History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v1.c9.5

v1.c9.5

We must give some further minor details given by Hiuen Tsang about dress and appearance. “Most of the people go bare-foot and shoes are rare”. Women even now go bare-foot and even though they may afford to use shoes, while country people and poor men have perforce to do so. "They stain their teeth red or black, wear their hair cut even, bore their ears, have long noses and large eyes, such are they in outward appearance." (Watters, Vol. I p. 151). The practice of boring the ears even now is, and must then have been universal for it is a practice prescribed by the Hindu Śastras and hence the appellation 'unbored' applied to people other than Hindus. As for the hair, the Brahmins must have usually shaved their heads as also their chins; but their description does not indicate so. Previously we are told, the hair on the head hang loose and hence they cannot have been cut even. This probably applied to the Kshatriyas and kings. The military officers allowed beards to grow and even wore whiskers. Bāṇa's description of the Commander-in-chief of Thanesar is very interesting in this respect. "शिरोरुहसटाः धवलस्थूलगुञ्जापिच्छप्रच्छादितकपोलभागभास्वरेण...मृतमपि हृदयस्थितं स्वामिनमिव सितचामरेण वीजयन्ताभिलम्बेन कूर्चकलापेन" "with tangled hair on the head, his cheeks covered with white bunches of whiskers and with his long white beard falling on his breast, as if fanning his master seated in the heart, though dead, with a chāmara" H. C. p. 257-258.