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MAY, 1909.)
CASTE AND SECTARIAL MARKS IN THE PANJAB.
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6. Hindu Religious Orders. The Religious Ordurs of the Hindus wear certain marks which may be regarded as sectarial, Thus the Bairagts and some Udasis paint a curious mark (Plate, fig. 22) on the forehead, and also wear their bair long (jata).
Jogis, both of the Augbar and Kanphattâ degrees, as Saivas, wear the tripund without any special embellishments.
Suthra-shahis paint the forehead black.18
T chart Brahman in the first stage of his career wears a red vertical line with a white one on side14 (Plate, fig. 23).
So. ninor religious orders have Bectarial marks of their own, such as the mystic word om, paint un the forehead. Others wear the tripund with two lines added above (Plate, fig. 24). Others have a tulsi-patra inside a tripund, a complicated combination (Plate, figs. 3 and 11).
III. - Pilgrimage Stamps. Hindus generally, it is said, are required by their religion to tattoo the hands in blue when going on a pilgrimage. Saniasts who visit Hinglâj in Baluchistan are also said to tattoo an emblem of Mahadev under the sleeve.
Branding is, however, a much more common device,' at least wben the pilgrim belongs to & religious order. Thus, Bairagts who visit Ramar, sixty miles from Dwarkâ, have the seal of Ramar geared on the wrist so as to leave a black brand. Those who visit Dwarka itself have a tapt mudrá, or brand of a corich, discus, mace, or lotus, as emblems of Vishņu, or a name of Vishnu, burnt on the arms.15 Those again who visit Rameshwar have the right shoulder branded thus.16
IV. - Female Caste Marks. I add here a cutting from the Pioneer of the 26th May 1907, reproducing a note from the Madras Mail as to the custom of wearing caste marks by women in Southern India. I have not heard that there is a similar castom in the Panjab :
“The caste-marks worn by women are confined to the forehead and are, says a writer on castemarks in Southern India in the Madras Mail, more uniform than those affected by the men. The orthodox mark invariably worn on religious and ceremonial occasions is & small saffron spot in the centre of the forehead. But the more popular and fashionable mark is a tiny one made with a glue-like substance, usually jet black in colour, called in Tamil sandhu, which is obtained by frying sago till it gets charred and then boiling it in water. Sandhu is also prepared in various fancy colours. Women who have not reached their twenties are sometimes partial to the rise of kuchchilipottus, or small tinsel discs, available in the bazar at the rate of about half-a-dozen for a pie. To attach these to the skin, the commonest material used is the gum of the jack-frait, quantites of whic!. will be found sticking to a wall or pillar in the house, ready for immediate use, The vogue of the kuchchilipoetu is on the wane, however.
In the more orthodox families, it is considered objectionable that the forehead of a woman should remain blank even for a moment, and accordingly it is permanently marked with a tatooed vertical line, the operation being performed generally by women of the Korava tribe. The blister takes sometimes a fortnight to heal, but the Hinda woman, who is nothing if not a martyr by temperament and training, suffers the pain uncomplainingly."
13 Sikhe do not use any mark Ma rule, though some wear a dot, and their sectaries appear to have no distin. gaishing marks other than those wed by the Ualsts and Suthr-ebAble.
14 This appear to resemble the Vaishnava namam of Southern India.
15 The tapt mudrd is a 'burnt impression as opposed to the aftal mudrd or cold impression,' which means the painting of embloma daily on the forehead, chest or arms with gopf chandan or clay, while worshipping a god,
16 [During my wandering in baxars in India, I frequently collected pilgrimage stampe of brass of the kind above mentioned. They were not at all difficult to procure twenty years ago in such places as Hardwar, Gaya, Mirzaper, Barelt, and so on. But I have never reproduced or used them, as I could not ascertain to which shrines they belonged. When the stamp oontained a name it was usually Rám-påm, Ram Narayan or some such Vaishnava term. -ED.)
