Shikha (hairstyle)

[1] Though traditionally considered to be an essential mark of a Hindu,[2] today it is primarily worn among Brahmins, temple priests, and ascetics.

According to Smriti texts, it is mandatory for all Hindus to wear a shikha,[8] especially for the twice-born (initiated by the sacred thread called the yajnopavita).

[10] It is prescribed to be worn at the centre of the head because this is believed to be the region of the body that the deity Brahma is regarded to spiritually reside and a fountain of light is said to originate.

On the eve of my going to England, however, I got rid of the shikha, lest when I was bareheaded it should expose me to ridicule and make me look, as I then thought, a barbarian in the eyes of the Englishmen.

In fact this cowardly feeling carried me so far that in South Africa I got my cousin Chhaganlal Gandhi, who was religiously wearing the shikha, to do away with it.