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Meaning of Mehndi
The origin of this classic design probably sprung up in the
desert areas of Rajasthan, Punjab and Gujarat.
The story goes that people living in the Thar Desert coated
their hands and feet with a paste made
from crushed henna leaves.
They noticed that as long as the colour held, their body
temperature remained low. The women soon wearied of
monotonous reddish-brown palms and experimented with a
single central dot and several smaller dots. That small
innovation opened the creative floodgates—resulting in the
complexity of henna designs today.
But the women of Thar weren’t the only ones painting their
hands—the history of henna is intimately connected to the
flow of human movement. Henna likely originated in the
Middle East, possibly in Egypt. Archaeological evidence
shows mummies dating back 5,000 years with henna-covered
toenails.
 For
the Egyptians, henna was part of the ritual preparation for
the afterlife—body art supposedly smoothed the journey
ahead. The Mughals brought henna to India in the 12th
Century A.D. It evidently caught on, because by the time the
1600s rolled around, henna-covered hands were commonplace in
India.
And at that time, it was usually the barber’s wife who would
apply henna to women. Paintings from the era show most women
depicted with henna on their hands and feet. And while the
English word “henna” traces back to the Arabic word for the
plant “hinna,” most South Asians are more familiar with its
synonym: the word mehndi. But those aren’t the only words
for the reddish-brown paste: In Kerala, they call it
mylanchi; in
Konkani, it’s meti.
And Tamils refer to henna as
mayilainandi or
marudhaani.
In fact, the the use of henna is so widespread that there
are more than 60 names for it in 43 languages.
Henna was a traditional folk art, and in some cases henna
actually replaced jewellery for families that couldn’t
afford jewellery as gifts, so the henna designs sometimes
emulated bangles and rings.
Henna is typically used in Hindu and Muslim celebrations.
There are also other myths surrounding that reddish-brown
tattoo. The most popular beliefs are the deeper the color,
the stronger the bond between bride and mother-in-law. [With
henna on her hands], the bride doesn’t have to do any
household work—she is pampered and cared for. Every family
has different oral traditions about the meaning of henna,
but the housework exemption is important in that
traditionally the bride goes to live with her in-laws after
marriage. This exemption from housework allows her to bond
with her new husband and family. This tradition is also
followed when a woman is hennaed during the childbirth time,
to allow her time to bond with her infant child.
Another legend has to do with the groom finding his initials
in the mehndi design: "If the groom is unsuccessful in
finding the initials he gives his bride some token. It also
means that the bride will be the dominant one in the
marriage."
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