Gorakhnath and the Kanphata Yogis c5.142

c5.142

The common mark placed upon the forehead by the Yogī is the tripuṇḍ, consisting of three horizontal lines, or of a broad band, made by the hand, with ashes, with ashes and clay, or with sandal-wood paste. Similar lines are drawn on other parts of the body, for example, on the arms and chest.² These are, strictly, Śaivite marks. The tripuṇḍ is sometimes said to represent the moon. Some Yogīs put on the forehead a mark consisting of a black, horizontal line with a black dot above it, representing Bhāirom; and below it a red circle representing Hanumān (Mahābīr). A few put a single spot of sandal-wood paste on the forehead, when they are ‘offering’ the paste to Bhāirom.³ Still others put a black spot on the forehead when they are burning incense. Other forms of the ṭīkā are the double square of sandal-wood paste:⁴ a single spot of ashes on the forehead; a yellow, rounded rectangle with a red dot in the centre; a rounded rectangle of yellow with a single grain of rice in the middle, below a brush of ashes; two circles one above the other, the upper of sandal-wood paste, the other red;⁵ a circle made of a mixture of sandal-wood paste and a red substance, for Bhāirom; two spots one above the other, the upper red, the lower black; two elongated enclosures one above the other, in red, with a red dot below. In Benares it was explained that these marks have to do with the iṣṭadeva, or chosen god, of the particular Yogī. The examples given by no means exhaust the varieties of ṭīkā employed.