Some can be bought off the streets for as little as Rs. 2 a bead while gem shops sell them for as high as Rs.40,000 a bead.
CHENNAI: Do you know that a rudraksha necklace can cost up to Rs.5 miilion?
There are all kinds of rudrakshas or blueberry seeds, which boast of healing powers. Some can be bought off the streets for as little as Rs. 2 a bead while gem shops sell them for as high as Rs.40,000 a bead.
An 'Indramala' garland made of rudraksha beads may cost as much as Rs. 5 million.
There are as many as 36 varieties of rudraksha from several species of trees with leaves like magnolias. These trees are not found commonly in India and not commercially farmed.
Millions of pea-sized beads are imported every year from Indonesia, the trade said to be valued at Rs.3 billion.
The bigger coin-sized beads, from Elaeocarpus ganitrus species, are uncommon and are got from neighbouring Nepal and the annual trade is worth another Rs.2 billion.
Online sales for rudraksha products to the West amount to about $2,000 every day for each Indian company.
There are nearly 300 kinds of Elaeocarpus species in the world and the beads come in brown, blue-black and a variety of other shades.
Though Elaeocarpus varieties are found naturally growing in the Himalayan foothills in Arunachal Pradesh and some research has been done on these trees, commercial growing in Pune and several other places in India have not so far succeeded.
What is worn as the bead is the seed-box that may contain one seed in one chamber or up to 14 or have even 21 chambers with seeds inside.
On external examination, distinction is made by identifying them by the ridges on the seed box that are supposed to demarcate the number of chambers on the inside.
Panchamukhi, the one with five ridges, is the most common while ekmukhi with just one seed chamber is extremely rare and is said to have miraculous healing powers, leading to a scope for fakes.
Half-moon shaped beads often get passed off as alternatives to the one-chambered beads. This comes from a species that grows in the southern Indian rainforests and used for matchstick wood.
Since the cost is determined by rarity, a nine-chambered seed can be passed off by external manipulation as a 14-faced rare bead.
"Scanning in the laboratory can alone determine whether the bead really has the number of chambers it claims to have. Ninety percent of the rudraksha sold in India is fake, externally chiselled, gummed and tampered with," said Tanay Seetha, whose company Rudralife has set up the Rudraksha Research and Testing Laboratory in Mumbai.
The Benaras Hindu University, Mumbai University and the Cera Lab, Mumbai, have researched on these beads. Some pharmaceutical companies are trying to procure thousands of tonnes of rudraksha beads from Nepal.
Now researchers are also trying to study the properties of rudraksha that may help in treatment of AIDS and cancer.
"Gold, barium, silver, copper and other elements are found in rudraksha, which means the trees grow only in soil rich in these and the beads have anti-inflammatory qualities," Seetha told.
"These elements in their alkaloid form impart electro-magnetic radiation, which gives it the healing power to cure heart problems, blood pressure, diabetes and stress," Seetha added.
Pharmaceutical companies are in rush to cash in on the healing properties of the bead and Rudraksha bead powder in capsule form, oil extracts and specialized face packs are poised to enter the world healthcare and cosmetic market.
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