Use in North Indian Cultural and Artistic Activities
Mustard oil was once popular as a cooking oil in northern India. In the second half of the 20th century the popularity of mustard oil receded due to the availability of mass-produced vegetable oils. It is still intricately embedded in the culture:
- It is poured on both sides of the threshold when someone important comes home for the first time (e.g. a newly-wedded couple or a son or daughter when returning after a long absence, or succeeding in exams or an election.
- Used as traditional jaggo pot fuel in Punjabi weddings.
- Used as part of home-made cosmetics during mayian.
- Used as fuel for lighting earthen lamps (diyas) on festive occasions such as Diwali.
- Used in hair. Known to be extremely beneficial for hair growth.
- Used in instruments. The residue cake from the mustard oil pressing is mixed with sand, mustard oil and (sometimes) tar. The resulting sticky mixture is then smeared on the inside of Dholak and Dholki membranes to add weight (from underneath) to the bass membrane.This enables the typical Indian drum glissando sound, created by rubbing one's wrist over it. This is also known as a (Tel masala) Dholak Masala or oil syahi.
Read more about this topic: Mustard Oil
Famous quotes containing the words north, indian, cultural, artistic and/or activities:
“—Here, the flag snaps in the glare and silence
Of the unbroken ice. I stand here,
The dogs bark, my beard is black, and I stare
At the North Pole. . .
And now what? Why, go back.
Turn as I please, my step is to the south.”
—Randall Jarrell (1914–1965)
“There was so much of the Indian accent resounding through his English, so much of the “bow-arrow tang” as my neighbor calls it.... It was a wild and refreshing sound, like that of the wind among the pines, or the booming of the surf on the shore.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The sickly cultural pathos which the whole of France indulges in, that fetishism of the cultural heritage.”
—Jean Baudrillard (b. 1929)
“What the study of history and artistic creation have in common is a mode of forming images.”
—Johan Huizinga (1872–1945)
“Both at-home and working mothers can overmeet their mothering responsibilities. In order to justify their jobs, working mothers can overnurture, overconnect with, and overschedule their children into activities and classes. Similarly, some at-home mothers,... can make at- home mothering into a bigger deal than it is, over stimulating, overeducating, and overwhelming their children with purposeful attention.”
—Jean Marzollo (20th century)