Bengaluru: The ceremony was on the grounds of the exclusive Bangalore Club, an oasis in one of India’s largest cities. The bride-to-be, Sreya Muthukumar, was ensconced on the terrace, wreathed in smiles, greeting and chatting with her guests. Two women were attending to her, each wielding a thin plastic cone filled with henna paste.
For seven hours on July 4, the artists drew freehand, etching patterns, motifs and mandalas on Muthukumar’s limbs. When they were done, dark green lines stretched from the tips of her fingers to above her elbows. Four other artists catered to the palms of guests. Once the henna paste, known as mehndi, dried, it was washed or scraped off to reveal the bright orange stain that has long been associated with Indian weddings — no matter how modest or lavish.
“After all those hours, when, in the end, the bride looks at her hands and says ‘I love it,’ that’s the high point for me,” said Sunitha Parihar, who adorned Muthukumar’s arms. “We mehndi artists are so important to make the bride look and feel beautiful on her big day.”
Big wedding celebrations are the norm in India for those who can afford it, and have led to a cottage industry of henna artists. But the ritual is also a reminder of the vast disparity that persists in India, where the number of billionaires has tripled over a decade while 90 per cent of the country makes less than Rs 3.25 lakh ($3,900) a year.
Muthukumar’s nuptials were far from the season’s most lavish — that distinction goes to the union of Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchant, whose wedding festivities this weekend are the culmination of a monthslong extravaganza that has put a global spotlight on India’s new Gilded Age.
The henna ceremony for the Ambani-Merchant wedding was held Wednesday at the Ambani home in Mumbai, a 27-story residential tower inhabited by only the family. The groom’s father, Mukesh Ambani, is one of the richest men in the world. According to local news media, celebrity henna artist Veena Nagda was there.
It’s unclear how much the Ambani-Merchant party paid for their henna. But the two henna artists who worked on Muthukumar’s limbs this month at the Bangalore Club earned a combined $90. The artists who applied the dye to the guests each made about $30 for about 3 1/2 hours of work.
The fee to apply to join the Bangalore Club is Rs 500,000 — about $6,000.
After Muthukumar’s henna ceremony, Parihar collected about $50 of the $90, and the artist who did the bride’s legs got $14. The rest went to Pushpa Mehndi Arts, a collective that all the artists belonged to and which helps find clients and provides uniforms, material and equipment to the artists.
Parihar offered Muthukumar an album of designs to choose from. “I picked out the motifs I liked first, and then the geometric designs,” Muthukumar said. “How they are both combined and executed, I left it to the artist’s expertise and imagination.”
Henna decoration, considered a symbol of fertility and good luck, is ubiquitous in Indian weddings. Historically, it was done mostly in India’s north and was confined to family. Now it is one other event to welcome guests during weddings that extend for multiple days.
Many of Muthukumar’s friends showed up for her henna event in Bengaluru, the center of India’s high-tech industry. “This ceremony is a fun occasion for a get-together. We have flown in from different parts of the country to be with the bride and the groom,” said Ankita Nanda. Another friend of the bride told an artist to decorate only the outside of her hand, so she could still hold her drink while the henna dried.
Sapna Jain of the Pushpa Mehndi collective said henna artists in Bengaluru can command as much as Rs 25,000, or $300, for primping a bride. But such a fee is rare; $90 to $120 is more typical.
Although henna is an integral part of Indian marriage ceremonies, it adds relatively little to the cost of a wedding, said Neethi Shantakumar, a wedding planner in Bengaluru.
Henna artists are the only vendors or service providers to deal so closely with members of a wedding party, for such a lengthy period and in a semipublic setting. Sometimes the wealth disparity results in henna artists being treated with disrespect. Most can recall at least one instance when it’s happened to them.
“I was spoken to rudely this one time and asked to get out of the venue,” said Parihar, who worked on Muthukumar, describing another job. “I cried that day.”
Prejudice is also a reality. Shantakumar said some of the best henna artists she knows are Muslim women, but sometimes even seemingly progressive families have objected to hiring Muslims.
However, Shabana Habeeb, a Muslim henna artist, said her interactions with clients from other faiths were not representative of the political environment in the country, which has become hostile toward minorities.
Her sentiment was echoed by a peer, Fathima Begum. “The streets are a scary place for us,” Begum said. “But at the mehndi events we go to, we are treated like family.”
Applying henna is a common household activity for many women from northern India, as well as for Muslim women all across India; thus many henna artists tend to be from these communities. Many also tend to come from patriarchal families and to be denied educational opportunities, but their henna skills can be an avenue for financial freedom, dignity and respect.
Parihar, who has been a professional henna artist for almost a decade, is from Rajasthan in the north. She doesn’t remember the designs she wore on her own wedding day — she was just 10 years old then. (She continued to live with her family, moving in with her in-laws only after she turned 21.)
Her family had a reception when she moved out, and she said she got to sport a pretty henna design then. She had hopes of becoming an engineer but wasn’t allowed to study beyond the 12th grade.
Initially, her in-laws objected to her work as a henna artist. They were also against the kurta tops she had to wear on the job; since she was a married woman, they wanted her to wear a sari and to use it to cover her head.
“Over the years, I have been successful in negotiating against it with my in-laws,” said Parihar, 33, who now has a 7-year-old daughter. She said she can earn roughly $840 for 20 days of work during peak wedding season. The rest of the time, however, she makes about $120 a month. The additional income she brings to her family is the only source of savings for them.
“Slowly, I’m changing things for myself,” she said, “and also for my daughter.”