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Upanishads · Jābāli 11
॥
Devanāgarī
अथ सनत्कुमारः प्रमाणं पृच्छति । त्रिपुण्ड्रधारणस्य त्रिधः रेखा आललाटादाचक्षुषोराभ्रुवोर्मध्यतश्च
Transliteration (IAST)
atha sanatkumāraḥ pramāṇaṃ pṛcchati | tripuṇḍradhāraṇasya tridhaḥ rekhā ālalāṭādācakṣuṣorābhruvormadhyataśca
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
अथ सनत्कुमारः प्रमाणं पृच्छतिatha sanatkumāraḥ pramāṇaṃ pṛcchatithen Sanatkumāra asks about the measure
त्रि-पुण्ड्र-धारणस्यtri-puṇḍra-dhāraṇasyaof wearing the tripuṇḍra
त्रिधः रेखाःtridhaḥ rekhāḥthe lines are threefold
आ-ललाटात् आ-चक्षुषोःā-lalāṭāt ā-cakṣuṣoḥfrom the forehead to the eyes
आ-भ्रुवोः मध्यतः चā-bhruvoḥ madhyataḥ caand to the middle of the brows
Translation
“Then Sanatkumāra asks about the measure of wearing the tripuṇḍra: the lines are threefold — from the forehead to the eyes, and to the middle of the brows.”
Version
74c2ac75b61a · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
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Note that the question concerns pramāṇa, “measure”: how far the line should run. This detail is common in ritual books, and it is worth saying why it is not trivial. A rite differs from arbitrariness precisely by measure: if everyone draws the line however they wish, the sign stops being a sign and becomes decoration.
Hence one asks: how far, with what, how many fingers’ width. Add, too, what deserves note in the sign itself. The tripuṇḍra is three crosswise lines on the forehead; and its difference from the ūrdhva-puṇḍra, “the vertical line,” was discussed reading Ūrdhvapuṇḍra.
This difference is, in essence, the difference between two confessions, marked upon the face: crosswise — the Śaivas; lengthwise — the Vaiṣṇavas. Let us add what should be said of this difference without hostility. The meaning of the vertical line, given reading Ūrdhvapuṇḍra, is “the footprint”: the line represents the Lord’s footprint upon the forehead, and the gap between its two branches is left empty, for that is where He stands.
The meaning of the crosswise lines is different and is explained in the next three passages: they signify three fires, three sounds, three qualities, three worlds, and three gods. That is, one sign is a footprint, the other an inventory of the world; and this difference is, to my mind, a repetition of what we discussed reading the ninth passage: one remembers where He walked, the other remembers what everything is made of. Sanatkumāra, who asks here, is one of the four Kumāras from whom the kumāra-sampradāya descends; and the four lineages were discussed reading Hayagrīva (2.p1).