A red powder used ceremonially and cosmetically, especially by Hindu women to make a small distinctive mark on the forehead.
Example sentencesExamples
- In the busy commercial streets of the city you will find huge pumpkins broken to pieces and scattered on the road, some smeared with kumkum.
- I wore a black shirt and dhoti (a wrap-around waist cloth) and applied sandalwood paste and kumkum (red powder) to my forehead.
- ‘Wearing kumkum or sandalwood paste need not be abandoned,’ they said.
- Women apply kumkum on the foreheads of their sons and husbands and send them to fight battles.