City - haridwar State - UTTARANCHAL Country - India
About
Vermilion, sometimes spelled vermillion ( to Indian women also known as Sindur) found naturally-occurring, is an opaque orangish red pigment, used since antiquity, originally derived from the powdered mineral cinnabar.
There is evidence of the use of cinnabar pigment in India and China since prehistory. It was known to the Romans as minium and was their most valuable pigment, being used to color the faces of triumphant generals in imitation of the vermilion visage of the image of Jupiter Capitolinus in the Temple on the Capitoline Hill where the triumphant processions would conclude.
Married Hindu women use vermilion or sindur as a symbol of marriage, at the center of their forehead.The spot thus crested on the forehead is called BINDI. Not only that, a Hindu woman uses it to proclaim that her husband is alive. So widow women give up using sindur after husband's death. To a married Hindu lady sindur is a symbol of good luck.
In the streets of Haridwar (Hardwar), every second shop sells vermilion. I found this young seller in such a shop which is run by his grandmother. When he found that nobody is giving him much attention, he started to demonstrate how and where to use this red pigment
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{K:150877} 11/4/2008
