My pet peeve with the visual representation of the epics is about the facial hair of the males (we will get to female facial hair later):
- The older generation will have beards, for reasons best known to them
- The generation that is in the thick of action is usually clean-shaven, with a few exceptions:
- The good guys will be clean-shaven or will have a small moustache
- The bad guys and demons will have thick and if possible, matted hair
- When the good guys grow older, there is no visible change and they don’t grow beards as their fathers did
For one, as an arm-chair pogonologist, I doubt if people of those days shaved everyday. Even if they did, they would have had barbers do the job. One might recollect Balarama chiding Krishna for shaving off the locks of Rukmini’s brother, Rukmi, as it was not the job of his community.
I don’t recollect the people who were banished to the forest taking their barber with them. Besides, as strict adherents to dharmic injunctions, it is quite possible that they grew their hair more than they shaved (for example, for a year after their father’s demise, Rama & brothers wouldn’t have shorn). Why am I obsessed with this enough to write a post? It riles me every time I see such a depiction, I may as well let out some steam whether it concerns you or not. Just grin and bear(d) it.
