product
of a burial pyre.
According to Mr. Malik Hakila, a world leading bead
expert and a bead shop owner from Kathmandu who also
runs a bead factory in Cambay, Gujarat, there were two
separate ancient bead cooking techniques involving in
producing these Central Indian beads.
1) Ancient dry cooking by high temperature
The oldest technique, as one can observe in
illustration 5 to 8, was to heat-treat the beads
without oil, like the ancient Indians did with
carnelian, but with a much higher temperature. In this
way, the beads became non-translucent and with intense
jet black and powerful white bandings, which
is an advantage seen from an artistic viewpoint. The
problem with this technique is that it weakens the stone
so badly that it easily breaks. Even in the finished
specimen, one can find a lot of scars and cracks, as you
can observe in illustration 7. Scars and cracks
can happen anytime with this type of beads. I even had
some specimen that cracked right in my hand.
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Click on picture for larger version
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Vulnerable beads
In central India, there are ancient sites with
huge piles, almost ton's of ancient broken beads
made with the old and dry heating method. The
massive presence of this type of beads in a
broken condition indicates the problem with the
fragility of beads made by the old production method.
A lot of these beads simply did not survive the
manufacturing process itself.
On the illustration, you can observe beads taken
from such a junk pile close to the bead manufacturing
place. Here we can observe beads, broken before
and after getting polished and some
broken during the tumbling process itself as
with the bead in the upper right corner with a
polished bead crack surface.
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2) A more modern oil cooking
technique
The other and more modern, but still ancient technique
would be to cook the beads in oil. This technique keeps
the natural transparent parts of the agate and at the
same time upholds the strength of the bead. This method replaced the
former one about 2300 years ago. However, the two
techniques have most probably run parallel for quite
some time, depending on customer demand.
Larger & older holes in the dry & hot cooked beads
The holes are as you
can observe in illustration 5 to 8 and mostly much larger in the dry & hot cooked
beads than in the more common agate bead in this
traditional oil cooked bead:
The generally larger holes in the dry & hot cooked beads
support the theory of two distinctly different ways of
bead treatment with radical different appearances.
Larger variation in motives in dry & hot cooked beads
Displayed in Illustration 8 one can observe the
presence of ultra swirling and abrupt geometric motives
and multiple eye formations in the dry cooked and super-heated older type of beads. Swirling circular motives
are typical for normal agate, but even more so in these
specimens. It seems the different layers in the agate
chosen for dry & hot treatment are more irregular
and hence more interesting. Therefore my next hypothesis
is: In order to get the best art beads out of
the swirling effects of the agate, the the beads with
most interesting patterns and swirls were chosen for the old heat
treatment technique and the one with more regular
banding were chosen for the new technique.
The most wonderful artful swirling play of circles is displayed in illustration 8
below, but can also clearly be observed in illustration 5.
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THE
USE OF OIL COOKED BEADS AS CURRENCY
For every over-cooked more ancient bead there are
hundreds of oil cooked beads.
Is it a coincidence that oil cooked beads
in mass production appeared on the historic Indian scene
at the same time as the rise of the use of money,
nishka? I don't think so. The oil-cooked beads
fulfilled the need of currency before the minted coins
took hold. For a long time, bead-coins and metal coins
most probably have coexisted. In this process of
monetization of beads, the production of the over-cooked
beads had to make way for the oil-cooked one out of two
simple reasons.
Oil-cooked beads were more durable and were not likely
to break when shifting hands in circulation.
Oil-cooked beads were less individual and artistic. When
cooked in oil the beads tend more to look like each
other, which is an advantage when used as currency.
With the rise of urban trade, artistic beads had to give
way to the more consistent mass production of
bead-currency.
THE
TALISMANIC POWER OF THE ANCIENT DRY & HOT COOKED BEADS
In a way, all ancient
beads are amulets - if one think they are. The 'amuletic'
power of a bead can never be isolated from the
particular belief system in which the owner of the bead
orients himself. In my view the world is constructed
out of collective minds accepting the same story told
reality. The naming of beads is part of the same game. Should we call
these beads Sulemani, Bhaisayaguru or Babagoria beads?
Each name attracts a certain collective reality, and
these 'realities' will fight internally about who is the
most real reality.
Beauty is my religion
My belief system is centered around beauty
- not beautiful beauty, not a perfect beauty, but transcendent beauty
hidden in the perfection of the imperfect. I would call
it the sublime. Imperfect, fragile bead amulets like these ancient over
cooked beads are full of story telling like faces of
old men and women. Therefore I call these beads sublime,
and that is why I wrote a
praise to the scarred bead.
To see the world as a story told reality or maybe even
fantasy is in fact very
close to the ancient Indian philosophy and according to
my observations exactly the part of Indian religious
culture that originated, not from the Arian invasion,
but from India's own ancient super culture: the Indus
culture.
Where we in the West tend to describe all mind made
realities as unreal in opposition to
positivistic science, the ancient Indian thinking is one
step ahead in pointing out - long time before the
quantum physicists - that the observer is actually
creating the observed.
Therefore beads have the power you observe them with.
But why ancient beads? Why not something plastic
fantastic?
Exoplanetarian beauties
When I look at these worn and torn ancient dry &hot
cooked beads -
sometimes looking like exoplanets from far away solar
systems - I am taken by awe. They are the eye bead
displayed above full of fragile cracks emitting ancient light.
Their swirling unpredictability makes them perfect as
amulets setting the course for my own unknown future.
The typical Asian collectors would not like them due
to their imperfections.
I however, observe this imperfection as perfectly
imperfect.
An ancient bead is due to its history and aesthetic
appearance an ideal focus point for
meditative concentration of the powers of and in the
mind. The scars, marks, and cracks are ancient signatures
of time itself.
It is an ideal hub where the Soul and the zero can meet,
but not in the ideal formlessness of the zero alone.
Because by accepting the scar as beautiful, you accept
the imperfect life you live as beautiful. No need of
escaping into the perfect, but depersonalized space of
the zero.
THE (W)HOLE
IN THE EYE - THE ZERO AND THE
SOUL
The wonderful ancient big holed ball beads displayed
here illustrates the ancient bead makers preference to
put the hole as far as possible in the center of the
eye.
The reasons for placing the hole in the eye could
be
several. One is most probably religious and symbolic.
The other could be purely out of aesthetic reasons.
It is worth noting that the hole in a bead also
resembles a zero. This is particularly interesting because
it was the Indians who invented the zero. The Hindi name
for zero is still today the word shoonyo, an old
Buddhist word for the fundamental perfect emptiness of existence.
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Illustration 9 |
SM 32 -
14,5 * 11
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SM 33 -
15 * 12 mm (Afghanistan)
- Sold |
SM 34 -
11,5 * 10 mm
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SM 35 -
10 * 8,5 mm |
SM 36 - 11,5 * 11 mm |
SM 37 -
9 * 7 mm |
SM 38 -
10 * 9,5 mm
-Sold |
SM 39 -
10 * 8,5 mm |
SM 40 -
9 * 7,5 mm |
SM 41 -
9 * 7,5 mm -Sold |
SM 42 -
8 * 6,5 mm |
SM 43 - 7,5 * 6,5 mm -Sold
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SM 44 -
6 * 5 mm -Sold
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SM 45 -
6,5 * 5,5 mm |
SM 46 -
7,5 * 5,5 mm -Sold
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SM 47 - 6 * 5 mm
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Below you can observe a few beads with holes drilled
with apparently no considerations to the eye patterns.
The reasons for this could be several. Mainly I think it
is due to technicalities, in the sense that the very
nature of the stone could demand the hole to be drilled
in a
particular
place.
The hole could also be put as you can observe in the
beads below out of other aesthetic motivations. The
reason could also be due to a bead makers ignorance or
not caring about symbolic eyes. There were countless
centers for bead making in India - both seen in a
historical and geographical view.
Most probably these centers had different cultural
and religious views. As there always in ancient India
were many different gods and religions there must also
have been a lot of difference in the context of
mindsets.
So it is possible that we had centers of bead making
where the bead makers did not care about symbolic eyes
and holes. It is here worth to remember that India had a
great time of skepticism and atheism already 100 years
before the birth of the Buddha.
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NEW HOLES IN OLD BEADSThis ancient bead
displayed below has no
hole. It never made it the whole way to the end of the
manufacturing process. It is not uncommon to find such beads.
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.
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SM 53 - 11 mm - a bead whithout hole
SM 54 - 15 mm
SM 55 - 14 mm
SM 56 - 13,5 mm
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BABAGORIA BEADS IN VARIOUS DESIGNS
In
the following section you can, if you like, try to see
the difference between the two kinds of agate.
Since I
hunt the
older dry & hot cooked agate
beads, most of the beads
displayed below belong to
that category.
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SM 57 - 18 * 7 * 6 mm
SM 58 - 17 * 8,5 * 7 mm
SM 59 -
12 * 7 mm
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SM 60 -
12 * 6,5 mm
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SM 61 -
12 * 8 mm |
SM 62 -
9 * 7 * 6 mm
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SM 63 -
11 * 6,5 mm |
SM 64 -
12,5 * 7 mm |
SM 65 -
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SM 66 - 11,5 * 6 mm
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SM 67 - 14 * 7 mm
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SM 68 - 12 * 7,5 mm
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SM 69 -
10,5 * 5 mm
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SM 70 - 9,5 * 7 mm
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SM 71 -
13 * 6 mm
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SM 72 -
9 * 5 mm |
SM 73 -
12 * 6 mm
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SM 74 -
15 * 6 mm |
SM 75 -
14 * 4 mm
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SM 76 -
12,5 * 7 mm |
SM 77 - 9 * 7,5 mm
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SM 78 -
10 * 7 mm |
SM 79 - 9 * 5 mm
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SM 80 -
9 * 5,5 mm |
SM 81 -
9 * 7 mm |
SM 82 -
8 * 6 mm |
SM 83 -
9 * 8 mm |
SM 84 - 8 * 7 mm
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SM 85 -
11 * 6 * 4 mm |
SM 86 -
9 * 7 * 4,5 mm
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SM 87 -
14 * 8 mm
Note the very rare blues stripe |
SM 88 -
11 * 7 mm
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SM 89 -
12 * 5,5 mm |
SM 90 -
11 * 5 mm
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SM 91 -
9 * 5 mm |
SM 92 -
9 * 6 mm
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SM 93 -
8,5 * 5,5 mm
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SM 94 -
8,5 * 5 * 4 mm |
SM 95 -
9 * 6 mm
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SM 96 -
8 * 5 mm
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SM 97 -
11 * 8,5 * 6 mm |
SM 98 -
10 * 6,5 mm
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SM 99 -
8 * 6,5 mm |
SM 100 - |
SM 101 -
10 * 11 mm
SM 102 -
5 * 8 mm |
SM 103 - 5 * 6 * 5,5 mm
SM 104 -
25 * 7 mm
SM 105 -
17,5 * 7 mm
SM 106 -
18,5 * 12 mm
SM 107 -
17 * 6,5 mm
SM 108 - 16 * 7 mm
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BALL BEADS
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SM 109 -
6 * 5 mm |
SM 110 -
6 * 6,5 mm |
SM 111 -
7 * 6 mm |
SM 112 -
7,5 * 6,5 mm |
SM 113 -
7 * 6,5 mm |
SM 114 -
7 mm |
SM 115 -
7 * 6 mm |
SM 116 -
7 * 6 mm |
SM 117 -
7 mm |
SM 118 - 7 * 5 mm |
SM 119 -
8 mm |
SM 120 -
8 mm -Sold |
SM 121 - 8 * 7 mm |
SM 122 -
8 mm |
SM 123 -
8 * 7 mm |
SM 124 - 8 * 7 mm |
SM 125 -
9 * 7,5 mm |
SM 126 -
9 * 6,5 mm |
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SM 127 -
9 * 7 mm -Sold
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SM 128 -
9 * 6,5 mm
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SM 129 -
9,5, * 8,5 mm
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SM 130 -
9 * 10 mm
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SM 131 -
10 * 7 mm -Sold
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SM 132 -
10 * 9,5 mm |
SM 133 -
10 * 12 mm -Sold
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SM 134 -
10 * 6,5 mm -Sold
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SM 135 -
10 * 10,5 mm
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SM 136(1) -
11 * 9 mm -Sold |
SM 137 -
11,5, * 7,5 mm
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SM 138 -
11 * 7 mm |
SM 139 -
11 * 10,5 mm
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SM 140 -
14 mm
SM 141 -
14 * 12 mm
Ancient bead with a new hole
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This wonderful flat oval tabular, natural banded Sulemani agate bead
displayed blow has a beautiful patina and a unique
pattern. This bead has been
heat treated with honey or sugar.
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SM 185 -
26 * 23 * 12 mm
Origin: The Himalayas
Period:
300 B.C. to 1000 A.D.
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SM 186 -
27 * 18 mm
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Sulemani pendant beads
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SM 187 -
22 * 9,5 mm
SM 188 -
15 * 8 mm
SM 189 -
21 * 9 * 7 mm
SM 190 -
11,5 * 9 mm
SM 191 -
14 * 9 mm
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Buddhist Bhaisajyaguru beads
Sulemani agate was as mentioned in the
beginning used by Sufi Moslem Faqirs and before that, they were used as Buddhist prayer beads. Especially Afghanistan is interesting in this context. Afghanistan was a predominantly Buddhist culture up to 1000 AD!
The ball shaped Sulemani beads are also known as Bhaisajyaguru beads. These Prayer beads remove according to
the Tibetan tradition, roots of diseases, ensures health and longevity.
In Mahayana Buddhism, Bhaisajyaguru represents the healing aspect of the historical Buddha Sakyamuni. These beads have been in the hands of beings with pure intentions for generations. Some of these beings may even have been enlightened!
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SM 192 - Average size: 7 to 12 *
4 to 5 mm
Ancient banded barrel shaped Sulemani agate beads
Period:
300 B.C. to 1000 A.D.
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SOLD
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Here you can see the wonderful Bhaisajyaguru eye bead from
Afghanistan that is displayed on the top of the page
Bead Magic. It really shows that the bead hole itself actually can serve as a
Magic Eye!
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SM 0 - 14 * 14 mm
Not for
sale |
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