ABHYANGANA - A YESTERYEAR OIL-BATH RITUAL (20-Jun-2020)

A unique and holistic experience that entails an ablution with application of oil to the head and body for pronounced health benefits…..

It is a jiffy world in our fast-paced life.  Present day youngsters apply a little oil to their hair, jump into the shower, run the hot water from solar or geyser, use a variety of shampoo and conditioner (inspired by celebrity endorsements) to wash off the oil, quickly attempt to blow-dry the hair, and run out of the house with a wet-look hair!  An experience of today that fades in comparison to the elaborate ones of yesteryear cherished by my generation.

I grew up in Mysore during the 70s and 80s, the pre-and-post preparation for an oil bath was an exquisite process.  Initiated with a massage to the scalp with warm castor oil, our grandma recited prayers to invoke the Lord’s blessings on us children; the application for the rest of our body followed and the rubdown helped our skin to absorb for enhanced glow and related benefits.

Water containers to heat the water was not a boiler or geyser or even the solar water-heaters of today, but a large ‘hande (container)’ made of copper via firewood burned underneath it.  This appliance was housed in bathrooms within a brick structure and a rectangular hole right below used to place wood into it to light a fire.  A built-in chimney that carried smoke to the rooftop to help fumes escape into thin air.  It was an art to light the firewood with kerosene and a matchstick.  There was no thermostat to monitor the temperature, instead more wood burnt resulted in water reach the boiling point.  Substitution with dry coconut shells or leaves, etc. was in vogue.

Proper planned schedule was the need of the hour.  Water had to be stored in large cement tanks, and some buckets too.  Bathrooms housed one large cement tank that appeared more like a Jacuzzi-pool of today, sans the space to lie down!  Careful mix of the hot water in ‘hande’ with the cold water in the ‘cement tank’ yielded the ‘right-temperature’ water stored in-transit in buckets and poured on us from mugs.

Warmed up oil was smeared once again all over the body just before the actual bath.  Shikakai or soap-nut powder with other accompaniments were used copiously as a good cleansing agent.  The grandma or the mother made a re-entry into the bathroom to start the proceedings, and chanted shlokas as she gave half-naked children a good hair and body wash.  Cousins gathered at home during vacation time were lined up one next to the other; grandma moved from one to the next while mother poured hot water.  Grandma had no clue whose head she held in her hands but cared less because it was one of her grandchildren!

A little stint in the hot sun to dry the hair, it was time to devour some delicious food followed by an afternoon siesta.  The head-bath was typically planned for the weekend.  Resorts today advertise ‘we help de-clutter your life,’ and people beeline and pay an arm-and-a-leg!  Life today is too fast paced to extricate out of a ‘self-created clutter.’ 

Grandma left us in the 80s, around the same time when boilers and other gadgets made their entry into modern bathrooms; with that a ritual faded into past glory! An Abhyangana designed from the bygone days is a de-stress mantra for today’s life?!