New Delhi, Oct. 10 -- As I was leaving Serpenti Infinito, an exhibition in Mumbai dedicated to Italian jeweller Bvlgari's seven-decade-long fascination with the snake, a dimly lit 19x19cm photo frame caught my attention. The frame contained an ink-on-paper sketch of two entwined snakes circling a star filled with Sanskrit words. It was a 17th-century Nag-Pash Yantra work believed to mitigate the impact of kaal sarp dosh, a planetary alignment in traditional astrology that's said to bring hardships to a person's life.

​The 200-year-old photograph bore a striking resemblance to Bvlgari's Serpenti Hidden Eternity necklace on display two floors above at the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre's Art House. Was there a connection between ...