REMOVING SKIN BLEMISHES PLACED ON WOMEN BY DEMONS
From the Atharvaveda, one of the oldest Vedic scriptures of Hinduism, circa 1400 BCE, we get a demon-placating spell to remove zits from women so that they will be found attractive and marriageable to men: Some atharvanic charms were designed to enhance the physical attractions of women. One of the most important is the removal of blemishes on the skin, regarded as the work of demons, some of whom were named. Several divinities were invoked for aid, including Savitar, Varuna, Mitra, Aryaman, each being assigned to remove particular unsightly marks. The goddess Anumati (the personification of divine favour) is especially invoked since women's happiness was her motive in creating them. (Atharaveda I.18). To remove blemishes, the ritual prescribes sprinkling the woman's face with water, the purifier par excellence, followed by an offering of chaff from a vessel of palasa wood, the residue being poured on the ground to placate the raksasas and other demons responsible for the blemishes. Then more chaff, wood shavings, and other worthless material are placed on her left foot (the left in ritual and folklore always being the inauspicious side). The worthless materials represent the blemishes, which are then symbolically washed off the woman. Each person is said to be born with 101 marks on the body, some auspicious and some not. Eye-brows which meet were deemed especially unlucky.
