தொல்தமிழர் அறிவியல் – 75 :  24. கூந்தல்கழித்தல்

Locks of hair / Flowing hair

                         

    “Hair style among women has become ultra – modern nowadays. They also cut their hair and desire to have crop as much as men do. But in Pre – Christian  era, as   reported in Sangam literature , women have grown profuse locks of flowing and seem to have cultivated five types of dressing  them as pointed out in a poem No. 84 of Aingurunooru. Plaited hair, globular bundling of hair, curved hair and horse – tail hair  are a few of those that were popular. Dressing the hair with perfumed oil, decorating it with flower and drying the wet hair with sandal smoke were the practice habitually followed by them.

                           

     A passage from Kalithigai (108) says  that for the beauty of a maiden, shoulder, eyes and genital organ should be broader and wider along with forehead, foot and waist should be lesser in size and girth.

                          

   If a woman becomes a widow, the custom prevailed in the society was to do a tonsure of her head. Indication is that hair is one of the attractive items of woman’s physique and it may be room for her immodesty and prove to be a tempting factor for robust young men. That is why in Punjab, elders arrange for the widow to marry her deceased husband’s brother.

                      A number of quotes from Sangam literature exemplify  the role played by the hair of graceful young women in ancient days.”–Editor.

II

முடி காணிக்கை

கூந்தல்

Ancient history

In ancient civilizations, women's hair was often elaborately and carefully dressed in special ways. Women coloured their hair, curled it, and pinned it up (ponytail) in a variety of ways. They set their hair in waves and curls using wet clay, which they dried in the sun and then combed out, or else by using a jelly made of quince seeds soaked in water, or curling tongs and curling irons of various kinds.^[7][8]

In the same way, poet Orampokiar compared a woman’s beauty to Choza town Amur (Ainkurunooru.56). Another woman was compared to Pandya’s port city Tondi by Ammuvan (Ainkurunooru.171).

Southeast Asia

In Southeast Asia and Indonesia, male long hair was valued in until the seventeenth century, when the area adopted outside influences including Islam and Christianity. Invading cultures enforced shorter hairstyles on men as a sign of servitude, as well. They were also confused at the short hairstyles among women in certain areas, such as Thailand, and struggled to explain why women in the area had such short hair. They came up with several mythical stories, one of which involved a king who found a long hair in his rice and, in a rage, demanded that all women keep their hair short.^[64]

In rural areas in certain Asian countries, for example India, girls still usually let their hair grow long, and knee-length hair is not unusual.^[67]

Many sangam poets like Nakkirar, Paranar , Kabilar, Mamular, Orampoki and Ammuvan compared the beauty of a woman to a city/town. Poet Nakkirar compares the beauty of a woman to Aruman’s small and beautiful village (Natrinai 367).

கூழுடை நல் மனைக் குழுவின இருக்கும்

மூதில் அருமன் பேர் இசைச் சிறுகுடி

மெல் இயல் அரிவை நின் பல் இருங்கதுப்பின்

குவளையொடு தொடுத்த நறு வீ முல்லை. நற். 367: 5 - 8

And in another poem (358), he compares the beauty of a woman to Pandya’s town Marungai.

பெருஞ்சேய் இறவின் துய்த் தலை முடங்கல்

சிறு வெண் காக்கை நாள் இரை பெறூஉம்

பசும் பூண் வழுதி மருங்கை அன்ன என்

அரும் பெறல் ஆய் கவின் தொலைய

பிரிந்து ஆண்டு உறைதல் வல்லியோரே. நற். 358: 8 - 12

Parth Sharma, Lively

Updated Aug 15, 2013

Tonsure (the act of cutting the hair or shaving the head) after the death of an elder member of the family is an age-old Hindu custom. In Hinduism, the underlying concept is that hair is a symbolic offering to the gods, representing a real sacrifice of beauty, hence shaving one’s head shows her grief for the departed soul.

Also, Hair on the head is treated as an adornment and as a symbol of vanity. 
On the death of an elderly person in a family, the Hindus consider the children of the family not to be egoistic in nature but be humble, devoted and submitted to nature. So they need them to give up their adornment and vanity in humiliation.

 ----- Wikipedia.

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