Temple jewellery is South Indian ornamentation built around deity and temple motifs, originally made to adorn idols in temples before dancers and then brides began wearing it. The origin still shows in how it is designed. Heavy relief work, goddess and animal figures, almost no empty surface. Subtlety was never the point. What has changed is the metal. Most temple jewellery sold today is not solid gold, and a good share of it is 92.5 sterling silver finished in gold. That shift confuses first-time buyers more than anything else about the category, so this guide deals with it directly rather than treating silver as a footnote.