Come and see the stones

Johari Bazaar is one of the main bazaars of the old walled city, running roughly north to south between Badi Chaupar and Sanganeri Gate. Hawa Mahal stands at the northern end of that stretch and is the landmark most visitors navigate by. Pitaliyon Ka Rasta is one of the lanes running off the bazaar, and we are at Shop No 104.

The nearest Jaipur Metro station is Badi Chaupar, at the top of the bazaar, and the walk down from there is short and straightforward. Any auto-rickshaw or taxi in the city knows Johari Bazaar without further explanation, and the gates, Sanganeri Gate in particular, are the reference points a driver will use.

The lanes off the bazaar are narrow and the last part of the journey is on foot. If the map takes you to the bazaar but not to the door, call us and stay where you are: it is faster for one of us to walk out and meet you than to describe the turn.

A car will not reach the shop door. The walled city lanes are too narrow and are busy with foot traffic through the working day, so drivers leave vehicles at one of the paid lots outside the gates and walk in. Tell us when you are setting off and we will tell you which approach is clearest on the day, because the answer changes with the traffic scheme and with whatever is happening in the city that week.

We are open Monday to Saturday, 11 AM to 8 PM IST. Closed on Sunday. Mornings, from opening until around one, are the quietest and the best time to look at stones properly. The bazaar is at its most crowded in the evenings, in the fortnight before Diwali, and through the main wedding months, and a stone is harder to judge in a busy shop than in an empty one.

If you are travelling any distance, message ahead with the stone and the weight you are after. We will have the relevant parcels out and ready rather than sending you away while we look, and if what you want is not in the shop we can tell you that before you make the trip rather than after.

If you are buying on an astrological recommendation, bring the recommendation itself rather than a summary of it. What we need is the stone, the weight, and the metal, and it is worth having settled with your astrologer which ratti to carat conversion they intended, because the two in common use differ by roughly a third and that is a large difference in both stone and money.

If you are matching something you already own, bring it. A stone selected against a real reference and a stone selected against a description are not the same stone, and colour is the one thing that photographs least reliably.

Bring identification if you intend to buy. For any export documentation we need it on file, and it saves a second trip.

We pull the parcels that match what you have asked for and lay them out. You look at them yourself, under daylight from the window as well as under shop light, because a colour that holds under one and dies under the other is the single most common disappointment in coloured stones. A loupe is on the counter and you are welcome to use it; if you would rather bring your own gemmologist, bring them.

We will tell you what each stone is, what has been done to it, and which of colour, clarity, cut, origin and treatment you are paying for in the price. Where a laboratory report is held we hand it over and you can verify the number with the laboratory yourself. Where one is not held we say so, and we will submit a stone you have chosen for a report before you pay for it.

There is no obligation to buy anything, and no part of this is a closing conversation. People come in, look, take photographs, go away and come back weeks later, and that is a perfectly normal way to buy a stone that costs what these cost.

Most enquiries we handle are from people who will never stand at the counter, and that is workable as long as everyone is honest about what a photograph can and cannot show. We send photographs and video of the actual stone under stated lighting, never a stock image, and we will do a live video call so you can ask us to turn it and change the light while you watch.

Weight, treatment and certification are stated in writing before any money moves, and they go on the invoice in the same words. Ask us for a laboratory report on a stone you are serious about and we will arrange it. Message +91 9314434825 on WhatsApp or send the form on this page, and you will get a person rather than an autoresponder.