In today’s world, bath is a habit which all people associate with cleanliness. However, when we go through history, we can realize that the act of bathing in the past implied differently to people of different religions and eras. What was once considered a ritual and a religious activity, gradually turned into an act of recreation, and then to something associated with hygiene.
Bathing as a religious activity is a practice that is common even today. Baptism, which most people readily associate with Christianity, is a form of religious bathing. History has recorded a similar Jewish custom called mikvot, where Jews were made to take a bath to purify themselves under certain circumstances. Other religions like Hinduism and Islam practice religious bathing to this day.
Hinduism, widely practiced in India and Nepal, regards bathing as an essential part of religious activity. The River Ganges is considered holy, and taking a dip in the river is supposed to relieve you of all your sins. Almost every Hindu temple also has a pond to wet your feet or to take a bath, before entering the sanctum. The Kumbh Mela and other similar Hindu festivals are focused on the act of bathing. Similarly, in Islam bathing is considered an act of self-cleansing and purification that is supposed to be done before entering a mosque. For the same reason, mosques were built close to public bathhouses in early times.
The Romans and the Greeks might very well be the people who first popularized the act of bathing. The Greeks believed that only women should immerse themselves completely in water. Men took a bath only to cleanse themselves occasionally, and as a part of preparation for a social event. The Greeks were against bathing becoming a public custom.
The Romans had different reasons for bathing. To them, bathing signified luxury and health. Most of the royalty of Rome indulged in bathing. Structurally splendid public bathhouses were built for the purpose. Men and women took part alike, and bathhouses became places where one could find healers, artists and even prostitutes. The Romans spread this culture of public bathhouses throughout their empire through construction of several aqueducts, some of which remain till this day.
Bathing gradually became a private act, restricted mostly to the royalty in the Middle Ages. The poor could rarely afford to have a private bath. On the other hand, the rich built private bathrooms in their castles and palaces. Even so, it is possible that people took bath very rarely. Plumbing was unknown in this era, and an act of bathing involved much effort, because water had to manually filled in the tubs and drained manually after the bath.
The spread of various epidemics and plagues led people to believe that bathhouses were the sources of such diseases. Also, many religions including Christianity openly opposed public bathing. The increasing number of illegitimate children as a result of encounters in public bathhouses was believed to have provoked the Church. Public bathing was considered a sin.
As science took over religion towards the end of the Middle Ages, people realized the importance of maintaining a clean self to avoid diseases. Bathing and washing hands were accepted as healthy ways, and different forms of baths like sulphur baths and mineral baths came into existence.
In the present day world, bathing is considered a part of healthy living, and most people bathe almost every day to maintain personal hygiene. Other purposes of bathing however are not extinct indeed
