Is Your Karungali Mala Real? Here’s How to Actually Tell
You bought a karungali mala online. Maybe it cost ₹400, maybe ₹600, maybe even ₹1,500 from what looked like a proper seller. It arrived in a nice box. Looked dark, felt smooth. But something feels off. Or maybe you haven't bought one yet and you're reading every review trying to figure out who to trust.
Either way — you're in the right place.
We've been making karungali jewellery since 2019 and we've seen every type of fake that exists. Here's what we actually know, not what everyone copies from the same five bullet points.
The most common fake right now isn't what you think
Most guides will tell you to do the water test. Drop a bead — real karungali sinks because ebony is denser than water. That's true. But here's the problem: a lot of the fakes now circulating are made from compressed wood dust or dyed buffalo horn — and these also sink. The water test catches plastic, but it doesn't catch everything.
What actually gives fakes away:
1. The colour is too uniform
Real karungali isn't uniformly jet black. Look closely and you'll see variation — some beads slightly deeper, some with a faint dark brown tone, occasional natural grain lines running through. Fakes are painted. Every bead looks identical. That uniformity is the red flag, not a sign of quality.
2. Rub one bead on a white cloth for 10 seconds
This is the most reliable test you can do at home. Genuine karungali's colour is the wood itself — it won't transfer. If you see any black or dark brown on the cloth, the bead is dyed. Doesn't matter what the seller told you. Dye on the cloth means fake.
3. Hold it in your closed fist for 30 seconds
Real wood breathes slightly and warms gradually with your body heat. Genuine karungali also releases a faint, warm earthy smell when it heats up — subtle, not chemical. Plastic and dyed wood smell like nothing, or worse, like polish. If there's any chemical smell at all, put it down.
4. Look at the hole where the thread goes through
This one nobody talks about. Where the bead is drilled, the inner colour should be the same deep black as the outside. On dyed or painted fakes, the inside of the drill hole is noticeably lighter — sometimes pale wood, sometimes yellowish. A torch and a close look tells you everything.
5. The price tells you something too
Genuine karungali with proper 925 silver work cannot be sold for ₹300–500 and remain profitable. The wood alone has a floor price. If someone's selling a "certified" karungali mala with silver caps for ₹400, the math doesn't work. You are paying for dyed plastic or buffalo horn, not ebony.
What a lab certificate actually confirms — and what it doesn't
A lot of sellers now throw in a "certificate." Here's the honest truth: a certificate is only as trustworthy as the lab that issued it. A proper gem lab certificate identifies the material as genuine ebony (Diospyros ebenum) and notes the bead size and weight. What it doesn't tell you is whether the seller who printed it actually sent those beads to that lab. Always check that the certificate has a lab name, a sample ID, and matches the bead size of what you received.
At NJELS, every karungali piece goes through lab certification before it's shipped — and the certificate you receive has a specific sample reference, not a generic stamp.
How to buy confidently
Look for three things: a seller who has been around for more than a year with consistent reviews, a lab certificate with a specific reference number (not a generic stamp), and silver work that's stamped 925 on the clasp — because sellers who cut corners on the wood usually cut corners on the metal too.
If you already own a karungali mala and want to test it — do the cloth rub test and check the drill hole. Those two alone will tell you what you need to know.
Looking for genuine karungali? Our Silver Karungali Mala and Silver Karungali Bracelet are lab certified, hallmark stamped, and made by our own Kutch artisans since 2019.
