PARAKUNNATH SREE VETTAKKORUMAKAN PAYYAN KSHETHRAM (TEMPLE), AROLI, KANNUR, KERALA: Vedic scriptures provide the earliest known written evidence of dreadlocks

Friday, 3 March 2017

Vedic scriptures provide the earliest known written evidence of dreadlocks

Vedic scriptures provide the earliest known written evidence of dreadlocks. Their exact date of origin is still in dispute, ranging from 2500 and 500 BCE. The dreadlocked Shiva and his followers were described in the Vedic scriptures as "Jataa", meaning "wearing twisted locks of hair", most likely derived from the Dravidian word "catai", which means to twist or to wrap. According to Roman accounts of the time which can be found in the writings of Julis Caesar himself (the Celts wore dreadlocks as well), describing them as having "hair like snakes".

The word describing them is jata, within the Sanskrit-English dictionary to mean: "wearing twisted locks of hair" and "the hair twisted together (as worn by ascetics, Shiva, and persons in mourning)" and a contemporary Hindi dictionary translates it as "matted hair".

At the stage of renunciation in the life of the Buddha, he was said to have lived on a few hemp seeds a day and allowed his hair to grow long and lock up. Dreadlocks in India are reserved nearly exclusively for holy people as well as shamans in many of the ethnic groups that still maintain such practices. According to the 'Hymn of the longhaired sage' in the ancient Vedas, long jatas express a spiritual significance which implies the wearer has special relations with spirits, is an immortal traveller between two worlds and the master over fire ;

“The long-haired one endures fire, the long-haired one endures poison, the long-haired one endures both worlds. The long-haired one is said to gaze full on heaven, the long-haired one is said to be that light ... Of us, you mortals, only our bodies do you behold. ...For him has the Lord of life churned and pounded the unbendable, when the long-haired one, in Rudra's company, drank from the poison cup (The Keshin Hymn, Rig-veda 10.136)”

Shiva is always shown with a mass of dreadlocks twisted on top of his head, and the followers of Shiva are described as wearing twisted locks of hair as well. ~ “Shiva takes the weight of the mighty Ganges in his locks and imprisons her. She is released through the locks of his hair, which prevents the river's force from destroying earth, and the waters bring purification to the planet.” The Shaiva Nagas, ascetics of India, wear their jata (long hair) in a twisted knot or bundle on top of the head and let them down only for special occasions and rituals.!