Fifty years of excellence from premier Kandy jewellery store

By L.B.Senaratne

Fifty years of excellent jewellery and confined to only gold is an achievement for any jewellery shop – that’s exactly where "Rathna Maligai" stands.

Front of the building.

The beginnings were small as the case is for any shop in Kandy, but this jewellery store has withstood the vagaries of their profession while some of the old jewellery shops have closed up due to various reasos.

The first partners of "Rathna Maligai" were M.A.Doraiswamy Pillai and V. Ramaswamy established in the same premises as it stands today. It was really in 1956 when it commenced business competing with the more popular and renowned jewellery business houses which were also manned by the Hindus. There were only one other shop that was Sinhalese-owned. The Sinhala clients preferred the Tamil community to do business in gold and silver rather than any other community. It was a case of trust with their jewellery.

According to its Manager C. Arunachalam, it is the third generation of craftsman they are working with and one of the present craftsman is from Badulla who has spent 37 years of his life with " Rathna Maligai". The shop now employs 50 craftsmen.

Arunchalam said that many customers insist that they place their stones in rings at an auspicious time and more so when Hindus who want their thali's" to be made, gold melted and the Thali to be produced on that auspicious time.

There are others who wish to place the gems according to their horoscope to be put on a particular time and they do all that at the precise moment as much as possible, added Arunachalam.

A second floor is also added to this 'new' look jewellery facade, in fact it is a facade, for the convenience of those who are engaged or are on the threshold of marriage, where they could select their jewellery at their convenience in air -conditioned comfort. Arunachalam said that this floor is not been refurbished for the coming season of marriages.

The present owner of the establishment is a young man – Doraiswamy Sivasubramaniam, son of the founding partner Doraiswamy Pillai who stays in the background allowing those who now know the profession for years to continue with the work.