A Glittering Legacy

The House of MBj successfully completes 120 years in the business of jewellery making. To mark this glittering success, we interacted with Mayank Soni, the managing director and one of the four brothers who run the century-old family business.

- Anurima Das

The House of MBj is a jewellery brand trusted across India and around the world as torchbearers of the royal standards of Ratangarh (in Rajasthan). By combining these with the best jewellery-making traditions of Bengal, MBj has been ensuring quality and novelty through seven generations. Starting with wholesaling and exporting, they entered the retail market in 1982 in Kolkata. and today they have several showrooms. That apart, the house also has its own state-of-the-art manufacturing unit in Delhi, where gold, polki and diamond jewellery is crafted.

The inception

The House of MBj was founded in the year 1897, in Churu, Rajasthan by Mayank Soni’s forefather, Prithviraj Kadel. His legacy was carried forward by Bilasrai Kadel, Surajmal Kadel, Motilal Kadel, Banarsi Lal Kadel, Kailash Chandra Soni, Kamal Kishore Soni, Parmanand Soni and Vijay Kumar Soni, and today the man at the helm of affairs is Mayank Soni.

“Our forefathers were mostly goldsmiths in Rajasthan, who used to produce traditional gold jewellery. During the first few years, our clients were mainly the locals, traders and merchants,” says Mayank. Thus Prithvirajji began his journey as a goldsmith in Churu, serving the locals, as well as visiting merchants from different states. His successor, Bilasraiji, moved to Kolkata for better prospects, followed by Surajmalji and Motilalji and they followed in the footsteps of Prithvirajji. “Our great grandfather Motilalji died at the age of 46, leaving our grandfather with the big responsibility of taking care of the business at a very young age. His vision and efforts at the right time led him to start the wholesale business along with manufacturing,” Mayank adds.