Bangles ( ) ( ) ( ) or Chudi are ornaments worn mainly by women. Indian women, especially Hindus, wear them after their marriage signifying the matrimony.

Some men wear a single bangle on their arms or wrists called as kada. In Sikhism, The father of a Sikh bride will give the groom a gold ring, a kada (steel or iron bangle), and a mohra.

They are circular in shape, and, unlike bracelets, are not flexible. The word is derived from Hindi bungri (glass).1

Bangles are part of traditional Indian jewelry. In India, bangles are usually worn in pairs, one or more on each arm, and a single bangle is rarely sold. They are made of numerous precious as well as non-precious materials such as gold, silver, platinum, glass, wood, ferrous metals, plastic, etc. Most Indian women prefer wearing either gold or glass bangles or both in combination. Bangles made from plastic are slowly replacing those made by glass, but the ones made of glass are still preferred at traditional functions such as marriages and at festivals.

Gold bangles are most popular with Indian women. They range from plain and simple to extremely artistic and intricate. They are often studded with precious and semi-precious stones such as diamonds, gems and pearls.

Sets of more expensive bangles that are made from higher quality contents of gold and silver make a substantial jingling sound. In the case of cheap, imitation jewelry, these tend to make a tinny sound (in contrast with a more substantial sound) when jingled.

Normally, a bangle as worn by people around the world is simply an inflexible piece of jewelry worn around the wrist. However, in many cultures, especially in the Arabian Peninsula and in South Asia, bangles have evolved into various types in which different ones are used at different occasions.

Glass bangles are mostly produced in only one Indian city called Firozabad in North India.

In India, Hyderabad has a historic market for bangles called as Laad Bazaar.

In Pakistan, glass bangles are almost all produced in Hyderabad, Pakistan

History

Bangles—made from shell, copper, bronze, gold, agate, chalcedony etc.—have been excavated from multiple archaeological sites throughout India.Ghosh, page 224 A figurine of a dancing girl—wearing bangles on her left arm— has been excavated from Mohenjo-daro (2600 BC).Ghosh, page 83 Other early examples of bangles in India include copper samples from the excavations at Mahurjhari—soon followed by the decorated bangles belonging to the Mauryan empire (322–185 BCE), and the gold bangle samples from the historic site of Taxila (6th century BCE). Decorated shell bangles have also been excavated from multiple Mauryan sites. Other features included copper rivets and gold-leaf inlay in some cases.