IT'S A BEAUTIFUL WORLD: DHARA (Mohenjo-Daro), ERISH (Mesopotamia),FENG-LEI (China) 3000 BC to 1400 BC

Our next stop on this journey is what can be roughly called the Bronze Age. What a great era this was! Man had finally established his superiority over all other creatures and defeated all the unfavourable natural conditions to pave way for the complex social networks called CIVILIZATION.

We had conquered rivers, oceans, land and the power of flowing winds. We could grow our own grains and vegetation, domesticated animals for milk, eggs, meat, wool, leather, for working with us in our fields and for travelling. Plants and animals had been selectively bred to give more yield and be more docile and useful around human establishments.

Instrumentation, too, was at a completely new high. From tinkering with simple pieces of stone, bone and wooden tools for activities of daily life and agriculture,  man had gone on to conquer the one material that would impact the rest of the human race for ever - the beautiful, strong, gleaming, solid, malleable, ductile and durable Metal! Metal that made our lives easier and also gave us the power to fight and kill  more swiftly than ever. (that discussion, however, we shall keep for another time)

With the domestication of plants and animals, the assurance of a steady influx of food, and the power of metal to defend him, man gave in to his social nature and started settling down in large communities. And these communities became more permanent from the semi-permanent establishments of the past. Floods and earthquakes, while still very frightening and destructive, could be controlled to some extent and hence, unlike previous eras, couldn't wipe out entire communities altogether. It was the banks of the major rivers that saw the first permanent human settlements - the Indus river in the Indian sub-continent, the Tigris-Euphrates river system in Mesopotamia, the Huang-He in China and the mighty Nile in Egypt. (Because river water was of utmost importance to agriculture and rivers formed interconnected networks for transportation to almost anywhere)

This was the first time in human history that we were able to devote time exclusively to arts, science, culture and religion - because our basic necessities - food, shelter and protection from the forces of Nature - had been taken care of.

For appeasing our newly named deities (who were the personifications of the fearsome Natural forces that we were yet to comprehend completely) we elected priests, for looking after day to day civil life, laying down rules and defending us, we elected kings and leaders, for procuring produce from the producers and bringing it to our establishments some of us became merchants, while another group of people took it upon themselves to look after the cleanliness and hygiene of our homes and communities.

Such precise delegations of role in the nascent human society, gave others the time to indulge in finer pursuits like art, architecture, music, dance, elaborate rituals of beautification, writing, composing, handicrafts, pottery and so on.

With such enormous changes in the human "way-of-life" from the Neolithic times to the middle and late Bronze Age, it is but obvious that the purposes, definitions and means of beauty had undergone transformation. While beauty will always be associated with attracting potential mates, the Bronze Age saw women working in fields, markets, pottery-barns, as weavers and seamstresses, in the service of kings, as jewellery makers, nurses, singers, dancers and courtesans. Women could now marry without violent abductions or fights breaking out to possess them, own property and servants, work and even separate from their husbands after justifying the merit of their case.

Therefore, being beautiful now meant a lot of other things than just latching on to a man for food and protection. Hygiene, aesthetics, orderliness, a feeling of well-being and energy was a major part of what defined beauty in the bronze age.

To take a closer look at the beauty rituals of the Bronze Age river-based civilizations, we will first visit Dhara, named after the flow of life-giving water, a young girl living on the banks of Indus, then stop in the neighbouring Mesopotamia to meet Erish and finally, conclude this trip with a visit to Feng-Lei, who lives in China, where the Huang-He flows.

DISCLAIMER: PLEASE DO NOT USE THE BEAUTY RECIPES MENTIONED IN THIS POST. WHILE THEY ARE AUTHENTIC, THE INGREDIENTS MAY NOT BE UNADULTERATED IN THIS DAY AND AGE. ALSO, THESE PREPARATIONS MAY BE ACTUALLY HARMFUL. 
BEST TO LET BYGONES BE BYGONES. :)

DHARA'S FRAGRANT SANDALWOOD - The Indus Valley - 2600 BC

Dhara has always considered herself lucky to be born to a merchant father.They are not poor. Their family owns land to cultivate cotton,ox, bulls and cows, employs people in fields and shops and lives in a big, well-lit, airy two story baked-brick house with many rooms circling a central courtyard and its own drainage system and water supply.

Her father is a big trader. His men often hire wooden ships to travel to far off lands. She is aware that their community trades with other such communities in Southern India, Gandhar (Afghanistan), Egypt and Mesopotamia. Her father's men sail to these places, making use of the ample river networks and exchange cotton, linen, beautiful painted pottery, timber, beads, sandalwood  for gold, spices, perfumes, jade and other semi-precious stones. Some of her father's men have stayed back in Mesopotamia to act as her father's agent while some foreign traders have made her town their home.

Artist's representation of a gateway in an Indus Valley township. www.crystallinks.com

Dhara knows she'll probably never get to see these exotic places herself, but at least she can spend her time working as a helper in the big shops her father has in the central marketplace. It helps if a family member is present as a supervisor. The people who come to buy their wares give them other useful things in return.

That's how it works out in Dhara's community - a person has to give something of importance to another person he is interested in procuring something from. Dhara's father uses precise weight measurements to ensure he is not getting fooled. The weights are made from cubes of flinty rock called Grey Chert.

While her younger brothers play with clay and wooden toys in the form of animals, carts on a string and dolls, Dhara, an adolescent, loves the pieces of jewellery, pots of perfume and fine cotton skirts her father and mother often gift her. Her mother is a stylish and beautiful woman, people say. And Dhara is following very rapidly in her footsteps.

It is very warm almost all year round in her town. Heavy clothing is not suitable for Dhara and her people.
She wears loose cotton tunics, chest bands tied around the chest and fine cotton skirts tied at the waist by a gold or bronze girdle, armlets, bracelets and bangles and adorns her neck with necklaces made from ivory, semi-precious stones, beads, gold and bronze. Her mother, being the chief wife of an important town-merchant, wears an elaborate crown like head-dress or sometimes a cloth turban. 

Gold and Semi-Precious stone Jewellery unearthed at different sites in the Indus Valley. www.bbc.co.uk

Woman with curvy figure, prominent bust. Wearing choker, necklace, girdle and elaborate headdress. www.harappa.com

Their community worships the "Mother Goddess", the deity of fertility and the Earth's unending bounty. And following the cult of the "Mother Goddess" or "Earth Mother", the most sought after feminine figure is the voluptuous, well rounded one. Big bosom, rounded belly, slim and shapely waist,wide hips and wide thighs.

All the women in Dhara's family use sandal wood very heavily - as a perfume, as a powder, as a face and body mask and as an emollient. The strong, soothing, earthy, woody notes of sandalwood scent the air of her home.

Women also stain their fingertips and the soles of their feet with the coppery red lac-dye. It is considered to be a sign of beauty and is very auspicious.

In the heat and humidity of Mohenjo-Daro, bathing is an important and elaborate ritual of hygiene. Some privileged families like Dhara's have their own private bathing area in their residence. But for the majority of the people there are great public tanks and baths. Both cold and warm baths are common.

People exfoliate their bodies vigorously with scrapers/exfoliators like a rough piece of cloth, a block of wood, jawbone of ox, a chunk of sandstone and so on. It is believed to help with keeping the skin clean and fresh.

Use of oils for body and hair is common. Oil massages are believed to tone and strengthen the muscles and improve circulation and give a lush growth of hair on the head. Mustard and sesame oil are used most often.

(Crushed and powdered seeds of the Opium Poppy/khus-khus mixed in milk, get rid of dandruff when applied on the scalp)

Masks or "Lepas" are used both on face and body. They are supposed to detoxify, make the complexion bright and fight blemishes and aging.

(Sandalwood paste mixed with milk cream, saffron, honey and turmeric is Dhara's favourite facial mask. Some women also use soaked lentils ground with few drops of honey.)

Any kind of body hair (arms, face, legs, pubes) is considered repulsive, especially in women. They are shaved with the help of fine razors or removed with the help of depilatory preparations.

(Women in Dhara's family pound together the dried fruits of Amla/Indian Gooseberry and Indian Long Pepper and soak the resulting mixture in the milky secretion of the Holy Milk Hedge plant. This paste applied over the desired part of the body makes the hair from that area fall off)

After a prolonged bath, people dust themselves generously with perfumed, deodorizing bath powders. It keeps them fresh, active, energetic and smelling good for a long time.

(Powdered barks of the Mango tree and Pomegranate tree, mixed with powdered dry Neem leaves, finely milled powdered sea shells and powdered sandalwood removes body odour and keeps Dhara feeling fresh and fragrant all day)

Depending on the season, oils, saffron, musk (for winter) and camphor, sandalwood, vetiver (for summer) are used.

Both men and women apply lamp-soot and Antimony based collyrium to line their eyes and the green earth pigment "terre verte" as eye-colour. Women chew betel leaves with camphor, catechu and cardamom to sweeten their breath and stain their lips red.

Mixing a pounded, ground mixture of Camphor, cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg and cloves in water and gargling with it or swirling it around the mouth removes bad breath.

The famous nude Harappan Dancing Girl artefact. The bangles reach up to the upper arm.A trend still followed by women in Rajasthan, India.  www.bbc.co.uk

Dhara apes all the beauty regimes she sees her mother following diligently, so she too may grow up to be a fine, confident, radiant lady like her mother, marry well and hold her own in front of staff and servants.

Beauty gives her the confidence to face the world.

Dhara has no idea at this point, that one day, her entire civilization will be wiped out due to unknown, puzzling causes, their script will be deemed unreadable and no one will ever know where her people went! But for the time being, it is a rich, thriving, peaceful, bountiful civilization.

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ERISH'S POT OF KOHL - Ur, Sumer/Mesopotamia - 1772 B.C

Erish was named very ambitiously. In the ancient Sumerian language, Erish means “Exalted Lady” or “Queen”. But she herself is no such thing. Though living in very close quarters with exalted ladies and gents, Erish is a concubine of a rich man whose wife is incapacitated by disease.

She came into this household of traders and business owners as a part of her mistress’s dowry. Being good looking, intelligent and literate, she was then considered by her mistress’s father, a very good and useful companion for the lady in her new marital home. Erish knew from the very beginning that she was more deserving of luxury, opulence, romantic love and a fulfilling family life than her soft-minded, physically weak young mistress, but bound by the ties of duty and loyalty, she had always lived in the shadows - never really reaching out for what her heart desired. So near, yet so far. She’d never be mistress...always a servant.

Their community in Ur (an important Sumerian trade city in Mesopotamia) was not suited for really intelligent women. While they could own property, work, sue, run businesses, they were never the legal and political equals of men. No woman was a lawmaker. Yes, there were high-priestesses, but rumour was that they were little more than religious prostitutes. The difference between queens and royal concubines was hardly noticeable. Of course, there were a plethora of Goddesses to pray to, but mostly representing feminine ideals like love, romance, fertility and agriculture.

It was a hurtling fall from a long staircase followed by a prolonged fever that changed Erish’s fortune. Her mistress was severely injured and had taken the bed permanently. 

According to the Code of Hammurabi, her husband couldn’t divorce her or get rid of her on the basis of illness. He was dutybound to care and provide for her throughout her life. But that in no way meant he couldn’t enjoy the services of the female slaves and companions his wife had brought as a part of her dowry. Her mistress offered Erish as a sexual companion to her husband. She taught Erish her rituals of beautification, gave her fine clothes and jewellery, and tiny shell-shaped containers of gold and terracotta filled with coloured cosmetics. 

That day Erish’s life changed.

Erish takes detailed baths in scented water. Someday the water is perfumed with the essence of roses, on other days Oil of Orange Blossoms, or Oil of Frankincense.

She rubs her skin regularly with Pumice stone to keep it smooth and free of body hair. She pushes down the cuticles of her nails with a blunt metal stick and plucks her eyebrows with metal tweezers to keep them well-arched.

She wears a toga-like strapless maxi dress, secured by an ivory pin and a lot of bead strings around her neck. The beads her mistress wears are gold, lapis lazuli and ivory.

Erish, and all the men and women she sees around her, use a lot of kohl on their eyes. It is made out of charred tree resins, powdered antimony (stibium), powdered lead compounds and arsenic. Heavily lined eyes and dark painted eyebrows are the most sensuous feature in a woman. Erish knows that an attractive woman should speak not with her mouth, but with her eyes.

She also paints her eyelids with vivid colours like apple red, rich green, aqua blue and turquoise. Her eyebrows are painted thick, dark and arched with kohl and they meet ever so slightly at centre of her forehead.

Ivory sculpture showing face of woman with gold head band, heavily kohl-lined eyes, painted eyebrows and elaborately curled hairstyle. avalonianaeon.blogspot.com

Her hair is well oiled and piled on her head in a huge chignon. The men, like her master, generally curl their hair and beards elaborately with curling tongs. Her mistress, before the fall, used to wear an elaborate arrangement of gold on her head. The gold was beaten into multiple ribbons, beads, floral headpieces and was a glorious sight! But Erish is only a concubine. So she wears little gold and ivory beads in her hair.

The flattened skull of a rich woman, Queen Puabi, unearthed at Ur, Mesopotamia. theancientworld.tumblr.com

Queen Puabi's gold headdress and bead cape reconstructed from the flattened skull unearthed in Ur. ornamentedbeing.tumblr.com 

Erish applies face creams and a variety of face powders from her mistress’s cosmetic box. Her face powders are made of red oxide of iron (haematite), white lead and yellow ochre. Yellow ochre dissolved in a few drops of water and applied on her face forms a beautiful foundation for loose powders and cheek rouge.

Facial reconstruction of a wealthy Mesopotamian lady. Arguably Queen Puabi.

She reddens her lips with red ochre based lip salves or with deep red Henna.

Henna designs also adorn her hand and feet. The men dye their hair, beard and eyebrows with Henna.

For special nights spent with her master, Erish relies on the heavy usage of perfumes. These perfumes are sourced from crocus, thyme, lotus, marjoram, saffron, cinnamon, frankincense, myrrh and amber.

Erish takes care of every single detail of all the tedious beauty rituals with just one goal in mind. In Ur, Sumer, a master retains the right to sell a servant even if he has had sexual relations with her and even if she has borne him sons.

Erish is, therefore, aiming to capture her master’s heart – to avoid being sold to another unknown family. Her intelligence and tact are gifts of Nature......and now cosmetics have given her the conviction of attractiveness and the aura of confidence. 

Well, why not?

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Feng-lei's Nail Paint - Anyang, China, 1500 BC

"Red, White and Black" are what Feng-Lei has been told the three colours of feminine beauty. Red lips and nails, white skin and black hair, eyebrows and teeth (yes! you read it right...black teeth)

White porcelain skin and pitch black hair in ancient Chinese women. ancientpeoples.tumblr.com

Feng-Lei lives in the city of Anyang with her parents and siblings. They are neither very rich, nor very poor. Her father married two other women after he married her mother because her mother couldn't give birth to sons. Sons are highly coveted in her community. 

It is only after marriage, in the eventuality of having a son, can a girl hope to command some respect. Or if she lives to a great old age, survives her husbands and sons and becomes a grand matriarch. Otherwise, women should simply be content with household work, having children (sons), looking after the family and beautifying themselves.

Feng-Lei's mother is concerned about the fate of her only daughter. She wasn't a particularly attractive woman herself and she has had enough trouble as such. She has never had much affection from her husband. Though the head-wife, she has eroded her softness working hard at household chores. Her husband doesn't like it if the younger, prettier wives work much. But she doesn't mind. She keeps her mind occupied in grueling hard work and makes sure Feng-Lei can stay happy and beautiful. 
Feng-Lei has no blood-brothers to look out for her, neither is she the favourite child of her father, and therefore, her only chance of happiness in the future is being selected by a good suitor. And suitors are known to be notoriously choosy. A slightly sallow complexion, plain fingernails, shadow of eyebrow hair - almost anything can get Feng-Lei a rejection when the groom and his family come to see her. So, being prepared is the best option.

Feng-Lei washes her hands well, massages her long, graceful fingers with oil and once the oil has been absorbed, she paints her nails a beautiful pale pink.

(Nail colours, first formulated in Bronze Age China, are a concoction of gelatin, gum arabic, beeswax and eggs, mixed with natural pigments. The royalty can use gold or silver dust in their nail paint, wear deep, vibrant colours like red, black, purple....but the common people are forbidden from colouring their nails brightly.)

Her mother helps Feng-Lei in following the latest trend among the city girls by threading off the eyebrows entirely.

Feng-Lei paints black, thin, shapely eyebrows over her eyes, in the place where her natural eyebrows should have been. 

The ultimate beauty statement is a porcelain white skin and black (or golden, if one is rich) stained teeth.

Feng-Lei uses generous amounts of finely milled and ground raw rice as a face powder. She paints her lips red.

Teeth-Blackening or "Ohaguro" is considered a sign of great beauty. Also, a coat of black colour over the teeth was thought to protect the enamel and prevent tooth decay. Feng-Lei colours her teeth black.

(The formulation for blackening teeth was prepared by  dissolving iron filings in vinegar and combining the resulting solution with vegetable tannins from sources such as black tea. This mixture was black and insoluble in water. It had to be applied on the teeth once a day or once a week, depending on the intensity desired.)

Woman with black teeth.

Another important aspect of aesthetics Feng-Lei must learn about is the art of fragrances. Her people have just one word to denote fragrance, incense and perfume "Heang" and Heang is divided into six moods-
Tranquil, Reclusive, Beautiful, Luxurious, Refined and Noble. FengLei has to learn to use the right aromatic for the right occasion. 

Feng-Lei's world and surroundings are by far the most different from her Bronze Age counterparts in the Indus Valley and Mesopotamia. She is more or less cut off from the rest of the world in faraway China. 
She often wonders if there is a world beyond the Huang-He river. If it is inhabited by people like her. If there are more girls, more women out there.
How must their life be?

Feng-Lei is grandly ignorant of the fact that this very year, 1500 BC, as she prepares to find a suitor and live out her life in the quest for the coveted "male child", far from her homeland, a woman has been made a King - not a Queen...but a King...a role no woman has dared to take on before...Pharaoh Hatsheput of Egypt.

Feng-Lei will never know.

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References:

Fashions in Makeup: From ancient to modern times by Richard Corson
Wikipedia
www.harappa.com
www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primaryhistory/
Herbal Cosmetics in Ancient India by Kunda B. Patkar
Beginnings of Civilization, www.saylor.org/courses/history101/
Daily life in ancient Mesopotamia by Karen Rhea Nemet-Nejat
lauravaleri.com/2013/05/23/the-role-of-women-in-ancient-sumer
www.cosmeticsinfo.org/Ancient-history-cosmetics
http://www.diybeautytutorials.com/2012/09/7-ancient-chinese-beauty-secrets
History of cosmetics, SK Chaudhri and NK Jain, Asian Journal of Pharmaceutics, 2009

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Pallavi

Kent, OH