The Subcontinent

Indian Makeup: Collyrium, Lac and the Adornment an Occasion Requires

Not one tradition but many, held together by the habit of treating adornment as something an occasion is owed.

The essayCollyrium, Lac and the Adornment an Occasion Requires

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The Indian Subcontinent · c. 2500 BCE - presentAdornment & Rite

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The Subcontinent: The Chronology

5 moments · 5 open an article

2500 BCE
Bronze Sticks at Chanhu-daro: An Excavator’s Hedge
Mackay thought the shape made it more than likely. Ninety years later the hedge has been quietly removed by everyone who repeats him.
800 BCE
Eye Paint Through the Ritual Door: Anjana Before It Was Vanity
The earliest Indian references to eye paint are not about beauty. They are about what a priest does before a sacrifice.
300 BCE
Five Ointments, Named: A Monastic Rule as a Product List
A rule about what monks may use turns out to be one of the most specific early inventories of eye preparations anywhere.
600
Lac on Lips and Feet: A Red an Insect Makes
The red came from a resin secreted by an insect on a host tree, and one of its names attached itself to the practice rather than the material.
1753
Henna Gets a Botanical Name: And Two Regulators Pick Different Ones
Linnaeus named the plant in 1753. American law still defines henna by a name published thirty-nine years later.

In short

The Pali Mahavagga, written down more than two thousand years ago, lists five eye ointments permitted to monks; Buddhaghosa's fifth-century commentary explains one of them, kapalla, as soot taken from the flame of a lamp — which is the household kajal of South Asia.

In the Subcontinent

Adornment & Rite

10 articles across 4 collections

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Eras

The same question, at another time

Ingredients

What the face was made of

Indian Makeup: Collyrium, Lac and the Adornment an Occasion Requires

The Subcontinent: The Chronology

Bronze Sticks at Chanhu-daro: An Excavator’s Hedge

Eye Paint Through the Ritual Door: Anjana Before It Was Vanity

Five Ointments, Named: A Monastic Rule as a Product List

Lac on Lips and Feet: A Red an Insect Makes

Henna Gets a Botanical Name: And Two Regulators Pick Different Ones

Bronze Sticks at Chanhu-daro: An Excavator’s Hedge

Eye Paint Through the Ritual Door: Anjana Before It Was Vanity

Five Ointments, Named: A Monastic Rule as a Product List

Lac on Lips and Feet: A Red an Insect Makes

Henna Gets a Botanical Name: And Two Regulators Pick Different Ones

In short

In the Subcontinent

Henna Gets a Botanical Name: And Two Regulators Pick Different Ones

Lac on Lips and Feet: A Red an Insect Makes

Five Ointments, Named: A Monastic Rule as a Product List

Eye Paint Through the Ritual Door: Anjana Before It Was Vanity

Bronze Sticks at Chanhu-daro: An Excavator’s Hedge

Lining the Eye: From Synthesised Kohl to the Drawn Wing

Nur Jahan and the Rose Oil Her Mother Found

Bridal Adornment: Four Traditions That Are Not One Tradition

Kohl for the Newborn: An Old Protection and a Modern Poison

The Rosewater Sprinkler: Scent Poured Over a Room

Explore Further

Eras

Ingredients

Bronze Sticks at Chanhu-daro: An Excavator’s Hedge

Eye Paint Through the Ritual Door: Anjana Before It Was Vanity

Five Ointments, Named: A Monastic Rule as a Product List

Lac on Lips and Feet: A Red an Insect Makes

Henna Gets a Botanical Name: And Two Regulators Pick Different Ones

In short

In the Subcontinent

Henna Gets a Botanical Name: And Two Regulators Pick Different Ones

Lac on Lips and Feet: A Red an Insect Makes

Five Ointments, Named: A Monastic Rule as a Product List

Eye Paint Through the Ritual Door: Anjana Before It Was Vanity

From Bronze Sticks at Chanhu-daro: An Excavator’s Hedge

Lining the Eye: From Synthesised Kohl to the Drawn Wing

Nur Jahan and the Rose Oil Her Mother Found

Bridal Adornment: Four Traditions That Are Not One Tradition

Kohl for the Newborn: An Old Protection and a Modern Poison

The Rosewater Sprinkler: Scent Poured Over a Room

Bronze Sticks at Chanhu-daro: An Excavator’s Hedge