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I have not heard any stories about the bindi being a mark of slaves and
that being why women wear them. Now, in some families it is tradition to
wear them, but more commonly now younger women wear them either only or
special occaisions or daily for fashion reasons. Of course, the
traditional, red circular bindi is a sign of marriage along with the red
chalk applied to the middle part of a woman's hair.
Relating bindis to women only is not entirely accurate. In many regions
men wear them daily and in others on special occasions, my husband wore
one at our wedding, for example. Babies and young children wear for
auspiciousness and to ward off the "evil eye."
I am not quite sure what the Buddhist notion of a third eye is, but my
sister-in-law has told me a story that might interest you. According to
ancient Hindu belief, a person's beauty was contained within their eyes.
If someone look directly into another person's eyes they could steal a bit
of the other's beauty. The bindi is worn as a sort of distracting mark to
prevent this.
I hope this is helpful to you.
Jane Menon
On Tue, 26 Aug 1997 Syyoon@aol.com wrote:
> I would be interested if you agree that the bindi was also the mark of slaves
> indicating the real reason why Indian women who are married must wear them.
> Is this right? And what about the Buddhist idea of the third eye. Are the
> bindis also the origins of the Buddhist mark on the head?
> --
> -------------------------------------------------------------------
> Mail posts to: ghen@netcom.com : http://www.hindunet.org/srh_home/
>
>
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