Sindoor

Sindoor (Sanskrit: सिन्दूर, IAST: sindūra) or sindura[2] is a traditional vermilion red or orange-red cosmetic powder from the South Asia, usually worn by married women along the part of their hairline.

[3] In Nepal and some North Indian Hindu communities, the sindoor is a visual marker of marital status of a woman and ceasing to wear it usually implies widowhood.

[7][8] Sindoor is traditionally applied at the beginning or completely along the parting-line of a woman's hair (also called mang in Hindi or simandarekha in Sanskrit) or as a dot on the forehead.

[9] Single women wear the bindi in different colours for special occasions but don't apply sindoor in their parting of the hairline.

When she becomes a widow she adopts plain white dress and removes all colour from her face including the bright red sindoor.

Recently, a triangle shape on the forehead pointing towards the nose, with a diamond bindi for fashion, is being worn by younger women.

[13][14] Neolithic female figurines excavated at Mehrgarh, Baluchistan seem to imply application of sindoor-like colour to the parting of women's hair.

In the famous epic Mahabharata, Draupadi the wife of the Pandavas, wipes off her sindoor in disgust and despair at the happenings in Hastinapura.

tanotu kṣemaṃ naḥ tava vadana saundaryalaharī parīvāha-strotaḥ saraṇiriva sīmanta-saraṇiḥ । vahantī sindūraṃ prabala kabarī bhāratimira- dviṣāṃ bṛndair bandī-kṛtamiva navīnārka kiraṇam ॥ Oh mother, let the line parting thine hairs, which looks like a channel, through which the rushing waves of your beauty ebbs, and which on both sides imprisons, your Vermilion, which is like a rising sun, by using your hair which is dark like the platoon of soldiers of the enemy, protect us and give us peace.

In early 2008, allegations of high lead content led the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to recall batches of sindoor from several manufacturers.