Kerala towel

 Kerala towel 

A traditional kind of bath towel.

Intentionally woven with coarse/loosely_spun 100% cotton yarn.

Torn but still preferred 😜, instead of a new one .

Best use is when it is carefully "hand-washed". When it is still dazzling white, despite a daily use since 6 months ( doesn't last longer), the health+ spiritual benefits are immense and maximised 🙏

Simple advantage is, it absorbs water very well ( residual moisture at the base of the hair of a densely- haired person's skull, might seep into the skin, and cause common cold, headache etc.).

For the spiritual advantage, i leave it to the readers to deduce it from a silly_question :  a bath towel gets soiled, after using it to wipe off the water after bath. After a bath, we are supposed to be 'clean' 🙏 Then, why should the towel get soiled? It can get wet👍, but why the dirt, needing a washing, instead of just squeeze+dry???

Washing your own towel was an ancient practice. The loose weave helps dislodgement of dirt wedged between the weave of the towel. Ancients were too fussy 😥 ( probably for a spiritual reason) about the uses of this traditional towel 😥 ...  A fresh unstitched bit of this towel is preferred for quenching the soul's thirst for the first ten days after the death of a desi guy! The towel is dipped in a bowl of water, ends gathered and twisted anticlockwise, with the left hand holding the lower end, twisting anticlockwise, to direct the drip on to a piece of rock, into which the departed pret_atma is invoked.  Very sophisticated and not perceivable through the 5 sense organs, to understand and accept the "sense" in doing this 😥...  

Bits of dead skin, sticking to our skin are a bit wet and easier to be 'wiped' off, with a coarse, loosely spun+woven cloth. Hygienic benefit is, pores of the skin open up when cleaned. The sensitivity of the skin at very subtle levels is enhanced by the scrubbing of skin during bath, and the efficacy of this towel during the wiping_dry of skin and head after bath. The freshness of skin and hair enhance the receptivity of our "antenna" if... receptivity seems to really matter when inside a temple 🙏

Kerala temples have "managed" to retain the 'science' in the best benefits of a temple, through its unique "rules" imposed on the visitors of those temples. The taantrik style of propitiation has a significant role in affording a keen visitor, to relate the traditional rituals with tenable and modern scientific way of reasoning 🙏

Clearly yours,

psn(4 june, 2026)