Three Bangles, Three Materials
The shakha is carved from sankha, the conch shell. The pola is dyed coral, historically Corallium rubrum or its Indian Ocean cousins, though most bangles sold today use treated coral or coral-coloured resin over a coral base. The loha is iron, sometimes plated in silver or gold, sometimes left plain. A Bengali married woman wears all three on each wrist, and the materials are not interchangeable. Each one has a different hardness, a different reaction to water and heat, and a different way of failing.
