India via Brazil
Hair color product for women, as seen on Whole Foods shelf :
A google search shows that Surya Brasil is a company from Brazil. It was baffling at first, this journey of henna and the mythological imagery (invoking possibly Vishwamitra and Menaka) ending in US via Brazil. A little digging led me to this:
“I was born and raised in Brazil but my heritage is equal parts Italian and Indian and it was my family who showed me how to take care of myself and use the best of what nature provides,” - Wanda Malhotra, one of the founders of Surya Brasil.
There is of course the usual calling on the Ayurveda. I am really tired of people name dropping Ayurveda for anything and everything. Ayurveda is a nuanced and well developed medicinal system with its own pharmacopeia. Your grandma's home remedy is not Ayurved. Just like your knowledge of how to use aspirin does not make you a doctor.
Coming back to the visual itself. I see the sage Vishwamitra and Menaka in the image. Although a lot of hair on the sage, the product is meant for women. (The website has a different product line for men.) May be women who want to seduce unavailable or difficult to get men?
The image reminds me of Raja Ravi Varma's paintings of mythological figures in Marathi or south Indian garb made popular by the lithographic prints to the point where you can find these styles of images on calendars in tea shops and sugarcane juice stalls in Maharashtra.
I wonder what was the motivation of the company when they used the image and what non-Indians seeing this on the shelf in Whole Foods think of it. Probably invoking the natural, the ancient, and the exotic?
A google search shows that Surya Brasil is a company from Brazil. It was baffling at first, this journey of henna and the mythological imagery (invoking possibly Vishwamitra and Menaka) ending in US via Brazil. A little digging led me to this:
“I was born and raised in Brazil but my heritage is equal parts Italian and Indian and it was my family who showed me how to take care of myself and use the best of what nature provides,” - Wanda Malhotra, one of the founders of Surya Brasil.
There is of course the usual calling on the Ayurveda. I am really tired of people name dropping Ayurveda for anything and everything. Ayurveda is a nuanced and well developed medicinal system with its own pharmacopeia. Your grandma's home remedy is not Ayurved. Just like your knowledge of how to use aspirin does not make you a doctor.
Coming back to the visual itself. I see the sage Vishwamitra and Menaka in the image. Although a lot of hair on the sage, the product is meant for women. (The website has a different product line for men.) May be women who want to seduce unavailable or difficult to get men?
The image reminds me of Raja Ravi Varma's paintings of mythological figures in Marathi or south Indian garb made popular by the lithographic prints to the point where you can find these styles of images on calendars in tea shops and sugarcane juice stalls in Maharashtra.
I wonder what was the motivation of the company when they used the image and what non-Indians seeing this on the shelf in Whole Foods think of it. Probably invoking the natural, the ancient, and the exotic?
