traditional indian weddings

[hazel c]

does ne one know wot it is called when the new bride has her hands dyed and prints her hands on the wall of her new husbands house? I am researching into indian weddings and cant find any info on wot this ritual is called and why it is done- i hope sum1 can help

 

[belle]

mehendi

 

[hazel c]

thats great thank you do they put their hands on the wall of the new husbands house? as i found the websites on Mehendi but nothing on the inprint of the hands?

 

[belle]

i don''t know about the hand prints. hopefully someone else will be able to help you with that!

 

[Cailet]

i don''t think it is possible to print your hands on a wall using mehndi?

i''ve got henna supplies at home and you would have to stick your hand on the wall right after you applied it...
it dries to a paste like substance pretty quickly and then eventually flakes off to leave the orange/brown stain as the "tattoo"

 

[reader]

The idea is that the bride will not have to do housework until the design fades away.

 

[galeteia]

The only thing I've ever heard about putting a handprint on the wall was the practice of wives being immolated alive on their husband's funeral pyre. I think the practice was called 'sutti' and was outlawed by the British when they took over back in the colonial days.

ETA: Upon investigating it, it's apparently spelled either 'sati' or 'suttee' and while my cursory Wikipedia check didn't mention the handprint on the wall, I know that was a detail when I first read about it. Something to do with crushing and strewing the petals of some flower on the way to the pyre, then using the pigment from the petals to put a print on the wall. Icky.

Mehandi (you'll find it spelled numerous ways) is an amazing art. If you do an image search on the web you'll find some incredible stuff.

And I have also heard that the traditional designs a bride is decorated with free her from housework until the designs have faded away.

ETA II:

From searches on the web:

"sati of suttee
A (cruel) Hindu tradition in which the widow by the death of her husband immolates herself on the pyre. Before doing so she presses her hand in a red pigment and left an impression of the hand into the door-post. In case of princesses or queens from whom the husband died in battle the hand print was made in a special sati stone on a wall." (http://home.scarlet.be/~evdleene/raj/india_glossar.htm)

And:
"Unfortunately, we missed the sati prints in the wall. A sati is a Hindu widow, who cremates herself or is cremated on the sati funeral pile of her husband. On her way to the cremation site she placed a red hand print on a palace wall. In the Meherangarh Fort you can see a total of 32 sati prints. When Maharaja Man Singh died in 1843, fifteen widows threw themselves upon his funeral pyre. Although the British strictly forbade this custom more than a century ago, the last sati of the royal family of Jodhpur immolated herself in 1953 (according to one of my guide books.)" (http://traveldoug.com/gabi/97gn-3.htm)

So, I'd recommend staying away from handprinting any walls in your husband's house, if I were you.

 

[JulieN]

sati is common
satii is also ok

but never with two Ts