Why do the people of India wear a turban? We reveal the secret of a spectacular headdress

For some reason, everyone is sure that Hindus wear turbans everywhere, competing to see who will wrap more and more intricate fabrics on their heads. This is not quite true, because wearing a large turban is an honor and it must first be earned. And not everyone is entitled to it, so some residents of India do not "shine" a turban under any circumstances. We tell you how he appeared in India has a turban, why it is needed and what is hidden under it.

Of course, anyone can wrap a towel around his head without any problems, but we are talking about real turbans here, which have a sacred meaning and their own history. For a long time, these headdresses in India have been a privilege of Sikhs — representatives of one of the popular religions.

When Sikhism was still being formed, in the 15th-18th century, only representatives of the higher castes could wear a turban. But since the most important value in Sikhism is the equality of all people, all adherents of this religion have received the right to show off in a turban. But not everyone has the right to choose the color and size.

Sikhs do not say "turban" or even worse - "turban". In the Punjabi language, which is used by most of these people, such a headdress is called pagri or pag for short. The name of the turban in Sanskrit, the ancient literary language of India, is very consonant-pak. Sikhs themselves, most often, call their turbans respectfully-dastar.

Pag Sikh hides one of his greatest values-hair. Every Sikh is obliged to observe the kesh vow of inviolability of hair. The vegetation on the head can not be cut and the hair, as it grows, is pinned higher and higher. Along with the hairstyle, the Sikh turban also grows, sometimes to fantastic sizes.

An adult Sikh, a father of a family and a respected person, will never appear to people with his head uncovered. To appear in public without a turban is almost as shameful as shaving your head or cutting a full beard in the European fashion. The pag and everything that is hidden under it is of such great importance to a man that a Sikh can kill for a torn headdress — a sword or a dagger is almost always with him.

By its design, a turban is not a ready-made headdress that you can simply put on your head. These are long strips of fabric that are carefully wound layer by layer, in compliance with a special system. Once a turban could replace a safe-a Sikh kept money, valuables, documents and just lovely trinkets in it. Today, such use of pag is rare, but traditional ritual objects of Sikhism are attached to the headdress in abundance.

Few people know that the main purpose of the turban is not a demonstration of masculinity and not just strict adherence to religious canons. Sikhs believe that their dastar protects their third eye from the encroachments of evil forces and simply the evil eye of unkind people.

For a resident of India, a turban is a detailed story about its owner. What matters is the color or their combination, the order of laying the coils, the width of the fabric, the shape and number of nodes — all the subtleties of turban studies cannot be counted.

Individual trends and castes stand out from the general mass precisely by the shape of the turban. For example, members of the Namdhari caste tie the dastar over their forehead evenly, avoiding corners. At the same time, the color of the turban fabric for these guys can only be white. Most Sikhs save their bright orange turbans for the Baisakhi festival, which takes place in the spring.

Pale orange or glamorous, pink, tied for weddings. In such a dastar, not only the groom, but also all the guests come to the ceremony. Warriors from the Akali sect have worn coal-black turbans since ancient times. Only relatively recently, their spiritual leaders relented and for the first time in many centuries allowed pagi made of dark blue fabric.

Red, yellow, turbans are everyday clothes, the colors of which can be chosen at your discretion. But the khaki dastar is the privilege of a military man. As a rule, an everyday turban consists of 3-5 meters of fabric, but this does not apply to the most respected members of Sikh society.

A wise person, respected in society, and, perhaps, enlightened, will never condescend to a dastar made of several meters of fabric. The larger, more voluminous and heavier the turban, the more serious the person under its shadow. Avtar Singh Mauni is an absolute record holder for the size and weight of a headdress. This important Sikh has a dastar made of 650 meters of fabric, with a total weight of 45 kg!

I must say right away that the gap between the record holder and other respectable husbands is not too great. Turbans weighing 30-35 kg are not uncommon among older Sikhs, whitened with gray hairs of wisdom.