Kuṅkuma
Kuṅkuma, “the sacred red powder”
Grammar: neuter noun: kuṅkuma, the red powder or paste.
Meaning: the red powder or fragrant paste worn by women on the forehead and the body, and offered in pūjā; in the Bhāgavata Purāṇa it is also the red that adorns the feet of Bhagavān Vishṇu.
In the scriptures: the Bhāgavata Purāṇa names kuṅkuma at the birth of the Gaṅgā and in the līlās of Śrī Kṛshṇa.
The kuṅkuma of Bhagavān Vāmana’s feet. Śrī Śuka Maharshi tells Parīkshit that at Bali‘s yajña Bhagavān Vishṇu took avatāra as Vāmana and measured the brahmāṇḍa in three steps. The nail of the big toe of his left foot broke open the upper shell of the brahmāṇḍa, and the water outside the brahmāṇḍa entered through that opening, washed his lotus feet and became red with the kuṅkuma of those feet. That stream received the name Bhagavatpadī, “she who is joined to the foot of Bhagavān Vishṇu”; the name Gaṅgā came later. Merely by touching that water, all beings are freed from outer impurity and from the pāpas of the heart (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 5, Chapter 17).
In Pātāla, the daughters of the nāga kings, hoping that their desires may be fulfilled, smear on the arms of Bhagavān Saṅkarshaṇa, white like silver pillars, a paste of aguru, candana and kuṅkuma (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 5, Chapter 25).
On Kailāsa. Maitreya Maharshi tells Vidura that when the deva women bathe in the Nandā and the Alakanandā outside Alakāpura, the fresh kuṅkuma they have put on dissolves and the water turns yellow, and the elephants, drawn by its fragrance even when they are not thirsty, drink it and give it to their mates (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 4, Chapter 6).
In Vraja. In the Veṇu-gīta the gopīs say: “The women of the hunters are fulfilled. For they found the kuṅkuma, shining with the redness of the lotus feet of Śrī Kṛshṇa, that clung to the grass where he walked. That kuṅkuma had been the ornament of the breast of a beloved gopī and had stuck to his foot.” They applied it to their faces and breasts, and so the longing that had arisen in their hearts was stilled (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10, Chapter 21). When Śrī Kṛshṇa withdrew from sight during the rāsa, the gopīs, searching for him, asked a doe whether he had passed with his beloved, for the wind carried the fragrance of his jasmine garland, which would have turned red with the kuṅkuma of her bosom; and when he appeared again, they made him a seat of their upper cloths, marked with the kuṅkuma of their bosoms (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10, Chapter 30). And a gopī, seeing a bee and taking it for Śrī Kṛshṇa’s messenger, said: “O bee! The kuṅkuma from the breast of a co-wife, rubbed onto his garland of forest flowers, has stuck to your whiskers. Do not touch our feet with such whiskers” (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10, Chapter 47).
In the Bhavishya Purāṇa:
- Bright body colours like gorocana, gold and kuṅkuma are auspicious in the lakshaṇas of women (Bhavishya Purāṇa, Brahma Parva, Chapter 5).
- Water is scented with kuṅkuma, aguru, karpūra and candana for the pūjā of Brahmā (Brahma Parva, Chapter 17).
- Kuṅkuma mixed with candana is called samālambhana, and pūjā is offered to Gaṇanāyaka with it (Brahma Parva, Chapter 29).
- Yakshakardama is kastūrī, candana, kuṅkuma and karpūra in equal parts. Of gandhas kuṅkuma is the best (Brahma Parva, Chapter 68).
- Kuṅkuma paste is the excellent anointing, dear to Bhagavān Sūrya (Brahma Parva, Chapter 87). One who anoints him with sandal, agaru and kuṅkuma, mixed with camphor and musk, sports in Śivaloka for a hundred koṭi years and is born again as a cakravartī. Arghya with water red with kuṅkuma gives a stay in svarga for a hundred koṭi years (Brahma Parva, Chapter 93).
- It is among the offerings that please Bhagavān Sūrya (Brahma Parva, Chapter 116), and at his adhivāsa he is honoured with candana, aguru and kuṅkuma (Brahma Parva, Chapter 136).
- Devī Pārvatī is worshipped with kuṅkuma, red cloth and red flowers, as Bhagavān Śaṅkara is with sandal and white flowers (Uttara Parva, Chapters 21, 23). In Caitra one gives gold with kuṅkuma to brāhmaṇas after her pūjā as Viśālākshī (Uttara Parva, Chapter 24).
- Kuṅkuma is one of the eight things of the Saubhāgyāshṭaka, with sugarcane, stavarāja, nishpāva, rājidhānya, cow’s milk with its products and salt, and in the Saubhāgyaśayana vrata it goes with the name Satī (Uttara Parva, Chapter 25).
Related terms: Candana · Aguru · Pūjā · Bhagavatpadī · Gaṅgā
Sources
- Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 4, Chapter 6; Skandha 5, Chapters 17, 25; Skandha 10, Chapters 21, 30, 47
- Bhavishya Purāṇa, Brahma Parva, Chapters 5, 17, 29, 68, 87, 93, 116, 136; Uttara Parva, Chapters 21, 23–25