DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.636#0387
Modern Tonsure. 375
face1 (except his mustaches), unless he is an ascetic2, or has
taken some other religious vow, or belongs to the very lowest
castes. It should also be noted that special religious shavings
are performed at sacred places of pilgrimage on the banks of
rivers, and are held to be very efficacious in purifying soul
and body from pollution. Persons who have committed great
crimes or are troubled by uneasy consciences, travel hun-
dreds of miles to Prayaga (Allahabad), Mathura (Muttra), or
other holy places for the sole purpose of submitting them-
selves to the tonsorial skill of the professional barbers who
frequent such localities. There they may be released from
every sin by first being relieved of every hair and then plung-
ing into the sacred stream. Forthwith they emerge new crea-
tures, with all the accumulated guilt of a long life effaced.
Women, on the other hand, are most careful to preserve
their hair intact. They pride themselves on its length and
weight. For a woman to have to part with her hair is one
of the greatest of degradations, and the most terrible of all
trials. It is the mark of widowhood. Yet in some sacred
places, especially at the confluence of rivers, the cutting off
and offering of a few locks of hair (Venl-danam) by a vir-
tuous wife is considered a highly meritorious act.
A Brahman gentleman of high rank in India once described
to me how he had taken his wife for the performance of this
ceremonial to Prayaga, which, as the point of meeting of the
Ganges and Jumna, is regarded as one of the holiest places of
pilgrimage in India. She was escorted to the banks of the
river by a troop of priests—there called Prayagwa.1—carrying
cocoa-nuts, areca-nuts, flowers, kunkuma, etc. At the conflu-
ence she was made to sit down and offer worship (puja) to the
1 This, in most parts of India, is one point of distinction between
Hindus and Muhammadans, whose former hatred of each other made
them adopt opposite practices out of mere antagonism.
* Some Sannyasls allow all their hair to grow, some shave it all off,
including the Sikha. These latter are the most orthodox.
face1 (except his mustaches), unless he is an ascetic2, or has
taken some other religious vow, or belongs to the very lowest
castes. It should also be noted that special religious shavings
are performed at sacred places of pilgrimage on the banks of
rivers, and are held to be very efficacious in purifying soul
and body from pollution. Persons who have committed great
crimes or are troubled by uneasy consciences, travel hun-
dreds of miles to Prayaga (Allahabad), Mathura (Muttra), or
other holy places for the sole purpose of submitting them-
selves to the tonsorial skill of the professional barbers who
frequent such localities. There they may be released from
every sin by first being relieved of every hair and then plung-
ing into the sacred stream. Forthwith they emerge new crea-
tures, with all the accumulated guilt of a long life effaced.
Women, on the other hand, are most careful to preserve
their hair intact. They pride themselves on its length and
weight. For a woman to have to part with her hair is one
of the greatest of degradations, and the most terrible of all
trials. It is the mark of widowhood. Yet in some sacred
places, especially at the confluence of rivers, the cutting off
and offering of a few locks of hair (Venl-danam) by a vir-
tuous wife is considered a highly meritorious act.
A Brahman gentleman of high rank in India once described
to me how he had taken his wife for the performance of this
ceremonial to Prayaga, which, as the point of meeting of the
Ganges and Jumna, is regarded as one of the holiest places of
pilgrimage in India. She was escorted to the banks of the
river by a troop of priests—there called Prayagwa.1—carrying
cocoa-nuts, areca-nuts, flowers, kunkuma, etc. At the conflu-
ence she was made to sit down and offer worship (puja) to the
1 This, in most parts of India, is one point of distinction between
Hindus and Muhammadans, whose former hatred of each other made
them adopt opposite practices out of mere antagonism.
* Some Sannyasls allow all their hair to grow, some shave it all off,
including the Sikha. These latter are the most orthodox.