hair's colour in sanskrit

[Lars Martin Fosse]

At 18:59 9.05.97 BST, you wrote:
>JAYABARATHI <jaybee at tm.net.my> wrote:
>>[...] 	In the same source , Indra was described as having stout
>> 	neck, very muscular body and yellow hair and whiskers and beard.
>
>I thought that everything connected to Indra was supposed to be
>reddish.

The red colour mentioned in connection with Indra could also be due to the
fact that red is the colour of the second estate (or varna). White should be
the colour that belongs to the brahmins and black the colour that belongs to
the vish. 

>There is wide variation in the location of color boundaries among
>cultures. I suspect that the boundaries may also drift over time.
>Given this, how sure are we about the precise meaning of color terms
>in the Vedas? For example, `hari' is supposed to mean tawny, yellow
>and green! 

There is a similar problem with Greek colours. The only way to know, is when
colour terms are referred to natural phenomena that haven't changed since
ancient times. E.g. white may be referred to the egg of a hen, red to a
given kind of red berries, brown to soil etc. 

Best regards,

Lars Martin Fosse
Dr.art. Lars Martin Fosse
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0674 Oslo

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