Bangle sellers are we who bear
Our shining loads to the temple fair…
Who will buy these delicate, bright
Rainbow-tinted circles of light?
Lustrous tokens of radiant lives,
For happy daughters and happy wives.

Some are meet for a maiden’s wrist,
Silver and blue as the mountain mist,
Some are flushed like the buds that dream
On the tranquil brow of a woodland stream,
Some are aglow with the bloom that cleaves
To the limpid glory of newborn leaves

Some are like fields of sunlit corn,
Meet for a bride on her bridal morn,
Some, like the flame of her marriage fire,
Or, rich with the hue of her heart’s desire,
Tinkling, luminous, tender, and clear,
Like her bridal laughter and bridal tear.

Some are purple and gold flecked grey
For she who has journeyed through life midway,
Whose hands have cherished, whose love has blest,
And cradled fair sons on her faithful breast,
And serves her household in fruitful pride,
And worships the gods at her husband’s side.

The Bangle sellers has been written by the Indian poet Sarojini Naidu. The poem delves into the different stages in the life of an Indian woman, the culture and traditions.

The central point of concern in this poem is bangles and the poet showcases the growth and different stages of the Indian woman’s life through the different bangles. The Bangle sellers selling the different tinted bangles to the temple fair are just a medium through which Naidu communicates and reveals the growth of a young girl to a mature woman nursing a child.

The Bangle is a jewel that reflects the Indian culture and the repetition of the word happy in the first stanza shows that bangles are associated with joyful occasions when girls and women dress up and participate in celebrations like marriage, festivals etc.

The bangles are called delicate in the first stanza which is reflective of the girl in her younger years. The bangles are said to be blooming and flushing in the second stanza which reflects the young girl growing up into a maiden. The bangles are described to be bright and fiery and rich like the heart’s desire reflective of the married Indian woman. The words “grey”, “journeyed”, “cherished” shows the woman has journeyed her life halfway.

The bridal laughter and bridal tear is the transition from the young maidenhood to marriage when the woman has to leave her house to stay with her husband in the Indian setting. The cradling of fair sons is problematic in the current context. It brings out the evil of male preference and the killing of the girl child. Had Naidu replaced the word sons with “children” the poem would have been more visionary and in touch with the postmodern setting. However, her apt use of sons paints the true contemporary picture of the Indian society where everyone preferred sons to daughters.

The word happy wives is debate worthy. Naidu uses the word happy in general to describe the joy that comes with ornaments however a closer reading tells us that wives are expected to be happy and it doesn’t seem to give them a choice. To dwell on a sarcastic idiom it seems that happiness as an abstract is thrust upon them instead of it being exuded independently by the married woman. The traditional Indian setting didn’t allow married women to fully exercise their independence and was often suppressed by the in-laws to abide by the household customs irrespective of the wife’s opinion. The wife was moulded into the in-laws’ customs and this often led them to be unhappy but they were neither given the independence to revolt nor express sorrow.