Note on Ṭiklī, Tilaka and the uses of vermilion or red lead

Note: this text is extracted from Book III, chapter 16:

“Then Vāsavadattā, out of regard to the princess, made for her unfading garlands and forehead-streaks, as the King of Vatsa had previously taught her; and Padmāvatī’s mother, seeing her adorned with them, asked her privately who had made those garlands and streaks”.

We are told in the text that Vāsavadattā had learned this art from the King of Vatsa. It will be remembered that he, in his turn, had acquired the art from the snake Vasunemi, whom he had rescued from a Śavara (see Vol. I, p. 100). The reference, therefore, must be to the ṭiklī, or spangles worn by Hindu women of good caste, and not merely to the tilaka, or caste marks, already mentioned in Vol. I, p. 69 and 69n³.

The name ṭiklī is derived from tīka, which means a mark on the forehead made in an initiation ceremony. The basis of the ṭiklī is vermilion, which is smeared on lac-clay, while above it a piece of mica or glass is attached as an additional ornament.

Russell describes them, and gives a plate of twenty-four specimens in colour in his Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces (vol. iv, pp. 106 - 110). He says that the tikti is worn in the Hindustāni districts and not in the south. Women from Rājputāna, such as the Mārwāri Banias and Bañjāras, wear large spangles set in gold, with a border of jewels as well, if they can afford it. Thus it will be seen that considerable art in making and designing ṭiklīs can be achieved.

The ṭiklī forms part of the sohāg or lucky trousseau. It is made chiefly by the Lakheras and Patwas in the Jubbulpore, Betūl, Raipur and Saugor districts of the Central Provinces. It is affixed to the girl’s forehead at her marriage and is worn until her husband’s death. It appears that sometimes unmarried girls also wear small ornamental spangles. Another constituent of the sohāg is sindūr, or vermilion, which is not usually worn if a ṭiklī has already been affixed. The reason for this is that, as we have seen above, the basis of the ṭiklī is vermilion. Thus we can look upon the ṭiklī as a later development of the smear of vermilion. In some cases the bride and bridegroom mark each other with red lead, while the custom of mixing or exchanging blood prevails among certain Bengal tribes. It is interesting to note that in Brittany the bridegroom sucks a drop of blood from an incision made below the bride’s left breast (see F. C. Conybeare, “ A Brittany Marriage Custom,” Folk-Lore, vol. xviii, p. 448, 1907).

Evidence seems to point to the fact that all these uses of vermilion or red lead are later survivals of the original blood rite by which a woman was received into her husband’s clan. This explanation has not, however, found universal acceptance, and Westermarck (History of Human Marriage, vol. iii, pp. 446-448) considers that the colour red is used in marriage rites in circumstances which do not allow us to presume that the use of it is the survival of an earlier practice of using human blood. Although he does not advance proof to the contrary, he gives a large number of useful references to articles on the use of red in wedding rites. I hope to include a note on the colour red in a later volume.

In conclusion I would quote from the writings of W. Crooke. In a paper on the “Hill Tribes of the Central Indian Hills” (Journ. Anth. Inst., 18 99, p. 240 et seq.), he mentions a case of marriage by capture in which a Bhuiyār girl wrestles with a youth as he applies vermilion to her hair.

After discussing other modes of marriage he says:

“More obvious still is the motive of the blood covenant. Here we can observe the stages of the degradation of custom from the use of blood drawn from the little finger of the husband which is mixed with betel and eaten by the bride among some of the Bengal tribes (Risley, Tribes and, Castes of Bengal, ii, pp. 189, 201). The next stage comes among the Kurmis, where the blood is mixed with lac dye. Lastly come the rites, common to all these tribes, by which the bridegroom, often in secrecy, covered by a sheet, rubs vermilion on the parting of the girl’s hair, and the women relations smear their toes with lac dye—all palpable degradations of the original blood rite. That the rite is sacramental is clearly shown by the fact that the widow after her husband’s death solemnly washes off the red from her hair or flings the little box in which she keeps the colouring matter into running water.”

The whole subject is very interesting, and opens up a field for much anthropological research.—n.m.p.