Results of the International Bindi & Tilak Day Verse Contest, Oct. 15, 2024

Oct 15, 2024

So, the day has arrived and the results that we’ve been waiting for!. Here is the list of prize winners, along with their entries.

Sanskrit

ममपरिचयदायी संप्रदायप्रदर्शी

प्रकटयति च धर्माचारचारित्वमद्धा

सुलभतम उपायो रम्यवक्त्राय नूनं

खलु मुखतिलकोऽयं हि प्रियाभूषणं मे

- Sree Vidhya Chillara, Bangalore, 1st Prize

त्रिलोहं त्रिकोणम् त्रिबिन्दुं

त्रिकालमवाप्य भवते |

मङ्गलं परमं ह्यतद्

बिन्दुर्भूयहृदयं मम ||

- Navaneet R, Bangalore, 2nd Prize

Hindi

नवोदित सूर्य विराजे जैसे, विस्तृत नभ विशाल पर।

आभा दमके रक्तिम बिंदु की, तेजस्वी भाल पर।

देवों का आशीर्वाद है, श्रृंगार नहीं अधिकार है।

सिंचित‌ पूर्वजों के रक्त से, अस्तित्व का‌ आधार है।

- Ankita Priyadarshini, Gurgaon, 1st Prize

Ajna chakra jis se jagrit ho,

Bhav jis se shuddh rahe

Sanskriti aur isht ka prateek,

Tilak mera harshit kare.

- Anushree, Dharwad, 2nd prize

Kannada

ಭುವಿಗೆ ಬಿಂದಿಯಂತೆ ಸೂರ್ಯ ಚಂದ್ರರು

ರಾಷ್ಟ್ರ ಧ್ವಜಕೆ ಬಿಂದಿಯಂತೆ ಅಶೋಕ ಚಕ್ರವು

ಹಿಂದೂವಿನ ಬಿಂದಿಯೇ ಹಣೆಯ ಕುಂಕುಮ

ಕೇಶವನ ಪಾದವು ಶ್ರೀಗಂಧದ ತಿಲಕವು

- Sai Rama A V, Bangalore, 1st Prize

Marathi

सनातनी भालावरती

तिलक आम्ही मिरवितो

धर्माच्या शत्रूच्या उरात

धडकी आम्ही भरवितो

- Shrikrishna Umrikar, Parbhani, 1st Prize

Oriya

ଲଲାଟରେ ମାରି ତିଲକ ଚନ୍ଦନ

ଗର୍ବରେ କୁହ ମୁଁ ସନାତନୀ,

କେବଳ ସନାତନ ଧର୍ମେ ବିଶ୍ବାସ କରେ

ଖାଣ୍ଟି ହିନ୍ଦୁ ମୁଁ ଭାରି ସ୍ବାଭିମାନୀ।

- Aparna Singha, Mayurbhanj, 1st Prize

Telugu

బొట్టులో కనిపించే ఆ భక్తి, మన ఆత్మిక అనుబంధం

తిలకంలో ప్రతిబింబించే ఆ శక్తి, మన ధర్మం పటిష్ఠం.

ఇవి కేవలం అలంకారాలు కాదు, మన జీవన విధానానికి మూలాలు

ప్రతి పూజలో, ప్రతి ఉత్సవంలో, వీటితోనే పరిపూర్ణత.

- Pratyusha Polepeddi, West Godavari, 1st Prize

Dogri

एह् बिंदु , इक नशान नेईं मेरे सनातनी अस्तित्व दा मान ते सम्मान ऐ।

आऊं डुग्गर दी समृद्ध बरासत दी अभिमानी पौंगर आं

एह् मेरे हिंदू ते सनातनी होने दा साक्ष्य एह्।

- Neha Sharma, New Delhi, 1st Prize

Tamil

என்னுடைய திலகம் என் இரத்தம், என் அடையாளம்!

என்னுடைய திலகம் ஒரு நெருப்பு, ஒரு அங்கீகாரம்!

என்னை அழகு படுத்தும் ஒரு கருவி

கட்டுப்படுத்தும் சங்கிலி,

மேம்படுத்தும் இறையருள்

என் நெற்றியில் ஜொலிக்கும் ஒரு பவழம்

என்றென்றும் போற்றுவேன் என் திலகமே!

- Mahalakshmi Radhakrishnan, Thiruvananthapuram, 1st Prize

Malayalam

ആദിപരാശക്തി ബിന്ദു രൂപമേ ആജ്ഞാചക്ര ധാരണേ

ദേവി തത്വ പ്രതീകമേ സ്ഥൂല സൂക്ഷ്മ ബിന്ദു രൂപമെ

എൻ ശക്തിയെ എൻ അഭിമാനമെ, എൻ്റെ തിലകമേ

നീയെൻ ധർമ്മ പ്രതീകമേ ..

- Shiji Maroli, Bangalore, 1st Prize

and finally in

English

A dot of strength on my brow, so bright,

A symbol of wisdom, grace, and light.

It holds my culture, my roots so deep,

In its small circle, my pride I keep.

- Smitha Virupaksha, Bangalore, 1st Prize

My face, my identity is incomplete without my Bindi,

My mum, my Nani, Dadi all adorned the beautiful Bindi,

My heroines, Lakshmibai, Ahilyabai went to battle protected by the Bindi,

My privilege, My heritage, My Hinduness, that is My BINDI

- Dr. Harsha Jani, London, 2nd Prize

Let everyone see your selfie shot, With Pottu, Bindi, Tilakam or Dot!

Wear it with a passion in every stride, Make it a fashion to be tried!!

To uphold, adorn this sacred Marma,

Is our Karma, and our Dharma!!

- Mala Sridhar, Bangalore, 3rd Prize

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL THE PRIZE WINNERS!!

The other participants were also awesome but in a contest there are some winners. So, we request that all the others who participated not be disheartened. At the end of the day, all we want is that Hindus should start flaunting their bindis/tilaks with pride. And these are just fun activities to encourage bindi/tilak wearing.

Thank you everyone for your participation and until the next edition of IBTD in 2025, keep wearing your bindis/tilaks and proudly proclaim you are Hindu!

Once again, wishing everyone a very Happy International Bindi and Tilak Day 2024!!

Background

This is the 4th edition of this worldwide celebration by Hindus. International Bindi and Tilak Day (IBTD) was started by Hinduism Worldwide Inc in 2021 with support from other Hindu diaspora organizations. We at Hindu Parenting were contacted by Kartik Subramaniam ji from this diaspora collective in 2023 to ask if we would like to be associated with the initiative. We immediately saw value in this initiative because as Hindus we are seeing the decline in public display of the bindi/tilak by Hindus worldwide and especially so in India. Hence, we joined the initiative last year and did a podcast with the founders of this movement. The podcast can be accessed here.

We believe certainly that the bindi/tilak are sure shot markers of our Hindu identity and that they should be worn as everyday adornments, but we also realize that practically we need to start by reclaiming these symbols through a tokenism because they have all but vanished from our Hindu foreheads especially in the urban space. We hope that this movement will see more adoption of these markers as something to be proud of.

The date of October 15th was adopted because it was the day of Vijayadashami in the year when the initiative was born i.e 2021. The spirit was that of Vijayadashami but it was felt that fixing a date that is not changing every year, is more suitable in this modern age to make things predictable and steady for everyone. This was our nod to the Gregorian system of time keeping and therefore October 15th every year became the day for celebrating International Bindi and Tilak Day.

We also acknowledge the role played by the Shefali Vaidya driven #NoBindiNoBusiness movement that forced some of our commercial brands to bring back the bindi into their ads. While this movement is laudable and was one where we could see impact, we also feel that the bindi and tilak need to be promoted in whatever ways possible to make it cool to wear them again. Hence, our continuing support to this IBTD initiative.

This year, for the fourth edition of this initiative, we at Hindu Parenting spoke to Dr. Bharath Srinivasan who helped delve a little deeper into the reasons for why we wear a bindi/tilak. We really understood from his very profound explanations that the bindi/tilak on our forehead is not just an arbitrary adornment and that it has a very deep significance in our culture. The podcast can be accessed here.

Apart from the podcast, we also ran a contest. We had asked our listeners and supporters to send in 4 line verses on the theme My Bindi My Pride or My Tilak My Pride; and we have been overwhelmed by the response we have received. We also encouraged participation in regional languages and we are so happy and gratified to see that we have got entries for the contest in Sanskrit, Hindi, Kannada, Marathi, Dogri, Telugu, Oriya, Tamil and Malayalam apart from English.

It was a fun contest and we've had the greatest time reading the entries. We had a joint panel looking at the entries and just because a contest format demands that some be declared winners, we decided we will announce winners too. Initially, the thought was to limit ourselves to announcing just two or three winners, but when we began to get entries, we found that it is nearly impossible to judge entries on a common criteria. Our regional languages have a beauty of their own and it was simply jarring to compare and judge an English entry with a regional language entry. We therefore decided that we will judge entries language wise. We didn't know how we were going to give prizes for we are just such a small initiative running purely on our enthusiasm and love for Hindu culture. Our initial thought was that we will just feature the entries on our platform but we realized that the universe conspires to help us when the intent is right.

Along the way, we got the support of one of our well wishers who came forward to declare that they will sponsor prizes for this contest. We were overjoyed at this turn of events and are absolutely grateful to our sponsors for their most generous gesture.

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