Abir
Encyclopedia
Abir is a dye
Dye
A dye is a colored substance that has an affinity to the substrate to which it is being applied. The dye is generally applied in an aqueous solution, and requires a mordant to improve the fastness of the dye on the fiber....

 common in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

. It is used during the Holi
Holi
Holi , is a religious spring festival celebrated by Hindus. Holi is also known as festival of Colours. It is primarily observed in India, Nepal, Pakistan, and countries with large Indic diaspora populations following Hinduism, such as Suriname, Malaysia, Guyana, South Africa, Trinidad, United...

 festival, which is also called the festival of colour, when people throw this colourful powder at each other. Abir is typically sold in markets prior to the festival.

Abir is available in synthetic or natural form. Its colors are derived from flower extracts, for instance aparajita, marigold
Tagetes
Tagetes is a genus of 56 species of annual and perennial mostly herbaceous plants in the sunflower family . The genus is native to North and South America, but some species have become naturalized around the world. One species, T...

, hibiscus
Hibiscus
Hibiscus is a genus of flowering plants in the mallow family, Malvaceae. It is quite large, containing several hundred species that are native to warm-temperate, subtropical and tropical regions throughout the world...

 and dopati. The dye is sometimes combined with mica powder to create a sparkling effect.
In Arabic, abir refers to perfume and is a female name. Abir is also a male name in Hebrew, meaning "brave".
Abir in Bengali refers to the reddish color of the sky during dusk. In an open sky during sunset the western edge of the sky forms some color between red and pink. Ancient Bengali scholars named this color as Abir. In this region, Abir is mostly used as a male name.

In classical and modern Bengali songs and poems, the word abir is used very commonly and has a very dignified literature value.

External links

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