From times immemorial, this precious, rare, yellow, glittering metal called gold occupies a respectful position in human civilisation. Gold is known as bhangar, sona, or suvarna in our local languages. The old name of our beloved Goa was sunaparant meaning golden territory. In ancient times king Ravana’s prosperous Lanka was also known as golden Lanka. After successfully conquering Lanka, Laxman, Rama’s brother, said to the former, “Dada, this golden Lanka is indeed glorious. We have won it with great efforts. Now, why shall we go back to Ayodhya? We will stay here only.’’ At that time, Sriram explained at length to his brother that mother and motherland are always superior to even heaven.
In 1905, poet Gurudev Ravindranath Tagore composed a song entitled “Amar shonar bangle” in praise of the then united Bengal. The meaning of the above Bengali title is “my golden Bengal”. Today, this song is the national anthem of Bangladesh. Such is the status of the word gold. The name itself of one of the temples in northern India is “Suvarn Mandir” meaning golden temple. It is estimated that our temples together hold around 4,000 tonnes of gold. Because of the possession of this valuable metal, Lord Padamanabh of Tiruvanantpuram is called the richest God in the world.
Gold is primarily used for the manufacture of Jewelry, sacred vessels and coins. A virtuous person is called gold (bhangar) in Konkani. A prosperous period is called golden age. An ideal middle position between two extremes is called golden mean and a woman who forms relationships with men purely for financial gain is called gold-digger. Some proverbs are also formed based on this term gold. Two among them are 1) All that glitters is not gold and 2) If gold rusts, what shall iron do?
In olden times, there was a practice named “suvarn tula” wherein great persons were weighed by gold. Thus the person to be weighed was seated on one pan of the scale and gold was put on the other pan. After weighing, the gold was then used for the betterment of society. Maratha King Shivaji the great, and his mother queen Jijabai were weighed by gold.
But then there is another story of this glittering metal; other side of the (gold) coin. Midas, the mythical Greek king obtained a boon from God that whatever he touched be turned into gold. But that boon proved to be a curse as he faced starvation when his food and drink were transformed into gold.
Today the circumstance in our country is similar to that of King Midas. One of the persistent problems with India’s economy is its Current Account Deficit, meaning the value of our imports exceeds the value of exports. And gold is the main reason behind this big and lasting deficit. We Indians are very enthusiastic for gold.
In the financial year 2021-22 we spent USD46.14 billion on gold imports. Indian women hold 11% of world’s gold. They currently own 21,733 tonnes of gold. From the ancient times our women are seen to be avid for gold. Had Seetamai not shown obstinacy for getting the golden deer then the following sad Ramayana would not have taken place.
