Among the constituents of the Sohag or lucky _trousseau_ without
which no Hindu girl of good caste can be married are _sendur_ or
vermilion, _kunku_ or red powder or a spangle (_tikli_), and _mahawar_
or red balls of cotton-wool. In Chhattisgarh and Bengal the principal
marriage rite is usually the smearing of vermilion by the bridegroom
on the parting of the bride's hair, and elsewhere this is commonly
done as a subsidiary ceremony. Here also there is little reason to
doubt that vermilion is a substitute for blood; indeed, in some castes
in Bengal, as noted by Sir H. Risley, the blood of the parties is
actually mixed. [88] This marking of the bride with blood is a result
of the sacrifice and communal feast of kinsmen already described;
only those who could join in the sacrificial meal and eat the flesh
of the sacred animal god were kin to it and to each other; but in
quite early times the custom prevailed of taking wives from outside
the clan; and consequently, to admit the wife into her husband's
kin, it was necessary that she also should drink or be marked with
the blood of the god. The mixing of blood at marriage appears to be
a relic of this, and the marking of the forehead with vermilion is
a substitute for the anointing with blood. _Kunku_ is a pink powder
made of turmeric, lime-juice and borax, which last is called by the
Hindus 'the milk of Anjini,' the mother of Hanuman. It seems to be
a more agreeable substitute for vermilion, whose constant use has
probably an injurious effect on the skin and hair. _Kunku_ is used in
the Maratha country in the same way as vermilion, and a married woman
will smear a little patch on her forehead every day and never allow her
husband to see her without it. She omits it only during the monthly
period of impurity. The _tikli_ or spangle is worn in the Hindustani
Districts and not in the south. It consists of a small piece of lac
over which is smeared vermilion, while above it a piece of mica or
thin glass is fixed for ornament. Other adornments may be added,
and women from Rajputana, such as the Marwari Banias and Banjaras,
wear large spangles set in gold with a border of jewels if they can
afford it. The spangle is made and sold by Lakheras and Patwas; it is
part of the Sohag at marriages and is affixed to the girl's forehead
on her wedding and thereafter always worn; as a rule, if a woman has a
spangle it is said that she does not smear vermilion on her forehead,
though both may occasionally be seen. The name _tikli_ is simply a
corruption of _tika_, which means a mark of anointing or initiation on
the forehead; as has been seen, the basis of the _tikli_ is vermilion
smeared on lac-clay, and it is made by Lakheras; and there is thus
good reason to suppose that the spangle is also a more ornamental
substitute for the smear of vermilion, the ancient blood-mark by which
a married woman was admitted into her husband's clan. At her marriage
a bride must always receive the glass bangles and the vermilion,
_kunku_, or spangle from her husband, the other ornaments of the
Sohag being usually given to her by her parents. Unmarried girls
now also sometimes wear small ornamental spangles, and put _kunku_
on their foreheads. But before marriage it is optional and afterwards
compulsory. A widow may not wear vermilion, _kunku_, or spangles.