Hindu Samskriti - Honouring the arts of home making
Posted in Labels: Hindu Samskriti - Honouring the arts of home making
Honoring
The Arts of
Homemaking
An Artist’s Portrayal of the Hindu
Wife’s Traditional Domestic Duties
Today,
communities and peoples all over the world are reevaluating
how we live. As a global community, we are
seeking more
sustainable ways of life, seeking solutions
to the myriad problems that
our modern ways have caused since the Industrial
Revolution—global warming,
polution of our air and waterways,
concretization of our lands, deforestation,
and the social ills of crime, poverty, abuse
and broken homes. Peoples
are evaluating old, traditional system to
learn or relearn how we got along
in the old days, without so many
conveniences, when life was simpler, less
competetive, less stressful and frantic. In
this chapter, we bring you a collection
of painting by S. Rajam, a gifted artist and
musician born in a South
Indian village in the old days of 1918, that depict the daily rituals commonly
performed by Hindu wives and homemakers all
over India,
during his time
and for centuries before. The same rituals
can still be found today in villages
and urban centers. The scenes in his 14
pieces follows the sequence of a day,
from morning to dusk.
Then, as now, the wife and mother carries a
momentus responsibility—the
creation of a stable home and the raising of
a fully functioning family. Her
role, apart from the competitive, breadwinner
world of men, is every bit as
essential as her husband’s. Rightly
performed, each part of her daily ritual is
done with a mindfulness based on knowledge of
the workings of subtle energies,
and of unseen angelic beings—the guardian devas of
family members—
and the aid they give. For example: the
home’s doorways and windows are
seen as portals through which either helpful
or antagonistic beings can enter.
So daily decorating of entryways entreats
guardian devas to allow access only
to those who will strengthen and support the
family. Similarly, she knows the
womanly energy she embues into a meal during
its preparation can increase
the health of all who partake of it, or, if
negative, contribute to illness and
distress. She also understands that clothing
and other possessions respond to
care or neglect just as people do, and that
cleanliness and love bring forth
a refined spiritual vibration. All her
efforts serve to make the home a holy
place. Indeed, each of the duties depicted in
Rajam’s art has esoteric and
mystical aspects to be discovered and
developed by the intuitive woman.
To urban wives and those living abroad, some
of the tasks may seem irrelevant
and the methods outdated, even demeaning.
Rajam hopes modern
Hindu individuals will discover how each duty
relates to the current household
environment. This woman’s rustic tools may be
replaced with electric
utensils and food processors. Even the modern
refrigerator door can be transformed
into a place of blessing by daily posting a
freshly ink-jetted kolam
design upon it. With applied intuition and
ingenuity, similar modernization
of each of these principles will move them
meaningfully into the future. And
some of the simplicity may be revived in our
efforts to find sustainable ways
to survive on into the future.
Family life, however full, remains empty if
the wife lacks the lofty culture of the home.
Tirukural, verse 52
Storytelling
Before going to bed, children are fed
light foods out in the open air. When the
moonlight is seen, mother tells stories to
inspire the child to linger and eat more.
Decorating the Entry
As the day begins, kolams are painted at the home
entrance. First,
water is mixed with cow dung and sprinkled on the ground.
Then
geometric designs are applied with powdered rice in many
colors,
guided by a trained thumb and index finger.
Caring for Clothing
Some women bathe in the temple tank. Before the bath,
they wash their saris and other garments and spread
them on the steps, later to find them fully dried in the
hot Indian sun upon returning from their bath.
Bathing
The women bathe in the river at hidden
places specially reserved for them. They apply
fresh turmeric root to the skin as a toner,
skin color enhancer and anti-bacterial. Early
European visitors were so impressed with
the daily bathing ritual of Indian women
that upon returning home they slowly
convinced the rest of Europe
of the merits of
bathing more than once a week or month.
Grooming
(Left) In the evening the wife
dons casual or formal dress,
combs and braids the hair,
marks the forehead with kumkuma
and applies
jewelry.
Sanctifying the Doorway
Here, the home’s entryway is adorned with
turmeric paste and red kumkuma powder.
The daily morning decoration is a blessing
intended to beseech guardian devas to
allow entry only to beings, both physical and
subtle, who will benefit the family and home
environment, rather than
causing discord.
Care of Children
(Right) During the Dipavali
festival a healthful ayurvedic
oil bath is given to all. Children
are attended to first, in the hour
before sunrise. Oil is applied to
skin and hair, then rinsed off.
Preparing Rice
Each day a small quantity of rice paddy is taken from the
reservoir and
pounded to separate the husk to provide grain for the
day’s meals.
Pure and religious thoughts are pounded into the paddy as
well.
Preparing Meals
In this scene, vegetables are washed and cut with the aid
of a knife-like blade
affixed to a wooden platform. The platform includes a
seat for the woman,
which makes for effortless cutting and minimal
fatigue—the original
“Cuisinart.” (Right) Once yesterday’s milk cures and
becomes curd, it is
stirred into butter and boiled into ghee. The woman
vigorously churns the
frothing liquid in big pots with a ladle of wood turned
with a cord.
Temple Worship
Before the noon meal, wives visit the temple, bringing
an offering basket of coconut, ghee for the temple
lamps, betel leaves, flower garlands and fruits.
Making Garlands
She collects fragrant flowers
and with deft fingers assembles
them on fine string
according to color. Garlands
are used in the shrines and to
decorate the pictures of the
Gods throughout the home.
Caring for the Home Shrine
Evening is time for cleaning the home’s oil lamps, adding
fresh ghee
or oil and lighting them in the shrines. The woman
prostrates to
receive blessings from the Deities and devas who
guide her family’s
life of dharma. Devotional songs are sung as the day
winds down.
Om Tat Sat
(My
humble salutations to Sadguru Sri Sivaya
Subramuniyaswami
ji, Hinduism Today dot com for the collection)
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