Is The Indian obsession with fair skin , a recent Phenomenon?
India’s History with Fair skin. Were Indians always Obsessed with fair skin as is seen today? We are defenetly obsessed today ,because ‘Fairness cream’ market is a Rs 5000 Crore annual industry. Lets go a little back...a few centuries back...Marco Polo( heard of this famous traveler , right?) writes in his travelogue the following on Indians- “ The Children who are not very dark are rubbed with sesame oil to get a perfect Black shade. Thier Gods are painted black in colour and the demons white.” Marco polo travelled the world between 1271 to 1295. Looking into some our ancient texts: Brihadaranyaka Upanishad( around 6 th century) says “To beget a son with dark skin and reddish eyes, you need a greater ritual than one required for a fair skinned son “...so the desire was for dark skinned children.. Even Today, many of us refer to a handsome man as “Manmatha”, isn't it? The Book “Srikhnathacharitam” written By Mankha of Kashmir during the 12 th century, describes Manmantha as ...