Maruthani

Tamil brides used to put decorative designs made of Maruthani - henna - on their hands and legs, before the wedding ceremony day by henna artists. This henna artist's work makes their hands and legs to look beautiful with the red color design on the day of their wedding ceremony. Putting decorative design on the hand and legs are traditional thing and people hope this kind of art work on the body is an auspicious thing which will bring prosperous life for the bride and to her family.

This tradition is followed for thousands of years in Tamil Nadu, India and now it is taking place wherever Tamil people are living.

These maruthani designs are beautiful art work but are temporary and will stay on the body for 5 -6 days brightly and then will start to fade off in the coming days. The Henna paste is made with Maruthani leaves - Maruthondi leaves. Also it is called as Mehandi or Henna in North India and Arab countries. Latest production technique allows the Henna product to be available as dried powder in packets that can be purchased in the market. They can make to provide black or red color on the body depending the girls skin color.

Before the Tamil weddings, the maruthani leaves are grounded as paste and applied on the fingers and both side of the hands with many beautiful designs by an experienced girl. It will be kept on the hands for 4-6 hours for to penetrate once dried will give deep red color designs to brown color depending the skin color.

These maruthani trees used to grows in the dry zone areas of the world. As Indian and Srilanka origin people are living all over the world maruthani is is also available as mehindi paste all over the world for them to purchase on wedding days and festival days. Beautiful designs too available as ready made stickers for the users to get beautiful mehindi designs on their hands and legs. These will help any one to apply the Henna paste with out the help of any henna artists.

Except to Tamil brides, Bharatha natya dancers use this Henna designs on their hands as the hands are used to show different signs and actions during the dance performance. Tamil girls are used to apply the decorative paste on special days like Deepavali and Pongal day festivals.

In North Indian weddings decorating the hand with the henna is celebrated as a traditional event where women only allowed taking part and all the women used to apply the paste through a Mehendi artist to make rich beautiful designs on their hands.

According to Arab community they feel that Henna is not only decorative but also carries good luck and fertility .