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Abir

Gulal
Holi shop.jpg
Colours for Holi on sale at a market
Type Coloured powder

Gulal (गुलाल), also known as Abir (अबीर), is the traditional name given to the coloured powders used for the typical Hindu rituals, in particular for the Holi festival. During this festival, which celebrates love and equality, people throw these powder solutions at each other while singing and dancing.

A legend narrates that Lord Krishna complained to his mother about the darkness of his skin compared to that of his consort Radha. As a result, Krishna’s mother smeared colours onto Radha’s face. This explains why today Holi is celebrated by throwing colours on people.

In earlier times, Gulal powders were prepared from flowers coming from trees, such as the Indian Coral Tree and the Flame of the Forest, that had medicinal properties, beneficial to the skin. After the advent of synthetic dyes in the middle of 19th century, the disappearance of trees in urban areas and the pursuit of higher profits led to the abandonment of natural colours. The new industrial dyes have been manufactured through chemical processes with non-standard parameters and hence the resulting colours are sometimes toxic for face and skin, causing problems such as eye irritation, allergies, skin infection and asthma. Unsafe products have often been sold on the road by small traders, in boxes with labels saying "for industrial use only".

Recently, the various harmful effects and concerns for the environment (synthetic powders caused temporary wastewater pollution too) generated awareness and encouraged people to celebrate an eco-friendly Holi. For the preparation of Herbal Gulal, lots of safe dyes can be used, such as Turmeric (Curcuma Longa), Indigo (Indigofera) or Annatto (Bixa Orellana), which are all ingredients easily available on the market at moderate prices. For these reasons, is also possible to prepare Gulal at home, as suggested by many websites on the Internet.

In the new natural processes to make Herbal Gulal, no salts of any heavy metal have been used and the combination of ingredients provides a powder having soft and supple touch with good sticking capacities to skin. The production profile of dry colour composition is eco-friendly as no toxic ingredients are released under the preparation. In this way, it has been possible to replace synthetic colours with natural one. Herbal Gulal can be manufactured at higher scale and people who were scared about synthetic powders can now enjoy rituals with no restrictions.


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