Life and Conditions of the People of Hindustan (1200–1550 A.D.) c7.s2.t1.110

c7.s2.t1.110

Elaborate arrangements were made for the bath toilet. The Hindus usually applied sesamum oil to their head and washed it with fuller's earth before a bath. After the bath, which was usually taken in running water, the Hindus applied scents to their bodies and a kind of scented powder to their hair. Instead of soap myrobalans were used. Musk and sandal-wood paste were used by both sexes, though women were partial to *kumkum*, *Agaru* (*lignum aloes*) and a variety of scented oils.¹ In Gujarat they anointed themselves with sweet-smelling unguents, some-times with white sandal-wood paste mixed with saffron and other scents.² In the South they used an elaborate preparation of white sandal-wood, lignum aloes, camphor, musk, and saffron all finely mixed and kneaded with rose-water.³ Aloe-wood (*Aqualaria agalocha*) was usually burnt in houses on all occasions of public gathering.⁴ If a person went out to meet anyone, he usually put a *Tilaka* mark on his forehead, some flowers, or other scent in his hair and chewed a betel-leaf.⁵