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 6th 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 12th century, describes Manmantha as a “epitome of male beauty who had dark skin”....Imagine : a kashmiri saying dark skinned man is considered more handsome.

The Book “Brihatkathaamanjari” ( 4th century) by Kshemendra has a effervescent praise for the dark skin colour. “A dark Brahmin lady bathing in the Ganga is described as being as beautiful as the confluence of the Ganga and the Yamuna”
 
 “Krishna” itself meant Dark colour.

For that matter Draupadi also was dark and was considered most beautiful.
SriRama too.
Infact Ravana is  described as fair in colour.

This obsession with fair colour slowly started once the central Asian invaders came to india, the British made it worst....bieng under invasion by the “fair skinned” probably ,gave us a inferior complex of bieng dark...ever since then, the Obsession to be “Fair skinned” has remained...no wonder Indians are spending more than Rs 5000 every year to get a “fair skin”