With the swamp of new trends like tongue and navel piercing making the parents and grandparents long for the good old days, it might be difficult to remember that body piercing has been a long standing tradition in India, closely interwoven with the culture ethos of the country. Children as young as seven months old getting their ears pierced in a special ceremony and one cannot help but wonder why. A quick chat with an acharya, reveals several reasons behind this ceremonial piercing that is done for both boys and girls.
“The shastras say that the ear can tell you everything about one’s body. Piercing the ears will help you know what ails the baby. The pressure of piercing also relieves certain aches and pains. This is what the Chinese call acupuncture,” claims Balaramacharya, who has been officiating at ceremonies for more than three decades.
At a traditional ceremony, the baby is sat upon his/her uncle’s lap and then the piercing is done with a 6 mm piercing needle made of brass. The piercing needle is inserted into the earring’s stem so that when the ear is pierced, the needle can be taken out easily why the earring remains in the newly made hole. But the traditional method of piercing the ear seems to be falling out of favour, with more and more people preferring the ‘gunshot’ method.
“In the gunshot method, there’s a piercing gun which finishes the work in seconds – no pain, no mess. Traditional piercing takes time and needs to be very precise too,” says H Kanagasabapathy, who has been making piercing needles for close to 60 years. “But the only drawback with gunshots is that you can’t use gold as the metal cannot withstand the pressure. With gold prices going up, this has just become more convenient,” he laments.