The price, broken up
Gold value on the day × net weight, plus making charges, plus GST. We show you each part before billing — including the making charge, which is the cost of the craftsmanship and our margin.
Gandhi Chowk, Durg · Since 1969
Prakash means light.So does gold.
Families in Durg have been walking into Gandhi Chowk for a wedding set, a first pair of jhumkas, a gift that had to be right. We are still at the same counter, still quoting the rate before we bill it.
Why families come back
A jeweller you can ask questions
Gold is bought rarely and remembered for decades. The least a jeweller owes you is a clear answer about what you are paying for.
Weighed in front of you
Every piece is weighed at the counter while you watch, and the net weight is written on your bill. Ask us to weigh it again — nobody here minds.
Hallmark, read out loud
Ask for the BIS mark and the six-character HUID on any gold piece, and we will find it with you under the loupe and explain what each symbol means.
What we keep
Collections
Temple work, kundan, everyday gold and full bridal sets — a working showroom stock, photographed as it sits in the case.
In the case this week
Pieces worth turning around
Drag the ring, or use the arrows. Every piece links to a WhatsApp message that already knows which one you meant.
Drag to spin
Updated at the counter
Today’s gold rate
The rate moves with the bullion market every single day. Here is where ours stands — and exactly how it turns into the number on your bill.
Last updated: — · Indicative only. Please confirm at the counter before you buy.
Before you buy
Things worth knowing first
We would rather you arrived knowing this than found it out afterwards.
Purity & hallmarking
What 22K really means, how to read a BIS hallmark, and what the six-character HUID on your jewellery is for.
Making charges, plainly
Why two necklaces of the same weight cost differently, and which questions get you a straight answer anywhere you shop.
Buying & caring for it
A bridal checklist, how to store and clean gold at home, and a glossary of the styles you will hear named in the shop.
In their words
Families we have served
@prakashjwl
New pieces, as they arrive
We photograph most new stock the week it reaches the case.
Come and see
Gandhi Chowk, Durg
Photographs are useful for narrowing things down. Gold is decided in the hand — against your skin, in daylight, with someone who will tell you when a piece is wrong for you.
Home / Collections
The Collections
Photographed as the pieces sit in the case at Gandhi Chowk. What you see here is a part of the stock — the showroom always holds more, and we can source a design you bring us.
About these photographs
Colour and finish carry over well in a photograph; scale and weight do not. Every piece is weighed in front of you at the counter, and the net weight goes on your bill. Where a weight is not listed here, it is because the piece is one of several in that design — ask us and we will weigh the exact one you like.
Not seeing it?
Bring us a picture
A screenshot from Instagram, a photograph of your mother’s set, a sketch on paper. Send it on WhatsApp and we will tell you honestly whether we can get it made, roughly what it would weigh, and how long it would take.
Home / Gold Rate
Today’s Gold Rate
And, just as usefully, exactly how that rate becomes the number printed on your bill. No jeweller should be vague about this — including us.
Last updated: — · Rates are indicative and move with the bullion market through the day. The rate applied to your purchase is the one quoted at the counter at the time of billing.
Why we publish it this way
A rate on a website is a snapshot, not a promise. Bullion moves during trading hours, and a page cached on your phone can be hours old. Treat this as a guide for planning, and call us for the live number — we will give it to you on the phone without asking you to come in.
Step by step
How a gold price is built
- Start with the rate for that karat 22K and 18K are quoted separately, because they contain different amounts of gold. A 22K rate applied to an 18K piece would overcharge you.
- Multiply by the net gold weight Net weight, not gross. If a piece carries stones, beads or lac filling, that weight is not gold and must not be billed at the gold rate. Ask for the net figure in writing.
- Add making charges Charged either as a percentage of gold value or as a flat rate per gram. This is the cost of the craftsmanship — and, honestly, it is also where our margin sits.
- Add stone or hallmarking charges, if any Stones are priced separately from gold. Hallmarking carries a small per-piece fee.
- Add GST Currently 3% on gold jewellery. It appears as its own line on your bill, never folded in silently.
The question that saves people the most money
Ask any jeweller, anywhere: “What is the net gold weight, and what is the making charge on this piece?” Two necklaces that look identical can differ by thousands of rupees on making alone. A jeweller who will not answer that plainly is telling you something.
A worked example
What the arithmetic looks like
| Line on the bill | How it is worked out | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Gold value | 22K rate × net weight (10 g) | ₹ A |
| Making charges | Percentage of gold value, or flat per gram | ₹ B |
| Stone charges | Priced separately, if the piece has stones | ₹ C |
| Hallmarking | Small per-piece fee | ₹ D |
| Sub-total | A + B + C + D | ₹ S |
| GST | 3% of the sub-total | ₹ 0.03 S |
| You pay | Sub-total + GST | ₹ 1.03 S |
We have deliberately not filled in rupee figures. Any example we invented would be out of date within a day and would read like a quotation. Bring us a piece you like and we will write the real numbers out for you, line by line, before anything is billed.
Honestly compared
Jewellery, coins, or digital gold?
| Jewellery | Coins & bars | Digital / ETF | |
|---|---|---|---|
| You can wear it | Yes | No | No |
| Making charge | Highest | Very low | None |
| Cost to hold | None | None | Fund or platform fees |
| Value returned on resale | Gold value; making is not returned | Closest to gold value | Market value |
| Passes down as an heirloom | Yes | Only as metal | No |
| Physical possession | Yes | Yes | No |
What we would actually tell you at the counter
If your goal is purely to invest in gold, a coin serves you better than a necklace — you are not paying for craftsmanship you will never wear, and you get closer to the metal price back when you sell. Buy jewellery because you want to wear it, or because it is meant for a wedding or an heirloom. We will say exactly this to your face, and we would rather sell you the right thing than the expensive thing.
Common questions
About rates and billing
National rates you see quoted in the news are usually bullion or spot prices. A retail jeweller’s rate reflects the local market, the karat, and the form the gold is in. The difference is normal; a jeweller who cannot explain their rate is not.
Yes, and it must be. 22K is 91.6% gold; 18K is 75%. They are quoted as separate rates. If a single rate is being applied to pieces of different karat, ask why.
Making charges relate to the work done on the piece, and gold value is calculated on the net gold weight. Both figures are written on your bill, and we will walk you through them before billing. Ask us to separate them out at the counter — it is a fair question and we are glad to answer it.
Please ask us directly — what we can do depends on the piece and the day, and we would rather tell you in person than publish a promise on a webpage that may not hold in every case.
Bring the pieces in and we will assess them with you and explain what we can offer and how we arrived at it. Terms depend on the condition and purity of what you bring, so we will not quote a blanket figure here.
Home / Purity & Hallmark
Purity & Hallmarking
How to read the marks stamped on a piece of gold, what they guarantee, and — just as important — what they do not.
Karat, plainly
What 22K actually means
Pure gold is soft — soft enough to bend a ring out of shape with your fingers. To make it wearable it is alloyed with other metals. Karat tells you how much of the final metal is gold, out of 24 parts.
| Karat | Gold content | Fineness mark | Typically used for |
|---|---|---|---|
| 24K | 99.9% | 999 | Coins and bars. Too soft for jewellery that is worn. |
| 22K | 91.6% | 916 | The standard for Indian gold jewellery — most of what we keep. |
| 18K | 75.0% | 750 | Diamond and gemstone settings, where a harder metal holds stones better. |
| 14K | 58.5% | 585 | Lighter, harder-wearing pieces. Less common in Indian bridal work. |
So “916” is not a brand
You will hear “916 gold” used as though it were a make. It is simply the fineness mark for 22 karat — 916 parts gold per 1,000. Any 22K piece from any jeweller carries it.
The stamp on your gold
Reading a BIS hallmark
Since 1 July 2021, hallmarked gold jewellery in India carries a three-mark hallmark, applied at a BIS-recognised Assaying and Hallmarking Centre. It is small — usually on the clasp, the inside of a bangle, or the back of a pendant — and often needs a loupe.
- The BIS logo A small triangular mark. It says the piece was tested at a recognised centre.
- The purity / fineness grade Written as the karat and the fineness together — 22K916 for 22 karat, 18K750 for 18 karat. This is the purity being guaranteed.
- The six-character HUID A unique alphanumeric code — letters and numbers — given to that individual piece. No two pieces share one.
Check it yourself, from your own phone
Download the BIS CARE app, published by the Bureau of Indian Standards, and enter the six-character HUID. It will show you what was registered against that code — the purity, the type of article, and the jeweller who registered it. You do not need our help or our permission to do this, and you are welcome to do it standing at our counter.
An older piece may look different
Jewellery hallmarked before mid-2021 carries the earlier four-mark system — BIS logo, purity, the assaying centre’s mark and the jeweller’s identification mark, with no HUID. That does not make it fake or lesser. It simply predates the current scheme. Bring it in and we will read it with you.
The important limitation
What a hallmark does not tell you
This is the part most people are never told, and it matters more than anything else on this page. A BIS hallmark certifies the purity of the gold, and nothing else.
It does not certify:
- The stones. Not their identity, not their quality, not their weight. A hallmark says nothing whatsoever about a ruby, an emerald, a polki or a pearl.
- The net gold weight of your piece. That is measured on the scale at the counter and written on your bill — it is a separate thing from the purity mark.
- The quality of the workmanship, the strength of a clasp, or the security of a setting.
- The price. Two hallmarked 22K pieces of identical weight can be priced very differently, because making charges differ.
How we describe stones on this website
You will notice we write “uncut-stone look”, “green stone settings” and “pale centres” rather than naming gemstones or grades. That is deliberate. What can be seen in a photograph is colour, cut and setting — not identity or certification. For anything where the stone is the point of the purchase, ask us in person and ask for whatever documentation exists for that specific piece.
At the counter
Five things to ask, anywhere you buy
- “Can you show me the hallmark?” Under a loupe, on the piece itself. Not on a tag, not on a certificate alone.
- “What is the net gold weight?” Weighed in front of you, and written on the bill.
- “What is the making charge on this piece?” As a percentage or per gram — either is fine, as long as it is stated.
- “What am I paying for the stones?” Stones are priced separately from gold and are not covered by the hallmark.
- “May I have a proper bill?” With the net weight, purity, HUID, the charges broken up, and GST shown separately. Keep it — it is what you will need years later if you ever exchange or sell.
Common questions
About purity
You can, but you would not enjoy wearing it. At 99.9% purity gold is soft enough to deform in normal use — a ring would lose its shape and a setting would not hold a stone. 22K is the practical compromise Indian jewellery has settled on.
That is normal. It is usually on the clasp, the inner surface of a bangle, or the reverse of a pendant, and it is often genuinely too small to read without magnification. Ask to be shown it under a loupe — any jeweller should hand one over without hesitating.
No. Weight tells you how much metal is there, not how well it was made or how pure it is. A well-made lighter piece can outlast a heavy one with a weak clasp. Purity comes from the hallmark; quality comes from the workmanship.
BIS hallmarking of gold jewellery has been made mandatory across a growing list of districts in phases since 2021, with certain exemptions. Rather than rely on what a website says about the rules where you live, the practical move is simply to ask for the hallmark on the piece and check the HUID yourself in the BIS CARE app.
Home / Buying Guide
Buying & Care Guide
How to plan a bridal purchase, how to judge a piece with your hands, how to look after gold at home — and what all those style names actually mean.
Planning a wedding purchase
Bridal, without the panic
- Start three to six months out Anything that has to be made — a set matched to a specific design, a resize, a repair of an heirloom — takes time. Starting early is what keeps you from settling.
- Decide the budget in grams, not rupees The rate will move between now and the wedding; the weight will not. Planning in grams keeps the conversation stable and makes comparing pieces far easier.
- Separate “worn once” from “worn for years” The heavy bridal collar and the everyday chain are different purchases with different logic. Put your weight where the wear will be.
- See it in daylight, against the actual skin Showroom lighting flatters gold — ours included. Step towards the door, hold it against the bride’s neck or wrist, and look again.
- Wear it for a full minute before deciding Weight that feels impressive in the hand can be unbearable by the third hour of a function. Check the balance, the clasp, and where the edges sit.
- Take the bill, and keep it Net weight, purity, HUID, charges broken up, GST shown separately. Years later, that piece of paper is what makes an exchange or a sale straightforward.
In your hands
How to judge a piece
Work the clasp
Open and close it several times. It should click positively and sit flush. The clasp is the single most common point of failure on a necklace, and the cheapest thing to get wrong.
Press the stones
Gently. Nothing should shift, rattle or click. On kundan and polki work, look at whether the foil behind the stone is even and the setting edge is smooth.
Turn it over
The back tells the truth. Look at solder joints, the finish behind a pendant, the posts and backs of earrings. Good work is tidy where nobody will see it.
Check how it hangs
A necklace should sit evenly without twisting; a heavy pendant should not drag the chain to one side. Jhumkas should hang straight, not splayed.
Afterwards
Looking after it at home
Everyday habits
- Gold goes on last and comes off first. After perfume, hairspray, lotion and make-up; off before you undress.
- Take it off for water. Swimming pools, in particular — chlorine attacks the alloys in gold and can weaken solder joints over time. Also for the gym, gardening, and cleaning with any strong chemical.
- Store pieces apart. Gold scratches gold. Individual soft pouches or a lined box with separate compartments, not one heap in a single tin.
- Keep antique and temple finishes dry. The darkened recesses that give them depth can be dulled by moisture and by over-enthusiastic polishing.
Cleaning it yourself
- Warm water, a drop of mild dish soap, a soft baby toothbrush. Brush gently, rinse in clean water, and dry thoroughly with a soft cloth — including inside the settings.
- Not for stone-set pieces. Kundan, polki and jadau work is often set with lac and foil behind the stone. Soaking it can lift the setting and kill the shine behind the stone permanently. Wipe those with a dry, soft cloth only.
- Skip the home ultrasonic cleaner on anything with stones, enamel or an antique finish. It can loosen settings and strip the finish.
When to bring it to us instead
A loose stone, a clasp that has stopped clicking, a chain that has kinked, a bangle gone out of round, or a finish you would like refreshed before a function. Bring it in and we will tell you what it needs and what it will involve before we touch it.
The vocabulary
Words you will hear in the shop
- Temple jewellery
- A South Indian tradition of gold work built around deity motifs — most often Lakshmi — in high relief, usually with an antique finish and red and green stone accents. Historically made for temple deities and dancers.
- Kundan
- A setting technique rather than a stone. Highly refined gold is worked around a stone to hold it in place, producing the characteristic bright gold rim. The stones sit on a foil backing that gives them their glow.
- Polki
- Uncut, unfaceted natural diamond used in its natural form. Its shine is softer and flatter than a faceted stone — a lit-from-within look rather than a sparkle.
- Jadau
- The broader craft in which kundan and polki work sits: stones embedded into gold that has been softened and worked around them, without claws or prongs.
- Meenakari
- Coloured enamel fired into engraved gold, often on the reverse of a kundan piece — so the back is as finished as the front.
- Antique finish
- A deliberately darkened, matte surface treatment that settles into the recesses of a design and makes relief work read more strongly than bright polish would.
- Haar / Rani haar
- A long necklace falling well below the collarbone; the rani haar is the longer, layered bridal form, often worn with a shorter piece above it.
- Jhumka
- The bell- or dome-shaped drop earring, usually with a fringe of small beads or pearls around the rim.
- Kada
- A broad, rigid bangle — heavier and more substantial than a slim bangle, and usually worn singly or as a pair.
- Nakshi
- Fine hand-engraved or chiselled detailing worked into the surface of the gold, giving texture that catches light along the edges of a motif.
Common questions
Buying & caring
Often, yes — but it depends on the design. Plain bands resize easily; a bangle covered in stone settings or a ring with a full band of stones may not be able to move much without disturbing the work. Bring the piece in and we will tell you what is possible before starting.
Usually not. Dullness is normally a film of skin oils, soap residue and cosmetics rather than any change in the metal. A gentle wash as described above brings most pieces back. If it does not, bring it in and we will look at it.
There is no correct answer, and anyone who gives you a confident number is guessing about your family, your budget and your occasion. Work the other way round: settle the total grams you are comfortable with, then decide how to distribute them across the pieces. We will help you do that without pushing the total up.
Send us a picture on WhatsApp — a screenshot, a photograph of a family piece, even a sketch. We will tell you honestly whether it can be made, roughly what it would weigh, and how long it would take.
Home / About
Prakash Jewellers
“Trust is our tradition”
A family jeweller on Gandhi Chowk, Durg — trading under the same name, at the same counter, since 1969.
The name
Prakash Jewellers has traded under that name on Gandhi Chowk since 1969. Prakash means light — a fitting word to put above a jeweller’s door, because light is the whole business: gold exists to catch it, a stone is judged by what it does with it, and the only honest way to look at a piece is to carry it towards a window.
The mark above our name is a six-petal lotus rosette — two interlaced rings of petals turning around a single centre. You will find it repeated across this website: in the arched frames around the photographs, in the fine lattice over the dark bands, and in the small glyph that sits under every heading.
The counter
Prakash Jewellers has traded from Gandhi Chowk since 1969 — 57 years in the same market, which in a town the size of Durg means the same families, and often their children and grandchildren, coming back for the next occasion.
That is not a marketing position. It is simply the arithmetic of a shop that stays in one place: you cannot sell badly to a family in Durg for fifty-seven years. Word travels down the chowk faster than any advertisement.
How we sell
Prakash Jewellers is a showroom, not a shopping cart. This website exists to let you narrow things down before you come in — to see what sort of work we keep, to read up on purity and making charges before somebody explains them to you across a counter, and to send us a message about a specific piece so we already know what you meant when you arrive.
There is no online checkout here, and that is deliberate. Gold is decided in the hand.
What that means in practice
- Every piece is weighed in front of you, and the net weight goes on the bill.
- We quote the making charge before billing, not after. It is part of the price and you are entitled to know it.
- Ask for the BIS hallmark and HUID and we will find it on the piece with you and explain the marks.
- If a piece is wrong for you — too heavy to wear, or the wrong purchase for what you actually want — we will say so. See our note on coins versus jewellery, where we recommend against ourselves.
On the record
Who you are dealing with
A jeweller asking for your trust should be willing to be identifiable. These are our registration details, as they appear on our GST certificate.
Trade name
Prakash Jewellers
Gandhi Chowk, Durg, Chhattisgarh – 491001
Proprietor
Suresh Kumar Jain
Constitution: Proprietorship
GSTIN
22ACGPJ3768G1ZP
Registered in Chhattisgarh
What we keep
The stock, honestly described
Our strength is traditional Indian gold work — temple pieces built around Lakshmi motifs, kundan and polki settings, stone-set bangles and kada, and full bridal sets. Alongside that we keep the everyday things a family jeweller must have: chains, pendants, studs, jhumkas, rings and bracelets.
The pieces photographed on this site are a selection, not the whole case. If you have seen a design elsewhere, bring us the picture — we will tell you plainly whether we can get it made and roughly what it would weigh.
A note on what is on this website
We have kept this site to things we can stand behind. Where a detail has not been confirmed — showroom timings, exchange terms, making-charge percentages — you will find it simply absent rather than filled in with something plausible. Ask us directly and you will get the real answer. That seemed better than the alternative.
Home / Visit Us
Come to the shop
Gandhi Chowk, Durg. Call ahead if you want a particular piece kept out ready, or send the design on WhatsApp and we will have it on the counter when you arrive.
The showroom
Where to find us
Address
Jawahar Chowk, Gandhi Chowk
Durg – 491001, Chhattisgarh
Telephone
Opening hours
Follow the new stock
@prakashjwl on Instagram and Facebook
Open in Google Maps
Gandhi Chowk is in the heart of Durg’s old market — ask for the jewellers’ row.
Before you set out
Please ring ahead to check we are open, especially on festival days and public holidays, when market timings in the chowk vary. A quick call saves a wasted journey.
Send a message
Tell us what you are after
While you are planning
Worth reading before you come in
How gold is priced
The five lines that make up any gold bill, and the one question that saves people the most money.
Reading a hallmark
What the three BIS marks mean, how to check the HUID yourself, and what a hallmark does not cover.
Bridal checklist
Six steps for planning a wedding purchase without panic, plus how to judge a piece in your hands.