jewels of the peacock
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s117
Soorma Daan, Awadh, mid 19th Century
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This container is meant to hold 'soorma' a material
similar to kajal used to line eyes as part of make-up.
In an era where verbal communication was negligible, the eyes played a major role in
initiating romantic alliances. Communicating with eyes alone became a highly developed art
and the dance arts of India embody highly developed eye movements.
Enhancing the eyes was an extremely important part of make-up, and soorma was popular
in North-west frontier regions as well as
Mughal dominated India.
This piece is from Awadh India.
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