India is a land of colors. For more than 1000 years, India's astrologers have taught that the Sun's white like is composed of all the colors. The Sun is personified as the God Surya, the single source of life and ruler of eight other celestial bodies. Each body transmits one pure color to Earth - affecting the destiny of every living creature. These colors are associated with gemstones: cat's eye, hessonite, coral, sapphire, pearl, emeral, yellow sapphire, diamond, and ruby. The colors have forces that act upon each life form.

India's red is bright and beautiful. It can be seen in the red wedding dresses that brides wear, in the kumkum, made from bright red flowers, that women wear on their foreheads to remind them from where the internal life-force comes and to show that they are Hindu. It can be seen in saffron, the world's most expensive spice, of which 14,000 flowers' stigmas make merely a single ounce. The saffron is used in foods and imparts a golden yellow color.

Yellow is also an important color for Indians. Indian yellow used to be an artists' pigment made from soil soaked in the urine of cows fed on mango leaves, but it was outlawed because the leaves made the sacred cows ill. Yellow is connected to saffron, and to the turmeric root. Turmeric is used as a powder and root as a spice, for religious functions, and because of its great antibacterial and healing properties. It imparts a yellow color to anything it touches. The soft yellow-brown sandalwood and sandal paste also are sacred - and beneficial for smearing on skin to cool it in the scorching Indian heat. And the famous Indian mango, which is neither quite entirely yellow nor entirely orange, but simply, mango, is the favorite fruit, and finds its way into clothing and decorations everywhere. It is the orange-yellow mango that gave birth to the Indian paisley design. Even orange has its origins in India - the word orange comes from the Sanskrit naranga, which means orange tree.

The Indian flag itself is full of color. It waves its saffron, stolen from the red-orange flowers women wear in their hair. Its green band reflects the deep lush tropical forests of India, and its white stands for purity and truth.

Color is among the most important aspects of festivals in India. Brightly colored powders are the mainstay of Holi - the festival of color - during which men, women, and children carry powders and liquid colors to throw, shoot, and smear on the clothes and faces of neighbors and relatives. People wear bright clothing - reds, greens, orange, pink, yellow, that create a dazzling display everywhere on festival days (and even otherwise). In another festival celebrating the passion of Lord Krishna for his lover Radha, dyes mixed in water rain on young women at the Dauji Temple in Uttar Pradesh, symbolic of the gopis or cowgirls showering colorful flower petals on the divine couple.

Color is indeed an intricate part of the lifestyle in India. It is part of the religion, the culture, the daily routine and is found everywhere - from the clothing and customs to foods and festivals. Each color symbolizes a force in life, and thus color and life are inseparable. For more information on any topic concerning India and other South Asian countries, go to http://www.samilan.com.

The Philosophy of Hinduism