Quick Postcard from Kanha – Fruits for Sindoor (Vermilion)

Visiting any new place is like a tour down an unknown lane of discovery, discoveries both big and small. My latest discovery was this local sindoor or vermilion that we saw in Madhya Pradesh. Sindoor is an integral part of the Indian culture and I have always seen my mom wear it. But for me sindoor was red powder in a box that always around. I never thought of how it was made or where it came from. Until recently when I saw this tree in Kanha that was used to make sindoor by the local tribal women. 

The Flowers and the Fruit used to make sindoor

Modern sindoor is made from vermilion, an orange-red pigment that is the powdered form of a mineral called, cinnabar. But the tribals in this area just take the fruit of this tree, crush it and use the powder as sindoor. Though I havent been able to get anyone to identify this tree or the flower, but this fruit closely resembles the seeds from a saffron plant.

The sindoor fruit

Can anyone here help me identify this tree or the fruit?