Sikha

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Jyotisha

Hindu swastika

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The sikha or shikha is a Sanskrit word that refers to a long tuft, or lock of hair left on top or on the back of the shaven head of a male Orthodox Hindu. Though traditionally all Brahmins were required to wear a sikha, today it is seen mainly among Brahmacharya, 'celibate monks'. (see tonsure)

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[edit] How it is done

Traditionally, Hindu men shave off all their hair as a child in a saṃskāra or ritual known as the Mundan ceremony, or chudakarana, chudakarma. A lock of hair is left at the crown (Brahmarandhra). Unlike most other eastern cultures (including ancient Egypt) where a coming-of-age ceremony removed childhood locks of hair similar to the sikha (e.g. a forelock or pigtails in China, a topknot in Thailand, a sidelock in Egypt etc) in India this prepubescent hairstyle is left to grow throughout the man's life, though usually only the most orthodox religious men will continue this hairstyle.

The sikha is tied back or knotted to perform religious rites. Only funerals and death anniversaries are performed with the sikha tuft untied or with dishevelled hair. Dishevelled hair is considered inauspicious, and represents times of great sorrow or calamity. In Hindu scripture, the goddess Draupadi took an oath in the assembly of the Kurus after she was molested by Dussasana that she would remain with dishevelled hair until the enemies were properly revenged.

[edit] Significance

The sikha reportedly signifies one-pointed (ekanta) focus on a spiritual goal, and devotion to God. It is also said that the sikha allows God to easily pull one to paradise, although this belief is unsubstantiated and maybe a more islamic belief (see below). According to Smriti Shastrasa it is mandatory for all Hindus to keep sikha and the first three twice-born or Dwija castes to wear Yajnopavita or Janeu or Paita (sacred thread).[citation needed]

In his autobiography, Mohandas K. Gandhi writes about his encounter with an orthodox Hindu: "He was pained to miss the shikha (tuft of hair) on my head and the sacred thread about my neck and said: 'It pains me to see you, a believing Hindu, going without a sacred thread and the shikha. These are the two external symbols of Hinduism and every Hindu ought to wear them.' ... [T]he shikha was considered obligatory by elders. On the eve of my going to England, however, I got rid of the shikha, lest when I was bareheaded it should expose me to ridicule and make me look, as I then thought, a barbarian in the eyes of the Englishmen. In fact this cowardly feeling carried me so far that in South Africa I got my cousin Chhaganlal Gandhi, who was religiously wearing the shikha, to do away with it. I feared that it might come in the way of his public work and so, even at the risk of paining him, I made him get rid of it. "(WikiSource)

In western counties, the sikha hairstyle is often seen worn by adherents of the Hare Krishna movement.

[edit] Similar hairstyles

Sir Thomas Herbert, 1st Baronet (1606 – 1682) described a similar hairstyle worn by Persians in his book 'Travels in Persia': "The Persians allow no part of their body hair except the upper lip, which they wear long and thick and turning downwards; as also a lock upon the crown of the head, by which they are made to believe their Prophet will at Resurrection lift them into paradise. Elsewhere their head is shaven or made incapable of hair by the oil dowae (daway) being thrice anointed. This had been made the mode of the Oriental people since the pomulgation of the alcoran (Al Quran), introduced and first imposed by the Arabians."

Another sikha-like hairstyle existed in eastern Europe. Sviatoslav I of Kiev reportedly wore a scalplock to signify his 'noble birth' (a similar reason as the sikha was worn by the Brahmin caste in India). The oseledets, or khokhol hairstyle of the Ukrainian Cossacks, or Zaporozhians, is near identical to the sikha. The scalplock of many Native American tribes (particularly of the eastern woodlands, such as the Huron) is very similar in appearance to the sikha as well, although of course, like the Cossack oseledets, a much different meaning was applied to this hairstyle.

The sikha may also be referred to as 'choti', 'kuduma' or 'chuda'. It should not be confused with the mullet hairstyle popularised in the 1980s.

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