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SEPTEMBER, 1904.)
TATTOOING IN CENTRAL INDIA.
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(2) The bark of the Biyān tree (?) soaked in the water from a hukka and mixed with turmeric and lamp-black; gives a green colour.
(3) Bark of the Sisam (Dalbergia sisoo) tree soaked in water with turmeric; gives a green colour.
(4) Cow's milk mixed with the juice of the Karila plant (Capparis aphylla); this is used only by Mālavi Mhārs.
(5) The juice of Nim-tree (Melia azadirachta) leaves mixed with lamp-black; gives a green colour.
(6) In Bundelkhand a "blue-black" is produced by mixing lamp-black with the bark solution of the Biyān tree.
(7) The juice of Māhua (Bassia latifolia) and lamp-black; gives a green colour. (8) Juice of the Karila mixed with that of Balur (1): gives a green colour.
Age of Tattooing. - The process of tattooing commences at about five or six years of age, the designs being added to gradually. In Bundelkhand unmarried girls are as a rule only tattooed on the hands, other parts being done after marriage. Tattooing thus becomes a sign of marriage, but not of puberty. The Sarwariyā Brahmans, however, tattoo their married girls only. Widows are only tattooed in the lower classes wbere widow remarriage is allowed, and then only on re-marriage.
Tattoo marks and their meanings. – On this point the reader must refer to the attached diagrams. Generally it is the parts exposed to view that are dealt with, the practice within certain limits varying in the three groups into which I have divided Central India. I have come across no special devices.
We may arrange the parts adorned thus: - Decorated by all three groups -(1) Forehead, between the eyes. (2) Arms - upper; fore. (3) Hands - back; palms, rare; fingers; wrists. (4) Feet and ankles. (6) Calves. (7) Neck.
In the Malavā group add, - (a) Breast, usual. (6) Abdomen, rare.
In the jungle-tribe group add,(a) Breast. (6) Abdomen, usual. (c) Thighs. (d) Back, rare.
As to what the signs mean I have been able to discover little; all that the people could tell me was what the sign was intended to represent. I could nowhere discover that any deep meaning was supposed to be attached to the symbols ; increase of attractiveness was, as I have already said, the principal reason assigned for undergoing the process. The designs, moreover, are the same practically among high and low, probably because the operators in each case are the same people, the only difference being that of quantity, which varies inversely with social position. Symmetry there is none, nor are marks hereditary, though a daughter as a rule adopts some one of the designs her mother has worn. As & role, any part of the body may be done first, except in the case of an married girls in Bundelkband, and a few others which will be found under the particular instances which I have given. The devices representing bracelets, necklaces, &c., are designed to give the wearer the wherewithal to appear in the next world; these jewels she is supposed to be able to take with her. The following Dohā refers to this: -
Dohā. ET. चतुरनार घहनो घडो सुगड लियो अपने अंग ॥ उतारे से उतरे नहीं सो गयो जीवके संग ॥
Balor (P) is a vegetable, I am iuformed.
