The Enchantress

Chapter thirty six

Today was the mehendi ceremony. It is a ceremony when beautiful intricate henna patterns are drawn on the palms and feet of bride and groom and the other women who are interested. Indrayani had called some tribal women from the locality and promised them pay for each side of the hand they draw. So, if they drew patterns on the upper side and lower side of each hand, they would get four times the pay. 

The Patils had already enough saved up and Indrayani thought that her daughter's marriage was the perfect way to spend their savings, especially when her son-in-law's family were taking responsibility of most of the wedding expenses and wouldn't even tell them the price with the fear that they would try to pay forcefully.

Mahesh's elder brother and his wife, Hemant and Savita had an important ritual that day. The neighbouring kids gathered as the couple stood barefeet. There were bandwalas (Bandsman, I don't know what they are called in english but google showed this word. They play drums, trumpets and other things) in front of the couple Mahamaya's cousins, some guests for the wedding possession, neighbours and anyone who wished had joined. Four men stood around the couple. Hemant held a thick stick and on that stick stretched a saffron cloth. The four men surrounding the couple held the four corners of the stick as it almost looked like Hemant was holding an umbrella over Savita.

Savita's hands held a pooja ki thali (plate with vermilion, turmeric, lamp and other things which are used for praying and worship). Two of the four men holding the edges of the cloth were walking to the forefront, with the couple behind them as they walked to the nearest goldsmith's shop. 

After they reached there, the shopkeeper showed them the silver pentagon shaped small plates they had left of their kuldevi (ancestral Goddess) Goddess Bijasni for polishing. These plates were collected from all the houses of Mundkhede, Mahesh's house, thus showing that the entire village blessed the couple. Savita put some vermillion, turmeric, betel nut from her pooja ki thali on each of the plate. 

Savita gave her own plate to her daughter-in-law Pooja (Mahamaya's sister-in-law) who was standing behind Savita and she herself took the bigger plate with all the tiny silver plates inside it. They exited the shop, with the cloth covering the Goddess from the sun. It symbolized that the devotees of the Goddess were so blindly in love with her to realize that the one who created the sun didn't need protection from the sun.

They they went to a nearby small temple and worshipped the plates there, before again lifting them and taking them back to Mahamaya's home then and placing them inside the home temple, before doing the aarti (woshipping) again.

Meanwhile, Mahamaya, along with most of her female close relatives, Indrayani, their neighbours and all those who wanted to participate in the marriage were in the house as the hired girls were busy in drawing the henna patterns. Mahamaya, as obvious, had to remove her bangle and her anklets to get the henna drawm properly.

The girl who was drawing the henna patterns for Mahamaya was really an expert and it took her hours to draw patterns for her. Indrayani and the rest got theirs too. It took a lot of time to draw henna on so many hands and many women were sat waiting for their turns. 

"You know what they say, Maya. The darker the shade, the more your to be husband/husband loves you," Pooja said, making Mahamaya blush. Her henna pattern was beautiful indeed and they had hidden Viraj's name somewhere in the pattern as was ritual. Similarly, henna patterns were also drawn on her feet. By the time everyone was satisfied, her limbs were numb. After the henna was drawn, sugar water was blobbed on it with a cotton balls as it would help darken the colour and prolong the colour of the henna.