Date:19/04/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/04/19/stories/2007041903240300.htm

Andhra Pradesh

Celebrate prosperity with gold

AKSHAYA Tritiya is considered auspicious for starting new ventures and making new purchases especially Gold. "Akshaya" means eternal - that which never diminishes and marks the beginning of the golden age. This year, Akshaya Tritiya falls between 19th and 20th April 2007. It's the fourth most auspicious day in the Hindu calender. A day that brings eternal good fortune. Each year, this day is anticipated with enthusiasm, as the most auspicious day to purchase gold.

Gold is auspicious. In India, gold has always been considered a sacred item in the Hindu way of life and is a must in all religious functions, the rationale being that gold is pure having passed through fire in its process of evolution.

Gold is contemporary. Branded jewellery with modern designs is gaining in popularity, particularly in the urban areas. With the availability of branded gold jewellery in India such as World Gold council-promoted collection, consumers now have the option of buying new gold designs in the domestic market at affordable prices.

Gold is a source of confidence and womanliness. Women buy and wear their gold jewellery for the way it makes them feel, for the warmth with which it endows them, for the glow it gives them. And they buy it for the tradition embedded in its rich history, chronological and spiritual. Gold jewellery is traditionally given in streedhan to the woman at the time of marriage. It remains the one asset that is truly hers forever. Indeed, despite India's staggering diversity of custom, tradition and religion, this reassuring presence of gold remains a constant throughout Indian society.

This festive season, when Indians go out to buy the special things they do, the vast majority will, as they always have, buy gold, precious not only because of its monetary value, but because it is a vital part of Indian life.

Gold is an essential part of the Indian social fabric. There are established patterns for gold acquisition at festivals, especially Diwali and Akshaya Tritiya, all over India, Durga Puja in the east and Onam and Pongal in the South.