Bindi-The Forehead Art

Part-2

Here are some of the various designs of Bindis we Indian Women wear:

The long line is also known as Niluvu Bottu or the vertical Bindi.The last one is called Dosa ginza or the Cucumber seed.

This is called Chandravanka Meaning sliver of the Moon or Moon. These  were worn by the kings and princes on their foreheads. This was worn by royalty.

This is Suryavanka or Sun

This is known as Namaalu or Namam Bottu. The Long line (Niluvu Bottu) in the first photograph and these ones here are worn by a sect of Brahmins known as Vaishnavites who worship lorn Vishnu or his Incarnations.

Read about them here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iyengar

Also look at the various varities of the Naamamas here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mouligp/4372005091/

Wow! I never knew there were so many.

You can see here Lord Balaji wearing the Naamam.

Here You can see Lord Shiva wearing the Adda Bottu or the horizontal bindi with three lines. This is worn by all the Shaivites-that is who worship Lord Shiva.

This one is known as Kalyana Tilakam or Pendli Bottu worn by the Bride and Groom of South India especially Andhras, during the marriage ceremony.

The Groom wears only the above one. But the Bride mostly wears like this:

The yellow dots I have used are in fact white ones i.e white colour is used. Since the background is white I used yellow colour.

Well more in my next posts...so keep a watch...

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Chevron Stitch-2

TAST-2012-6th Week-Chevron Stitch

I could not post much these past few days as I was not feeling well. I sort of felt very tired and listless and din't have the energy to spend long periods of time on my computer. My experimenting with the stitches is also not much but I am going to pick up by this week end hopefully. 

Here are some more of my experiments with Chevron stitch:

13. with French knots,

14. with glass(tube) beads and other embellishments

15. with double shaded metallic thread

16. with different colour threads and Fly Stitch anchored with Detached Chain Stitch

17. with Detached Chain Stitch and Slipped Detached Chain Stitch

18 with Silk Ribbon and Chevron used for couching

19. with Fly Stich anchored with Detached Chain (upside down)

20. First Petal Stitch was embroidered and then half Chevron Stitch was embroidered lacing around the Chain Stitches on the top side. I hope you can get the idea clearly if not, I will post a tutorial separately.

21. Chevron used as waves with different coloured threads.

22. Beaded Chevron

I still have lot to do with this stitch. I havenot yet touched the half chevron. I have so many ideas. But for now this will have to do. I am lagging behind by two weeks now.

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Bindi-The Forehead Art

Part-1

Bindi (Hindi) or Bottu(Telugu) is the first thing you notice about an Indian Woman. It is one of the forms of make up of Indian women. This is a very ancient custom or tradition carried over the years.

Bindi: 

It is the  dot worn by the Hindu women on their forehead which is one of the things that sets them apart from all the other women in the world. Bindi is derived from the sanskrit word Bindu meaning dot.

It is also known as Sindhoor (Hindi) Sindhooram(Telugu), Kumkuma Bottu(Telugu), Tilakam or Tilakam Bottu (Telugu).  Sindhoor means vermilion an orange coloured Mercuric sulphide. Word Sindhoor is derived from "Sindhu". Sindhu actually means an Ocean, is the famous River Sindhu Or Indus on the banks of which the ancient Indus Valley civilisation was born. It is the largest ancient civilization in the world. India got its name from that. You can read about it here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indus_Valley_Civilization


This is one of the 16 items of make up Indian women adorn themselves with since ancient times. What are these 16 items I will deal with in a separate post. In the above picture you can see the traditional makeup of Indian women.

Who wears Bindi?

Both Women and men wear it. 

Women wear it since their birth, but it gains more significance when she gets married. A married woman whose husband is alive must wear Bindi on the forehead. They have to wear red powder (kumkum) in the partition of their hair. This is know as Mang ka tika or Sindhoor and indicates that the woman is married. When a woman gets married, her husband fills the partition of her hair with red coloured powder(kumkum) as part of the ceremony and she has to wear it for the rest of her life as long as her husband is alive. See it here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sindhoor.jpg

Widows don't wear the red coloured dot. But there is lot of controversy on this aspect. Some say it is no where written in our customs that widows are forbidden to wear Bindi. But the general practice in olden days was they did not wear the red or other coloured bindis. Now no one is following this. It is a personal choice.

Shape of Bindi:

It is generally round in shape but other shapes like oval, long line etc are also worn by women. Men also wear round dot or long lined ones. Women wear the bindis in different shapes. We will talk about this in detail later.

Colour of Bindi:

Mostly in scarlet, red, maroon various shades of red or orange colour. Black, yellow and white are also used for bindi but for different reasons and occassions.

Material used: 

Sindhoor or vermillion, an orange coloured mercuric suphide was used. 

Traditionally Kumkum-the red coloured powder was obtained by mixing Turmeric with lime. This gives a red coloured powder. This was mixed with various herbs for the health of the body or the skin. Royalty used to mix musk with these powders for fragrance as well as for health reasons. Similarly, ground lotus stamens or other dried fragrant flowers like roses jasmine etc is also used.

Sacred Ash known as Vibhooti which is white or ash in colour is also used.  Generally the ash is obtained from the Yagya kund or the place where the herbs, certain types of wood like sandal wood and other ingredients along with ghee are offered to Gods by burning them in the holy fire.

Sandal wood paste is used for cooling affect and other health reasons. Widows specially use the sandal wood paste as Bindi.

The Kumkum is in powder form and used as it is. But it is mixed with water or other liquids  for painting it on various shapes. Till a few years back liquid Tilakam was sold in markets in red and various other colours which was chemical dye in liquid form. 

Now this has been replaced by stick ons.

How is it applied:

The powder form is applied with fingers. As per the tradition one should apply with middle finger. Match sticks or thin sticks were used for putting Bindis. I remember  the bunch of nails with different shaped heads(strung on to a key ring) for making different shaped bindis, my aunts had. This was first dipped in the gum and pasted on the forehead and then dipped in kumkum powder and carefully placed on the gum. other wise the liquid form of Tilkam was used. I bought a bunch for my sis some time back in Haridwar. I don't know whether she still has it.

Those who are not used to applying the powder, had a sort of gum, which was applied first on which the powder was applied. This helped in holding the powder in shape and also from spreading or smearing.

Watch out for more in my next posts...........

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