Vedic literature is an encyclopaedia of the life of ancient Hindus. Though the Vedas are religious books, we have got lot of information about the normal secular life of people. Shiva, has a name due to his hair style. Kapardin is his name. It means matted locks. Even today lot of ascetics have this hair style. This name occurs in the Vedas. Rudra wore his hair plaited or matted.
The use of the word ‘apasa’ indicates that plaits were worn by women in dressing the hair. There are undoubted references to the custom of wearing hair in braids or plaits. A maiden had her hair in four plaits. It is very interesting to compare it with the plaited hair of Yazidis of Iraq.
Kesa / hair is mentioned in the Atharva Veda, Vajasaneyi Samhita and Satapatha Brahmana. In the hymns of Atharva Veda plenty full growth of hair is desired. Cutting and shaving of hair were in vogue. Long hair was regarded womanly. This shows women had long hair. In the Mahabharata Draupadi vowed not to tie her hair until Dusshsana was killed and his blood is smeared in her hair. Women don’t dress their hair when their husbands were away. When a woman was pregnant the ‘seemanta’ ceremony is done and lot of bangles are given to the woman. This seemanta means parting the hair.
Another term for hair style is ‘stuka’ which means a tuft of hair or wool. The word ‘pulastin’ occurs in the sense of ‘wearer of plain hair’ as opposed to ‘kapardin’ ‘ wearer of braided /matted hair. Shiva is called Kapardin due to his long matted hair. Lord Rama’s hair style was described as Kaka Paksha in Ramayana (like the two wings of crow). Locks were known as ‘sikhanda’, parting of hair ‘siman’ and top knot as ‘sikha’. We see top knot in Buddha statues. A sage had the name Pulastya, may be due to his hair style.
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