Kumkum and Sindoor -- The Red of Blessing

Red is the colour of auspiciousness in Hindu life -- of the bride's sari, the Goddess, fertility, energy and blessing. Two red powders carry that colour into daily worship and onto the body: kumkum and sindoor.

Kumkum (also called roli) is made traditionally from turmeric treated with slaked lime, which turns the yellow powder a deep red, sometimes with other natural ingredients. It is used in almost every puja: offered to deities, especially the Goddess, applied as a tilak or dot on the forehead of worshippers, and given to married women when they visit a home or temple, along with turmeric, as haldi-kumkum. Sindoor is a brighter vermilion or orange-red powder, worn above all by married women in the parting of the hair, and offered to Hanuman and Ganesha.

For married Hindu women in much of India, sindoor in the parting of the hair (the maang) is the sign of marriage, and its first application is one of the central moments of the wedding: in the rite of sindoor-daan, the groom places vermilion in the bride's parting. Afterwards, many women wear it daily as a prayer for their husband's long life and as a mark of being suhagan, a married woman whose husband lives. The custom is strongest in north and east India; in the south, the mangalsutra and the kumkum bindi play a similar role.

In Bengal the custom has a festival of its own. On Vijaya Dashami, the last day of Durga Puja, married women offer sindoor to the Goddess before her image is taken for immersion and then smear it on each other's faces and hair in the joyous Sindur Khela -- a farewell to Durga as a daughter returning to her husband's home.

The kumkum on the forehead has a meaning of its own. It is applied between the eyebrows, the place yoga calls the ajna chakra, the seat of insight; marking it is a reminder to keep attention there, on the inner eye. Applied by a priest after worship, it carries the deity's blessing to the worshipper; offered to a woman, it honours the Goddess in her.

A practical note. Traditional sindoor was often made from vermilion, a mercury compound, or red lead, and health authorities in several countries have warned that some commercially sold sindoor and kumkum contain lead or other harmful substances. Buying from trusted makers, choosing products labelled as free of lead and mercury, or using turmeric-based and herbal powders keeps a beautiful tradition safe -- especially for children and during pregnancy.