Rudraksha

(“eye of Rudra”) The dried seed of the
tree Elaeocarpus ganitrus, which is considered sacred to the god Shiva.
Rudrakshas are often strung into garlands and worn by Shiva’s devotees
(bhakta). The seed itself is round with a
knobby, pitted surface, with a natural
channel in the middle through which a
thread can easily be drawn. Each seed
also has natural longitudinal lines running from top to bottom, which divide
the seed into units known as “faces”
(mukhi). The most common rudrakshas
have five faces, but they can have up to
fourteen. Each differing number of faces
has been given a symbolic association
with a particular deity. The rarest form
is the ekmukhi rudraksha, which has no
faces at all and is considered to be a
manifestation of Shiva himself. This
rudraksha is so valuable that street sellers routinely make counterfeit versions
by carving them out of wood. Another
rare form is the Gauri-Shankar, in
which two rudraksha seeds are longitudinally joined; this is considered a
manifestation of Shiva and Shakti.
Aside from the number of “faces,” the
quality of rudrakshas is judged by their
color and size. The color runs from
reddish brown to a light brown, with the
former considered more desirable, while
the smaller sizes are preferable to the
larger ones.