Romance of baths and bathers

Down the ages,bathing had come to acquire different meanings to many peoples of many lands. History’s dim past reveals that the old world, with the exception of India, Greece, Rome and Egypt, hardly knew what a bath was. In fact, some early societies considered not bathing as manly. Roshni Johar explores the significance of bathing in different cultures.

JUST imagine if you were Cleopatra, the Queen of Egypt. You would immerse your royal self in fresh juices extracted from the most luscious strawberries and raspberries and then linger on in asses’ milk poured from sealed jars.....to step onto a carpet of rose petals and be dabbed by finest muslins by your maidens, some fanning feathers dipped in oriental perfumes to cool your velvety and glowing self in scented breeze..... No wonder such a bath ritual made Cleopatra so beautiful as to entice Julius Caesar and Mark Antony.

In Paris today exclusive beauty salons provide the ultimate in sheer luxury baths namely the exorbitantly-priced Cleopatra bath, consisting of relaxing in steaming fragrant bath with primarily a scrub of full cream milk powder, starch and oatmeal — complete with the works.

Down the ages,bathing had come to acquire different meanings to many peoples of many lands. History’s dim past reveals that the old world hardly knew what a bath was, with the exception of India, Greece, Rome and Egypt. In fact, some early societies considered not to bathe as manly.

In Indian culture, since times immemorial, bathing is not just an act of cleanliness but a pious ritual, being taken essentially daily (sometimes more than once) as well as on ceremonial occasions like marriages, coronations, visits to holy places and even when one dies i.e. before cremation, whether the dips in water are near a well or the banks of pools, rivers, seas or today in the privacy of one’s bathroom.

Excavations at Indus Valley civilisations Mohenjo Daro have unearthed a 2500 BC well planned public bath with a highly developed drainage system, used probably for purification purposes. Even in Egypt, priests used to dip themselves in the waters of the Nile to "free themselves from sin."

Early Romans worshipped Stercutius, the God of Odour and Cloacina, the Goddess of Sewers. The Romans had taken the bathing culture to extreme having built in 217 AD a public bath on an artificial platform 20 feet in height and covering an area of 28 acres where 2,500 persons could bathe simultaneously. These "thermac" baths included water games, anointment, sweatacts, stewing, bathing with hot, tepid and cold water, scrapping of grime specially for warriors, comforting sponging and a final plunge in the cold waters of frigidarium.The Roman baths even had a library. In fact the baths had come a rendezvous for social meetings.

However, with the decline of Roman culture, the bathing culture also faded away. Some historians feel that the downfall of Rome was because the Romans spent too much time in their baths! The Italians too had community baths where 18,000 persons could participate in this activity.

Pythagoras (550-500 BC) had advised bathing 70 times in asses’ milk after an olive oil massage for a smooth healthy skin. Papia, Nero’s spouse was a regular taker of such baths.

Diognes (412-322) another celebrated Greek philosopher lived in a bath tub eating only cabbages and drinking water cupped in his hands till he died at the age of 90. Archimedes (287-212 BC) mathematician and philosopher, is said to have jumped out of his bath shouting the famous"Eureka"! when he suddenly hit upon the principle of water buoyancy and floatation.

The Jews considered bathing as one of the most sacred religious rites,bathing in running hot and cold water apart from rubbing themselves with oils and ointments.

As opposed to this, the early Church had frowned upon the practice of bathing. Perhaps the philosophy of dirtiness next to holiness was panic reaction to the Romans’ zeal for bathing.

St. Jerome had warned his devotees to be beware of bathing. St. Gregory was lenient enough to permit baths only on Sundays.

British social history reveals how the English were averse to taking "the accursed thing" called a bath. The Victorian nobility was simply contemptuously horrified with the mere thought of a daily bath — a sacrilege indeed — and instead would gladly commit suicide than rather wash their dirty bodies. This is why the English used perfumes and pomades — to mask the unpleasant odour of their dirty physiques. How they loathed bathing is evident from some of these examples.

Peter the Hermit, the leader of the First Crusade took pride in the fact that"no water had ever touched his body for 40 years."

Henry-IV had proclaim-ed,"Knights and nobles who had been conferred state honour should take bath at least once in their lifetime."

Queen Elizabeth-I bathed only once a month as compared to King John who bathed once in three months.

Not to be outdone, the Queen of Spain Isabella bathed only twice in her life time — once when she was born and the other when she got married.

Louis. XII broke her record by bathing only once in his lifetime, which he regretted. He blamed his bathe for his nervous breakdown and so imposed a ban on bathing.

However, it was Eleanot of Castle, who officially introduced baths in England (though how many actually took it, is doubtful). In 1127, six commoners were Knighted after being given a ceremonial bath during initiation ceremony. They were called the knights of the Bath, perhaps it being the origin of this order of chivalry.

Surprisingly, the French Palace of Versailles built in 1600s to house the French royal family in addition to 1,000 noblemen and 4,000 servants, did not contain a single bathroom. Even Queen Victoria’s palace did not have a proper bathroom.

Interestingly, Napoleon Bonaparte is said to have gifted a bath tub to Josephine! If you were an American living in Massachusetts in 1883, you would be required to produce a doctor’s certificate pronouncing you fit enough to take an immersion. In some American states it was a penal offence to take bath more than once a month. An extra tax of $20 per bath was also levied.

George Vanderbilt built the first bath tub for the White House in Washington. In Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia, both baths and bath tubs were rationed.

The Laplanders still follow an old custom called Daubsfest, a remnant of a ceremonial annual bath taken in January, wherein a large hole is cut into ice where men and women stand around it and each one ducked into it turn by turn.The Norwegians’ bath was cleaning one’s body with twigs and snow.

It was the shortage of water which made the Arabs and the Turks take to sand baths, though some preferred rubbing oneself with handfuls of ash. Later Turkish baths or Hamams were introduced for having a hot steam bath and massage. These were patronised by the upper classes.

Turning towards the East, the Burmese Kachins bathe only thrice in their life — at birth, at marriage and at death.

The Japanese who were earlier averse to baths, had by the 13th century, taken to ritualistic community bathing, being massaged by quaint Geishas. Today herbal, mud and mineral baths have sprung up providing treatment for various ailments like arthritis and skin diseases.

The modern hi-tech baths are a different story altogether with interior decorators specialising in bath decors including tiles, fittings and objects d’art to match or contrast, with sunken or raised tubs and fancy musical showers — the baths being your hideout where you can read, watch TV, gossip on the cordless, munch peanuts and lick ice-cream.