Untangling Myths

  From violet to red, From white to black, Hinduism attaches a spiritual meaning to almost every spectral color. But one color that is really associated with Hinduism is the orange or saffron color. Whether it is the orange flag adorning most temples in India or the bright orange color of fire in the Yagyas, orange color has a special significance in Hinduism. Even our monks or sanyasis wear orange robes because it represents fire and therefore purity; impurities are burned in the fire. But this wasn’t always the case. Earlier monks used to wear clothes, colored with the soil (red earth) found near the anthills which almost resemble the orange color. Because there was a tradition in India of going and meditating near anthills and by coloring your robes with that particular soil is to remind yourself that your physical self is just an outcrop of the land that you walk upon. Another aspect of wearing clothes that are washed in the soil is because it is the best way to make the...