A travelling jeweller, an upturned umbrella, and the veranda of a temple. Five generations later, the family is still at work.
In class, Harvard Business School, 2026
The house today
At the table today
A hundred and twenty-six years are why families come in. What they find at the table is current: Gopalarathnam Vummidi, the fifth generation, trained by the GIA, and in 2026 invited to Harvard Business School.
GIA
Graduate Gemologist
GIA
Graduate Pearls
GIA
Applied Jewelry Professional
Harvard · GIA
Global Leadership Program 2026
The GIA Global Leadership Program at Harvard Business School
Held at Harvard Business School with the GIA, the programme is by invitation only. Each year it takes fifty senior executives from around the world, and only one from any company. In 2026 the seat for Vummidi Nandagopal Sons was his.
By invitation only
50senior executives a year, worldwide
1seat for each company
The 2026 cohortThe cohort, in class
What began on the veranda of the Chennakesava Perumal temple in George Town is now five generations old: a Telugu family from Gudiyatham, jewellers to Madras since 1900, and makers of the sceptre that marked a nation's independence.
126 years, five generations
2023Fifth generation
At the bench
The craft, continued
Gopalarathnam Vummidi
Gopalarathnam Vummidi joined the business in 2023, after his training, and serves as its Creative Director and Head of Operations.
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Alongside his GIA training (his credentials) he holds a BBA from Dwaraka Doss Goverdhan Doss Vaishnav College. He brings both kinds of knowledge, the intuition of someone raised among stones and the formal discipline of the laboratory. Patrons tend to mention him by name.
2023The Sengol
A place in Parliament
Seventy-six years after it was made, the Sengol was installed beside the Speaker of the Lok Sabha in the new Parliament building in New Delhi.
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The work of the family's founder now stands at the centre of the Republic.
1987Fourth generation
The managing partner
Keeping the house
Vummidi Praveen Kumar
Vummidi Praveen Kumar joined in 1987 and serves today as Managing Partner.
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Under him the house has remained what it was built to be, a family firm serving families. Many of them are now in their second and third generation of walking through the same doors, in Chennai and abroad.
1957Third generation
As Under-Sheriff of Madras
The name of the house
Vummidi Nandagopal
Vummidi Nandagopal, Anjaneyalu Chetty's third son, joined the firm in 1957 and gave it both his name and its standing.
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He led the trade's own institutions for decades, serving as President of the Federation of Jewellers of the Southern Region, of the Tamil Nadu Jewellers Federation, and of the Madras Jewellers & Diamond Merchants Association, among other offices. In 1980 he was appointed Under-Sheriff of Madras.
1947The Sengol
A commission unlike any other
Entrusted to Vummidi Bangaru Chetty
The Thiruvavaduthurai Adheenam, the Saivite monastery that had kept the Sengol tradition, was asked to have a sceptre made to mark the transfer of power at Indian independence.
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They entrusted the work to Vummidi Bangaru Chetty. The finished sceptre was presented to Pandit Nehru on the night of the fourteenth of August, 1947.
Vummidi Anjaneyalu Chetty, Bangaru Chetty's second son, joined the firm in 1900 and gave it his whole working life, serving until the age of seventy.
1900The house
The founders
A store, founded together
Vummidi Bangaru Chetty and Vummidi Thayaramma
In 1900, Vummidi Bangaru Chetty and his wife, Vummidi Thayaramma, opened the store as partners, husband and wife together.
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Built on pure metal and honest dealing, the Vummidi name began to earn the trust of the city's families.
1890sFirst generation
An umbrella outside a temple
Vummidi Bangaru Chetty
In Gudiyatham, a small town in the Vellore country where the Tamil and Telugu lands meet, Vummidi Bangaru Chetty was a jeweller of the travelling kind.
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In the slack months of the farming year he carried his work to the nearby villages and sold it there. In the early 1890s he brought that trade to Madras and did what he had always done: set up without a shop. He sold from an upturned umbrella on the thinnai, the raised veranda of the Chennakesava Perumal temple on NSC Bose Road in George Town. What he had instead of premises was an exact eye for quality, and a manner of dealing that made people trust him completely.
What the albums kept
Vummidi Nandagopal and his uncle, Vummidi Anantam ChettyReceiving Muhammad Ali at MadrasOn the dais with the Finance Minister of IndiaThe trade’s Diamond Jubilee, 1998A handshake from Neelam Sanjiva Reddy, President of India
Our values
Heritage without compromise
Our artisans work in our own workshops, practising techniques passed from master to apprentice for over a century. A hundred and twenty-six years of accumulated judgement goes into every piece, and no shortcut has ever been worth the name on the box.
The patron at the centre
VNS was built on relationships, not transactions. Most of our patrons were introduced by their parents; the measure of our work is whether their children return.
Integrity in every detail
From the purity of our gold to the certification of our diamonds, every material is selected with care and transparency. What we tell you about a piece is the truth.
Come and see the work
Visit the showroom in Nungambakkam, or request a private consultation for bridal and bespoke pieces.
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