Sindoor is a traditional red or orange-red colored cosmetic

Cosmetics

Cosmetics are substances used to enhance the appearance or odor of the human body. Cosmetics include skin-care creams, lotions, powders, perfumes, lipsticks, fingernail and toe nail polish, eye and facial makeup, towelettes, permanent waves, colored contact lenses, hair colors, hair sprays and...

 powder

Powder

Powder may refer to:*Powder , material composed of very fine particles that are not cemented together* Powder , a 1995 film* Powder , a mid-1990s Britpop band* Powder blue, a color...

 from the Indian subcontinent

Indian subcontinent

The Indian subcontinent, also Indian Subcontinent, Indo-Pak Subcontinent or South Asian Subcontinent is a region of the Asian continent on the Indian tectonic plate from the Hindu Kush or Hindu Koh, Himalayas and including the Kuen Lun and Karakoram ranges, forming a land mass which extends...

, usually worn by married

Marriage

Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...

 women along the parting of their hair. Usage of sindoor denotes that a woman is married in many Hindu

Hindu

Hindu refers to an identity associated with the philosophical, religious and cultural systems that are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. As used in the Constitution of India, the word "Hindu" is also attributed to all persons professing any Indian religion...

 communities, and ceasing to wear it usually implies widowhood. The main component of traditional sindoor is usually vermilion

Vermilion

Vermilion is an opaque orangish red pigment, similar to scarlet. As a naturally occurring mineral pigment, it is known as cinnabar, and was in use around the world before the Common Era began. Most naturally produced vermilion comes from cinnabar mined in China, and vermilion is nowadays commonly...

.

Sindoor is traditionally applied at the beginning or completely along the parting-line of a woman’s hair (also called mang) or as a dot on the forehead. Sindoor is the mark of a married woman in Hinduism

Hinduism

Hinduism is the predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian Subcontinent. Hinduism is known to its followers as , amongst many other expressions...

. Single women wear the dot in different colors ("bindi

Bindi (decoration)

A bindi is a forehead decoration worn in South Asia . and Southeast Asia...

" in Hindi

Hindi

Standard Hindi, or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi, also known as Manak Hindi , High Hindi, Nagari Hindi, and Literary Hindi, is a standardized and sanskritized register of the Hindustani language derived from the Khariboli dialect of Delhi...

) but do not apply sindoor in their mang. Hindu widows do not wear the sindoor, signifying that their husband is no longer alive. A version used in Hindu rituals or puja is known as Kumkum

Kumkum

Kumkum , is a powder used for social and religious markings in Hinduism. It is either made from turmeric or saffron...

. This also lends itself to the name of a wedding ritual

Hindu wedding

Hindu wedding is thought to be the bringing of two people who are said to be compatible. Hindu wedding ceremonies are traditionally conducted at least partially in Sanskrit, the language of most holy Hindu ceremonies. The local language of the people involved is also used since most Hindus do not...

 in some Hindu communities, known as 'Haldi

Haldi

Haldi may refer to:* Haldi Hindi/Punjabi/Urdu/Gujarati name for the spice turmeric* Haldi River, a West Bengal river* Ḫaldi, an Urartian god* Haldi, Estonia, village in Estonia* Haldi, a Swiss family name, originally from the Saanen region...

-Kumkum

Kumkum

Kumkum , is a powder used for social and religious markings in Hinduism. It is either made from turmeric or saffron...

'.
The sindoor is first applied to the woman by her husband on the day of her wedding. After this time she must apply this every day herself in the parting of her hairline.

The wiping off of the sindoor is very significant for a widow. There are many rituals associated with this practice. The most common being the mother-law or older sister-law wiping off the sindoor when the woman becomes a widow. The widow will break her bangles and remove her bindi as well. Many Hindu women will also remove their nose ring and toe rings as well.
The parting of hair is symbolic of river of red blood full of life. When the sindoor is removed then the river becomes barren, dry and empty.
This custom is prevalent in rural areas and is followed by all castes and social ranks.
The red sindoor is significant for the married woman as she full of colour, when she becomes a widow she adopts the white dress and removes all colour from her face including the bright red sindoor.

Methods and styles of applying the sindoor vary from personal choice to regional customs. many new brides will fill the whole hair line with sindoor, while other married women may just apply a red dot at the end of the hair line and forehead. Recently a triangle shape on the forehead pointing to the nose has beome popular added with a diamond bindi for fashion is being worn by younger women.

Hinduism

Female figurines excavated at Mehrgarh, Baluchistan seem to imply application of sindoor to the partition of women's hair in Harappa culture. According to the Legends, Radha the consort of Lord Krishna turned the kumkum into a flame- like design on her forehead. In the famous epic Mahabharata

Mahabharata

The Mahabharata is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India and Nepal, the other being the Ramayana. The epic is part of itihasa....

, Draupadi the wife of the Pandavas wipes off her sindoor in disgust and despair at the happenings in Hastinapur. Use of Sindoor is very widely mentioned in The Puranas

Puranas

The Puranas are a genre of important Hindu, Jain and Buddhist religious texts, notably consisting of narratives of the history of the universe from creation to destruction, genealogies of kings, heroes, sages, and demigods, and descriptions of Hindu cosmology, philosophy, and geography.Puranas...

, Lalitha Sahasranama and Soundarya Lahari.

Jain women also apply the sindoor mostly in the cities. Jain nuns are forbidden to apply this in their hair line or foreheads.

Sindoor expresses a woman's desire for sex. A woman's initial experience with sex is during her marriage ceremonies. The display of the sindoor is also considered very important to indicate the married statues of the groom whereas in several local cultures, sindoor is applied on their hair partings by unmarried women.

Adi Sankaracharya writes in Soundarya Lahari

Tanothu kshemam nas tava vadhana-saundarya lahari.
Parivaha-sthrotah-saraniriva seemantha-saranih.
Vahanti sinduram prabala-kabari-bhara-thimira-.
Dvisham brindair bandi-krtham iva navin'arka kiranam.

(Oh mother, let the line parting thine hairs,
which looks like a canal,
through which the rushing waves of your beauty ebbs,
and which on both sides imprisons,
your Vermillion , which is like a rising sun,
by using your hair which is dark like
the platoon of soldiers of the enemy,
protect us and give us peace.)
Application of sindoor is essentially a Hindu tradition. In the 19th century, Sufi leader Sharafuddin Maneri encouraged Muslim women to apply sindoor in Bangladesh was severely condemned by reformist movements.

In popular culture

There are many Indian movies and dramas involving sindoor — Sindoor Tere Naam Ka and the movie Sindoor released in 1987 — with their themes revolving around the ritual's significance.

Composition and toxicity concerns

Modern sindoor mainly uses vermilion, which is an orange-red pigment. Vermilion is the purified and powdered form of cinnabar

Cinnabar

Cinnabar or cinnabarite , is the common ore of mercury.-Word origin:The name comes from κινναβαρι , a Greek word most likely applied by Theophrastus to several distinct substances...

, which is the chief form in which mercury sulfide

Mercury sulfide

Mercury sulfide, mercuric sulfide, or mercury sulfide is a chemical compound composed of the chemical elements mercury and sulfur. It is represented by the chemical formula HgS...

 naturally occurs. As with other compounds of mercury, sindoor is toxic and must be handled carefully. Sometimes, red lead (lead tetroxide, also known as minium) is also added to sindoor. Red lead is also toxic and a known carcinogen for laboratory animals pee of elephants and cows etc which are dried with the means of scientific method.....dried to form powder, though its carcinogenicity to humans has not been established. Traditional sindoor was made with turmeric

Turmeric

Turmeric is a rhizomatous herbaceous perennial plant of the ginger family, Zingiberaceae. It is native to tropical South Asia and needs temperatures between 20 °C and 30 °C and a considerable amount of annual rainfall to thrive...

 and alum

Alum

Alum is both a specific chemical compound and a class of chemical compounds. The specific compound is the hydrated potassium aluminium sulfate with the formula KAl2.12H2O. The wider class of compounds known as alums have the related empirical formula, AB2.12H2O.-Chemical properties:Alums are...

 or lime

Calcium oxide

Calcium oxide , commonly known as quicklime or burnt lime, is a widely used chemical compound. It is a white, caustic, alkaline crystalline solid at room temperature....

, or from other herbal ingredients. Unlike red lead and vermilion, these are not poisonous. In early 2008, allegations of high lead content led the U.S. Food and Drug Administration

Food and Drug Administration

The Food and Drug Administration is an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, one of the United States federal executive departments...

to recall batches of Sindoor from several manufacturers.