01 · Quick answer
- Jadau = a stone-setting technique. The metal is heated, stones pushed into place, no prongs.
- Kundan = the strips of pure 24K gold foil used to hold the stones inside the jadau setting.
- Polki = uncut, unfaceted natural diamond — the stone itself, not the technique.
- A typical bridal piece is "jadau-set with kundan mounting and polki diamonds" — three different concepts describing one heirloom.
- The rear of a jadau piece is often meenakari enamel work — a fourth, paired technique.
02 · What each term actually means
Jadau — the technique
Jadau is the Mughal-era stone-setting method where uncut diamonds and coloured gemstones are embedded into a soft gold base — typically 22K or 24K — by heating the gold and pressing the stones into the molten layer. There are no prongs, no glue, no claws. The gold itself holds the stone in place once it cools and hardens around the embedded stone.
Jadau is labour-intensive — a karigar may spend weeks setting a single bridal necklace. The technique is what makes the piece, not the stones. Read our glossary entry on jadau for a one-paragraph version.
Kundan — the gold foil mechanism
Kundan is the strips of highly refined 24K gold foil layered between the stone and the gold base in a jadau piece. The foil is exceptionally pliable — it conforms around the irregular shape of an uncut stone — and it's what mechanically holds the stone in place inside the heated gold.
In modern Indian usage the words "jadau" and "kundan" are often used interchangeably, which causes endless customer confusion. Strictly: jadau is the technique, kundan is the foil that's part of the technique. A "kundan necklace" in the marketplace almost always means "jadau necklace using kundan setting". See the glossary entry on kundan.
Polki — the uncut diamond stone
Polki is the uncut, unfaceted natural diamond used as the stone in many jadau pieces. Unlike modern faceted diamonds (which are cut, polished, and shaped to maximise sparkle), polki diamonds retain their natural rough shape and surface. They have a soft, milky, lustre rather than the sharp brilliance of cut diamonds.
Polki is significantly more expensive per-carat than equivalent modern brilliants because the rough stone must be hand-selected for clarity and natural shape. A polki diamond is typically much larger by weight than the brilliant diamond it might be priced against. See the glossary entry on polki.
03 · Side-by-side comparison
| Aspect | Jadau | Kundan | Polki |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | Setting technique | Gold foil method | Type of stone |
| Origin | Mughal India | Mughal India (within jadau) | Pre-modern (natural rough) |
| Material | 22K/24K gold + stones | 24K pure gold foil | Natural uncut diamond |
| Used for | Bridal necklaces, kalgi, chooda | Holding stones in jadau | The "stones" in jadau pieces |
| Modern usage in marketplace | "Jadau necklace" | "Kundan necklace" = jadau-with-kundan | "Polki" or "polki diamond" |
| Often paired with | Meenakari enamel on reverse | Inseparable from jadau | Coloured stones (emerald, ruby) |
| Time to craft a bridal set | 8-14 weeks | Part of jadau craft hours | Stone-selection adds 2-4 weeks |
04 · Where each technique came from
The lineage helps explain why these terms get conflated:
- Polki is the oldest of the three — it's just natural, uncut diamond, used in Indian jewellery for centuries before modern faceting. Polki was the only diamond available before brilliant cuts were industrialised in the 1700s.
- Jadau and kundan developed together during the Mughal period (16th-18th century) in the Rajasthan-Gujarat-Punjab region — Jaipur and Bikaner became famous centres of jadau craft. The technique was refined to mount the polki diamond and other uncut stones that were the available materials.
- Meenakari (the enamel work on the reverse) came from Persia and travelled to Rajasthan via Mughal court patronage. The two-sided "front-jadau, back-meenakari" piece is a Mughal-period innovation.
Today, all four techniques (jadau, kundan, polki, meenakari) are still practised by karigars in Rajasthan and Gujarat — the same craft families that have been doing it for generations. Most modern Indian bridal trousseaus include at least one piece using all four.
05 · How the three are paired in practice
In a real Indian bridal necklace, here's how the four interact:
- The gold base (typically 22K or 24K) is shaped — chains, cup-mounts where stones will sit, decorative engraving on the reverse
- The polki diamonds (and sometimes coloured stones — emerald, ruby) are selected by hand, sized to fit each cup-mount
- Kundan foil strips are layered into each cup-mount, the stone is placed, the gold is heated, and the stone is pressed into place — this is the jadau setting
- The reverse of the piece is engraved and meenakari enamel is fused into the engraving — vivid greens, reds, and blues
- The piece is finished, polished, and BIS-hallmarked on any plain gold sections — the BIS hallmark can't go on stone-set sections by design
At our Mavdi Main Road workshop, the karigars who do this work are part of family lineages that go back two generations or more. Every piece in our heritage collection follows this exact sequence.
06 · What this means when buying bridal jewellery
Practical implications for choosing a piece:
- If a seller advertises "kundan jewellery", ask: is the kundan setting genuine (gold foil mechanically holding the stone) or is it a glued imitation? The price difference is enormous.
- If a seller advertises "polki diamonds", ask for the carat weight, the stone-source, and whether the polki is natural or lab-grown. Lab-grown polki is increasingly available; natural polki carries the heirloom premium.
- If a seller advertises "jadau", ask about the karigar lineage — jadau is family craft, and a piece made by a third-generation family workshop is meaningfully different from one made by anonymous mass-production.
- For wedding-trousseau commissioning, allow 8-14 weeks for a full jadau set — there's no shortcut. Pieces ready off-the-shelf may be lower-quality jadau or pure-imitation kundan.
- The BIS hallmark applies to the gold base, not the stones. Read our guide on reading a BIS hallmark for what to verify on the metal portion.
- The making charges on jadau pieces are higher than plain gold — typically 18-30% wastage given the genuine labour content. See our making-charges guide for fair-range bands.
See jadau, kundan, polki, meenakari in finished work
Our heritage collection is built around these four techniques. To see them in person, visit our Mavdi Main Road showroom or browse the wedding edit.