Vummidi Bangaru Jewellers opens new flagship showroom as the 125-year-old brand expands footprint

There are objects that outlive the hands that shape them. They carry memory, meaning, and power. The sengol, a ceremonial sceptre rooted in Tamil tradition once used to mark the transfer of power between rulers, is one such object. 

In August 1947, as India stood on the cusp of independence, it was ceremonially presented to India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru by priests of the Thiruvaduthurai Adheenam, a centuries-old Saivite monastery, reviving a Chola-era ritual to symbolise the transfer of power. The sceptre itself was crafted in Madras by the family behind Vummidi Bangaru Jewellers (VBJ), embedding, within its form, a legacy of craftsmanship that would, for decades, remain largely unspoken.

“In 2019, a Tamil publication wrote about my grandfather. I got curious and started to look around… In two years’ time, we found out where the sengol was. It was misrepresented as a golden walking stick of Nehru and placed in the Allahabad museum,” says Amarendran Vummidi, managing partner and fourth generation owner of VBJ. The rest as they say, is history. 

Now installed beside the Speaker’s chair in India’s Parliament, the sengol has been restored to its symbolic place in the country’s political and cultural imagination.

Nearly eight decades later, that legacy finds a new expression on Anna Salai, where VBJ has opened its all-new flagship showroom, a 14,000 sq. ft. space adjoining its existing store. Spread across three floors, the store separates its offerings by category: gold and precious jewellery on the ground level, diamonds and platinum on the first, and a more private, appointment-led space on the second. 

The company operates multiple manufacturing units across Chennai, Mumbai and Bengaluru, supported by an in-house design team with young graduates from institutes such as NIFT and NID, who work on developing original collections. “The first floor has a section dedicated to designer jewellery, starting from ₹50,000 up to ₹70 lakh,” says Amarendran, adding that there is also a design counter where customers can customise jewellery based on their likes. 

The new store is part of a wider expansion plan for the brand, which is looking to grow its presence across Tamil Nadu and Telangana, with upcoming stores in cities such as Coimbatore, Tiruchirappalli and Hyderabad. The company is also scaling its international operations, building on its presence in Texas with plans to expand into California, targeting the Indian diaspora.

The future is already beginning to take shape within the family. Diyya Vummidi, daughter of managing partner Jithendra Vummidi and a Gemology graduate of the Gemological Institute of America, says, “What my grandfather has always held strongly are values: trust, integrity, innovation, and really good quality work, and always giving customers exactly what we say we are giving. He taught us to take our time, do it slowly, do it right, and everything else will fall into place,” she says. 

Alongside her sister and two cousins, she is part of a cohort of four women set to enter the business, a first for the family. “We are four women and that’s something that has not happened in our family yet. I’m looking forward to having them beside me,” says the 31-year-old.