This circular hair ornament was made in Bangalore, probably in about 1880, and was bought for the South Kensington Museum, later renamed the Victoria and Albert Museum. The purchaser was Caspar Purdon Clarke, who had been sent by the museum to buy contemporary works of art in the winter of 1881-1882. The museum paid £9 for this gold ornament, backed with silver and filled with a natural resin, lac, to support the thin and very fragile gold.
The decoration on the front, worked in repousse, depicts the Hindu God Vishnu at the centre lying on the serpent Ananta, whose multiple heads fan out over him. His consorts are on either side. On the back, written in English, is the information that the ornament cost 80 rupees in India, of which the gold accounted for 75 rupees, and the silver back and the lac 5 rupees.