The use of turmeric (kuṅkuma) in ancient India

Note: this text is extracted from Book XIII, chapter 104

Turmeric (Sanskrit: kuṅkuma) has been used in India as a substitute for saffron and other yellow dyes from a very early period. In the first place the very colour, resembling sunlight, was auspicious, and therefore considered to possess protective powers. Consequently turmeric, as well as the colour red, figures largely in marriage ceremonies, and, in fact, in all important functions occurring in the life of a Hindu.

It would not be an exaggeration to say that the general auspiciousness of reds and yellows is a direct outcome of sun-worship in one form or another (cf. our expression, a “red-letter” day). The idea of festivity connected with the colour yellow, through its association with the sun, has given it an erotic significance. This is another reason why it is the chief colour at weddings, and in any relations between the sexes. Dymock gives numerous examples of this, both from Sanskrit and classical European literature (“On the Use of Turmeric in Hindoo Ceremonial,” Journ. Anth. Soc. Bombay, vol. ii, 1892, pp. 441-448). Apart from the custom of smearing the body with turmeric at weddings, garments dyed, or only marked at the corners, with the colour became lucky. It is also used in cases of expectant pregnancy. Thus Mrs Stevenson tells us in Rites of the Twice-Born, p. 113, that the expectant mother sits on a low stool in the centre of a red-besmeared square of ground. No men are allowed to be present, and all the ladies sit round her and sing songs, whilst the husband’s sister smears turmeric and rice all over the young wife’s forehead.

It would be superfluous, if not impossible, to name all the occasions On which turmeric is used. Owing to its cheapness and its auspiciousness it is in evidence wherever good luck is required, and this applies to worship as well as to all important personal happenings in everyday life.

The introduction of aniline dyes, by which glaring colours can be easily and cheaply obtained, has superseded the use of turmeric to some extent, but so many and varied are the uses of turmeric—from medicine to curry-making —that it still plays a very important part in the life and ritual of the Hindu.

For numerous references see Watt, Economic Products, vol. ii, p. 659; also H. N. Ridley, Spices, pp. 422-444. The latest article I have seen on the subject is “The Use of Saffron and Turmeric in Hindu Marriage Ceremonies,” K. R. Kirtikar, Journ. Anth. Soc. Bombay, vol. ix, 1913, pp. 439-454.—n.m.p.