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Handbook of Tibetan Buddhis#133 9/1/10 11:34 AM Page 25

The Eight Auspicious Substances 25

and for a variety of other religious purposes bereaved mother to obtain some mustard
and rituals. Along with turmeric or yellow seed from a house in which no one had died.
saffron (Skt. kumkum), red sandalwood Every householder possessed mustard seed,
(Skt. chandan), and white ash (Skt. vibhuti) but none had been spared the grief of be-
made from burnt cow dung, sindura is used reavement, and as she listened to their har-
to apply the sacred marks or tilaka to the rowing stories the woman’s own distress
foreheads of devout Hindus. Traditionally a came to be alleviated.
circular red dot or tilaka of sindura on the Mustard seed was cultivated to produce
forehead of a married woman indicates that oil for cooking and for fuelling oil lamps. It
her husband is still alive and that she is not occurs in two varieties, white mustard (Tib.
a widow. Such a mark provides an impor- yungs-dkar), and black mustard (Tib. yungs-
tant visual statement in the social order of nag). In ancient India mustard seed was con-
orthodox Hindu society. The marking of the sidered as a magical substance that could
forehead or other parts of the body dates help counteract all hindrances and inauspi-
back to the Vedic period, and elaborate sys- cious turns of fate. This common belief is re-
tems of caste and sect marks have developed vealed in the Buddha’s advice to the mother
over the course of time. The marking or who wanted her baby to be brought back to
‘sealing’ with a tilaka is one of the meanings life. Mustard seed was one of the sacrificial
of the Sanskrit term mudra. ingredients offered to Agni, the Vedic fire-
Vermilion powder was certainly of great god, during the sacred fire ritual or homa,
ritual significance during Buddha’s time. Its where its function was to remove all inauspi-
red color symbolizes power, especially the cious hindrances. In both the Hindu and
magnetizing power of love and desire, per- Buddhist tantric traditions it was considered
sonified as menstrual blood. In Vajrayana to be a wrathful substance that could be used
Buddhism the color red is assigned to certain in destructive rites against all negativities,
subjugating and fertility goddesses, such as which arise in the form of obstructive
Red Kurukulla, Lakshmi, and Vasudhara. demons. Mustard seed may be empowered
Vermilion powder is used in the creation of with mantras of exorcism, and then burned
sand mandalas, and as a pigment in the dec- or cast away to annihilate ghosts or malig-
oration of many secular and religious arti- nant spirits. A certain form of spirit that
facts. In Chinese symbolism vermilion and possesses young children is known as a sar-
gold are regarded as the two harmonious shaparuna, or ‘red mustard’ demon, referring
colors of joy and prosperity. perhaps to scarlet fever. Mustard seed is one
of the main ‘magical ingredients’ (Tib. thun)
used in ritual weapons against harmful
THE MUSTARD SEED
(Skt. sarshapa; Tib. yungs-’bru)

The wrathful form of Vajrapani, the Bod-
hisattva of power, was said to have offered
mustard seed to the Buddha. Mustard seed
was a common household commodity at the
time of the Buddha, as illustrated by his
parable of asking a distressed and recently The mustard seed.