The Medicinal Properties of Colors
Long ago, the powders used at Holi were called gulal and made from dried plants and flowers, such as the bright-red palash, and bhasmas made from mineral rocks. They were designed to give people protection at the end of kapha season. In the weeks before Holi, people would prepare powders from flower petals and leaves to which they had access and then share them in a festival of delight.
The Medicinal Properties of Colors
Today Holi is as much a business opportunity as it is a festive occasion. Using the paradigms of capitalism and opportunity for commerce, all potential items related to Krsna, the moon, the gopis, and playful love are cast into the market.
While Holi is indeed a time of remembrance of the sweet love between Radha and Krsna, in which they romanced under the full moon in the forest and playfully appiled colorful powders known as gulaal or abiir onto each other’s bodies, that night spurned forth many rituals in the thousands of Holi days that have followed.
In families filled with love and devotion, celebration started with an early bath, wearing white and taking the first handful of colorful powder and applying it carefully to the feet of our beloved parents, our symbols of true love, and then our elders. Throwing or attacking elders with color is considered a disrespectful gesture. Elders are always approached with reverence in the spirit of Holi, as they have already seen the colors of life. The color can be placed anywhere below the calves on the elders’ legs, and has become more a gesture of respect and duty on the holiday than a sense of fun.
Since Mother gave us birth and is the source of the earth in our bodies, we touch our Maa’s feet with respect first thing in the morning, coloring her with a choice of several options. Then we catch our father’s feet with color.
After taking their blessing of us by them putting color on our cheeks and forehead, we had permission to go out and play with the other kids, in the festival field known as the Madana-Utsava. It symbolized their permission to go into the world and live the full spectrum of life’s colors.
Because Ayurveda was the backdrop and world view of all bharatiya families across the continent for thousands of years, the powders were a clever use of community labor to complete an urgent task.
The Holi festival was a ritual in the very hot month of vaisakhi when smallpox was rampant, because it contains medicine that was good for pox. True Abir contains medicinal flower extracts from aparajita, marigold, hibiscus and dopati, and mica powder which contains minerals. Spreading it over the skin was preventive medicine. It was then washed off with Hamam soap, which has Neem, Tulsi and Aloe Vera to nourish the skin.
In the late spring, when the cold clammy weather has moved into warmth with a touch of residual phlegm, the plant environment wakes up too. Fungal infections and bacterial skin infections, lice, bed bugs, and the world of insects and small critters come alive. With phlegm in the respiratory system, and a high preponderance of kapha in the season and in our bodies, it is a good time to apply dry powders to counter the diseases that occur when the phlegm cannot be expelled.
The original powders of Holis are called gulal and made from dried plants and bhasmas. They were designed to give people protection at the end of kapha season, as the heat and depletion of Adana-kala set in. In the weeks before Holi, people would prepare for the joyous festival by preparing powders from flower petals and leaves to which they had access. The festival was a place to share powder, to share medicine.
Neem gave shades of green and is a potent antibacterial and antifungal. Turmeric gives shades of orange and yellow and appears gold on brown skin; it is a powerful antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory drug used in thousands of formulations. Dried hibiscus flowers gave red and yellow and cool the pitta in the body, especially for those with chronic skin disorders and liver issues. Indigo leaves give deep shades of blue. Khadira gives red-browns.
Dried grapes that are sweet and astringent give yellows and beiges, reds and purples; grapes are a wonderful source for improving vision, cooling the body and relieving thirst, detoxifying from too much alcohol, removing bad taste in the mouth, and relieving cough, fever, asthma, throat soreness, and injuries in the lungs. Scholars read the Astanga Hrdaya Sutrasthana chapter 6, sloka 115-116 for details on the properties of fruits, especially grapes to be eaten at this time.
Beetroot gives deep red-purples and pinks and is a great aid to cardiac issues. Amla gives yellow-green and is in season during the weeks before Holi, allowing time to dry in the sun and be powdered. Charcoal gives greys and blacks and dry out phlegm and fungal infections. Dried tea leaves give reds and brown and are astringent, also drying out fungal infections.
The brilliant red of kumkum comes from a powder made from turmeric with chun (slaked lime) which turns the yellow into rich red. When used sparingly, it is great for reducing fat buildup and swelling under the skin.
The bael fruit, also known as bilva, gives a light green from its peel. It is a powerful calming agent for the gut. Eggplant gives royal purple and is an astringent to pull excess moisture out of the skin. Palash flowers, dried and crushed, give bright red-orange and clean the blood. Chrysanthemums give pink, purple, yellow and are soothing. Marigold is red, yellow, orange and is the source of calendula, a powerful anti-inflammatory. Rice powder provides reds, blacks, and white and builds the body’s tissues. Reds are found in red sandalwood, radishes, dried pomegranate skin, saffron, mehendi. Chickpeas and gram flour give off-white. Mustard is yellow-green and heats up the skin to melt away old thick phlegm. Rose petals cool the heat of skin ailments and add to the smell of romance.
Our task now is to move away the ignorance of half-educated and mostly unwise, opportunistic people disconnected from the medicinal gift of making and sharing Holi powders. Today those making colored powders of non-food grade and full of toxins thinking must be transformed to understand the true opportunity of Holi to remove the seeds of respiratory disease before they set into the body.
The gurus explain that the colors that Krsna spread on Radha were symbolic of the colors that we see afresh when we are in love. They are also the colors that play on us as we live life, teaching us that all emotions are illusion and that we allow ourselves to be trapped in illusions when we fall too deeply into any emotion. Those emotions imbalance our doshas and make our body vulnerable to disease. The powder is a reminder that the world filled with color is illusion in which we often do, but should not, lose ourSelves.
week 52. TheSouthAsianTimes
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Dr. Bhaswati Bhattacharya is a Fulbright Specialist 2018‐2023 in Public Health. She serves as Clinical Asst Professor of Family Medicine in the Department of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York, NY. Her bestselling book Everyday Ayurveda is published by Penguin Random House. To order an autographed copy, write to bhaswati@post.harvard.edu.