text: History Bangles made from sea shell, copper, bronze, gold, agate, chalcedony, etc. have been excavated from multiple archaeological sites throughout the Indian subcontinent. A figurine of a dancing girl wearing bangles on her left arm has been excavated from the Mohenjo-daro archaeological site (2600 BC) in modern-day Pakistan.
  Other early examples of bangles in ancient India include copper samples from the excavations at Mahurjhari, followed by the decorated bangles belonging to the Mauryan Empire (322–185 BC) and the gold bangle samples from the historic site of Taxila (6th century BC). Decorated shell bangles have also been excavated from multiple Mauryan sites. Other features include copper rivets and gold-leaf inlay in some cases.
  Design
  Bangles are circular in shape, and, unlike bracelets, are not flexible. The word is derived from Hindi  (glass). They are made of numerous precious as well as non-precious materials such as gold, silver, platinum, glass, wood, ferrous metals, plastic, etc. Bangles made from sea shell, which are white colour, are worn by married Bengali and Oriya Hindu women. A special type of bangle is worn by women and girls, especially in the Bengal area, commonly known as a "Bengali bangle", which is used as a substitute for a costly gold bangle, and is produced by thermo-mechanically fusing a thin gold strip (weighing between 1–3 g) onto a bronze bangle, followed by manual crafting on that fused gold strip.