married women in india wear many types of jewelries. most of the time it is worn for fashion or for looking beautiful. but at times it has a significance and health benefits also. wearing silver toe rings is one such case.
in ancient times, it was found that wearing silver toe rings is good for women health. it is believed that the nerve from the 2nd toe connects the uterus and passes to the heart. so wearing silver toe rings on second toe strengthens the uterus and also helps in regularizing the menstrual cycle.
so as a custom when a girl is getting married, she is made to wear silver toe rings on second toe. they are worn in pair. so if a women in india is wearing toe rings then its a sign that she is married.
this custom is from ancient time. there is a incident in ancient hindu epic ramayana about toe rings. when sita ma was abducted by demon king ravana, then she threw her toe rings and other jewellery on the way, so that lord rama could find her. when lord rama and lakshmana found the jewelry while searching for sita ma, then lakshmana immediately recognized the toe rings as he used to touch sita ma feet every morning. the epic ramayana is believed to be 6000 years old or may be even older. so you can imagine how old is this custom.
few tips for wearing silver toe rings:
1. normally silver metal is used for making toe rings. although you will get few samples of gold toe rings in the jeweller shop also. but mostly they will have silver toe rings. as most women wear silver toe rings. i don’t know why silver is given preference to gold. it could be because it is cheaper or it could be because no one wants to wear gold below their feet. as it will be considered dis-respecting goddess lakshmi who brings wealth and prosperity in the life. someone i know had an allergy with silver so she choose to wear the gold toe rings and that also helped her. but as a suggestion go for silver toe rings.
2. silver toe rings is always worn on second toe and is always worn in pair. avoid wearing them only on one foot as it might create imbalance.
3. it is called bichwa or bichiya (pronounced: bee-chee-ya) in hindi, minji in malayalam, jodavi in marathi, mettelu in telugu, metti/kanaiyazhi in tamil and kaalungura in kannada. so its almost worn all over india.
4. to buy silver toe rings, visit any good jeweler and they mostly have few pieces ready with them.
5. some minor adjustment might be needed while wearing it in the first few days. you can take the help of jeweller to help you wear it. they come in many designs. so choose the one you feel comfortable while walking. since the toe ring are never closed circle so you can always adjust the ring.