Waheeda Rahman: The Creative Entrepreneur Who Took Assamese Jewellery to the World

Founder Series | The Quantiq

From childhood evenings listening to her grandmother’s stories in Lakhtokia to taking Assamese jewellery to international audiences, Waheeda Rahman’s journey is a story of curiosity, resistance, reinvention and an unwavering belief in the power of creativity.

There was no electricity that evening.

For young Waheeda Rahman, however, Guwahati’s familiar power cuts were hardly an inconvenience. In the Lakhtokia neighbourhood, one of the city’s busiest commercial hubs, darkness often brought a ritual that she would remember for the rest of her life.

Her grandmother would spread a mat on the floor and begin telling stories to the children.

There were stories of kings and queens, ancient kingdoms and distant worlds. But her grandmother did not merely describe what happened in those stories. She described how the kings and queens looked, what they wore and, in remarkable detail, the jewellery that adorned them.

For Waheeda, those evenings were perhaps her first lessons in design.

She was also growing up around something much more tangible. Whenever the women of the family had to attend a social function, her grandmother would open her jewellery box and distribute pieces among them. The jewellery was part of family life, but for the young Waheeda it was also becoming an object of fascination.

Whenever a piece was broken or damaged, her grandmother would say, almost casually, “I have to take this jewellery to Jorhat for repair.”

That puzzled her.

Why Jorhat?

There were jewellery shops everywhere around their building in Lakhtokia. Why should a broken ornament travel all the way to Jorhat?

One day, she asked her grandmother.

The answer stayed with her.

Her grandmother explained that Assamese jewellery was a specialised craft. The jewellers in their neighbourhood did not necessarily understand the techniques required to make or repair traditional Assamese ornaments. Those skills belonged to specialised Assamese craftsmen.

A child’s question had opened the door to a lifelong fascination. Decades later, Waheeda Rahman would take Assamese jewellery to audiences far beyond Assam. But the journey was anything but easy.

Before the entrepreneur came the imagination

Waheeda prefers to describe herself as a creative entrepreneur, rather than simply a jewellery designer.

The distinction is revealing because her story is not merely about making jewellery. It is about building a business around creativity, understanding cultural heritage, challenging conventions and creating livelihoods for skilled craftsmen.

Her creative imagination began developing remarkably early.

Her grandmother gave her a deep connection with Assamese culture and tradition. Her reading opened another window. She read Amar Chitra Katha, Soviet Russia magazine and romance and fashion magazines. Mills & Boon novels were also part of her reading world.

The influences were eclectic.

Mythology, history, international culture, visual imagery, fashion, romance and storytelling entered the mind of a young girl growing up in Guwahati.

Together, they expanded her mental horizon.

By the time she had completed her Class XII examination, Waheeda had already made an important decision. She wanted to build a career in Assamese traditional jewellery.

She also wanted independence.

Rather than choosing a conventional 10-to-5 career, she wanted to build a business and create livelihoods for others.

The creative entrepreneur was already taking shape.https://thequantiq.com/anannya-sharma-yarn-glory-weavers-eri-silk/

The search for the roots of Assamese jewellery

Waheeda did not want merely to reproduce jewellery she had seen around her.

She wanted to understand its origins.

Her research began with relatives who had preserved Assamese jewellery and subsequently took her to Vaishnavite monasteries. One of her important sources of discovery was the Tai Ahom Museum, which was under construction at the time. The museum’s belongings were being preserved at the residence of the president of its museum committee.

Her research gradually revealed that Assamese traditional jewellery, or Asomiya Gohona, was far more than ornamentation.

Among the traditional forms she studied were the Jonbiri, Dholbiri, Loka-Paro, Doog-doogi, Gamkharu, Golpata, Thuriya, Kerumoni, Japi Biri, Pepabiri, Bakhormoni and Jangphai.

The motifs themselves carried stories.

The Jonbiri drew from the half-moon. The Dholbiri reflected the Bihu drum. The Japi Biri represented Assam’s iconic conical headgear. The Pepabiri drew from the pepa, the traditional horn instrument. Other forms carried floral, animal and agricultural associations.

Historically, even the gold used in Assamese jewellery had a distinctive connection with the land. Gold was traditionally collected from the sands of rivers such as the Subansiri and Brahmaputra by the Sonowal Kachari community.

The deeper Waheeda went into the subject, the more she understood that she was not simply studying a category of jewellery.

She was studying a civilisation’s visual language.

When innovation was accused of destroying tradition

Then came the most difficult chapter.

As Waheeda began experimenting with Assamese jewellery and developing her own interpretations, she faced fierce criticism.

She was accused of distorting traditional Assamese jewellery.

A media campaign was even mounted to tarnish her image.

For someone who had spent years researching the craft, the criticism was devastating. Eventually, the business came to a grinding halt.

But frustration did not make her abandon the idea.

It pushed her to go deeper.

Waheeda shifted her base to Delhi, where she enrolled in a gemology course at the Indian Institute of Gemology. At the same time, she continued promoting her jewellery and looking for opportunities to establish her work in a larger market.

It was an important decision.

Instead of responding to criticism by retreating, she responded by acquiring more knowledge.

Delhi also brought her into contact with senior journalist Shabina Sehgal Saikia, who became an important source of encouragement. Shabina was deeply fond of Assamese culture, including its food, and understood the cultural significance of what Waheeda was attempting.

Shabina would later be among those who lost their lives in the 2008 terrorist attack at Mumbai’s Taj Mahal Palace Hotel.

For Waheeda, however, her encouragement remained an important part of a difficult chapter in her entrepreneurial journey.

The poet who saw something others could not

At a time when Waheeda’s designs were being questioned, recognition from a towering figure of Assamese culture gave her something more powerful than commercial validation.

Nilamani Phookan, one of Assam’s most celebrated poets and cultural figures, a Jnanpith Award winner and a profound observer of Assamese art, culture and symbolism, became one of her strongest supporters. His recognition of Waheeda’s work became a powerful source of encouragement, and he eventually described her as the “mother of modern Assamese jewellery.”

He understood the cultural language behind her work. Waheeda recalls Nilamani Phookan as a pillar of strength and encouragement throughout her journey. And his eventual assessment of her work carried extraordinary weight.

The business decision behind the creative transformation

Waheeda’s evolution of Assamese jewellery was not simply an artistic exercise.

It was also a business decision.

Traditional Assamese jewellery had enormous heritage value, but, according to Waheeda, it did not necessarily have corresponding resale value. She wanted to change that equation.

Her solution was to work with pure gold and silver.

That required new technical knowledge, new processes and considerable effort in training craftsmen. Developing mastery took time, and Waheeda allowed her artisans enough space to contribute their own ideas and perspectives.

The process was not about replacing the craftsman with the entrepreneur.

It was about creating a relationship between inherited skill and new design thinking.

That relationship would become central to her business.

She has since created and launched more than 500 designs.

Asked which one she is most proud of, she refuses to choose.

“They are like my children,” she says. “I can’t do partiality.”

The Eureka moment came in 1998

There was a time when Waheeda’s work struggled to find buyers.

Then came an unexpected opportunity.

In 1998, a friend secretly booked a stall for her at a trade fair at Judges Field in Guwahati. At the same time, the friend wrote an article about her designs in Assam’s highest-circulated Assamese newspaper.

Waheeda’s jewellery sold out.

It was her Eureka moment.

The market had spoken.

Soon afterwards, renowned Assamese author Mitra Phukan wrote about Waheeda and her designs in The Assam Tribune.

“Since then no looking back,” Waheeda recalls.

The criticism had not disappeared overnight, but something fundamental had changed.

People were beginning to see what she had been trying to create.

From Guwahati to the global stage

The next chapter took Assamese jewellery beyond Assam.

In 2000, Waheeda exhibited at the French Embassy in New Delhi. That was followed by a series of exhibitions in different countries.

Her jewellery eventually reached customers in New York, London, Germany and Australia. She developed a customer base across India and a loyal following in the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia.

The journey from a childhood jewellery box in Lakhtokia to international exhibitions was extraordinary.

Yet Waheeda did not believe that taking Assamese jewellery global required stripping it of its identity.

She continued to work with original designs.

Her inspiration also expanded beyond conventional Assamese jewellery motifs. She explored themes from across Northeast India, including fertility, textile motifs, orchids, mist and trees.

“I see design everywhere,” she says.

Once she conceives an idea, she remains restless until she has worked out its intricacies and can explain them clearly enough for her craftsmen to execute.

That restlessness may be one of the defining characteristics of the creative entrepreneur.

A ₹5,000 beginning

Behind the international exhibitions and hundreds of designs lies a remarkably modest beginning.

Waheeda started her business with ₹5,000 taken from her grandmother.

She spent ₹4,500 on gold.

The remaining ₹500 went into silver.

That was her first lot of raw material.

Today, she has a local and pan-India customer base, along with loyal customers in the UK, Australia and the USA. Some of her craftsmen have been working with her for 32 years.

The numbers tell one part of the story.

The distance between that first ₹5,000 and a global customer base tells another.

It is the story of a woman who refused to allow criticism to determine the limits of her imagination.

The next chapter is about passing it on

Waheeda’s ambitions are no longer limited to her own designs.

She has already acquired a small plot of land in Guwahati where she plans to establish a training school for Assamese jewellery.

It is perhaps the most natural next chapter in her journey.

The craft that she once discovered through her grandmother’s jewellery box now needs a new generation of skilled hands.

A traditional craft cannot survive simply because its history is remembered.

It survives when knowledge is transmitted, craftsmen are trained, markets are created and new generations are given the confidence to innovate without losing the cultural DNA of the craft.

Waheeda appears determined to contribute to that process.

She did not inherit a finished tradition

There is something deeply circular about Waheeda Rahman’s journey.

As a child, she listened to her grandmother describe the jewellery of queens during Guwahati’s evening power cuts.

She watched the family jewellery box being opened for social occasions.

She wondered why broken Assamese jewellery had to travel to Jorhat.

That childhood question eventually became a career.

But the story did not end with preserving what she had inherited.

Waheeda questioned it.

She researched it.

She was criticised for changing it.

She left Assam, studied gemology and rebuilt her confidence.

She found encouragement from people who understood the cultural significance of her work.

She developed new techniques, trained craftsmen, created hundreds of designs and took Assamese jewellery to international audiences.

And perhaps that is why creative entrepreneur is a more appropriate description than jewellery designer.

A jewellery designer creates objects.

A creative entrepreneur can create an ecosystem around an idea.

Waheeda Rahman has spent decades trying to ensure that Assamese jewellery is not merely remembered as a tradition from the past, but recognised as a living form of design capable of evolving, creating livelihoods and travelling across the world.

Her story is therefore not simply about jewellery.

It is about what happens when cultural heritage meets curiosity, entrepreneurship and the courage to challenge convention.

And somewhere in that story, the little girl in Lakhtokia is still asking the same question she asked her grandmother decades ago:

Why does this have to be done that way?

Perhaps that question is what made all the difference.https://thequantiq.com/mahanta-kalita-cozy-tour-travels-founder-northeast-tourism/