Mehndi in South India

Mehndi in South India

In Tamil Nadu mehndi is called as Marudhani.
In South India mehndi was applied by grinding fresh mehndi leaves using ammikal(traditional stone grinder).
 Later people used blender to grind mehndi.
The grinded fresh mehndi paste is applied on hands in round patterns. Usually a big round of mehndi is applied on centre and small rounds of mehndi is placed surrounding the centre. My mother shares her memories of marudhani with us whenever we apply henna. She and her sister used to fight over grinding mehndi. As one  hand become red stained on grinding mehndi they refuse to do it. She remembers only during her wedding her sister ran to pluck henna leaves and volunteered in mehndi grinding. After the plastic covers came into existence my mother used to cover her right hand with plastic cover and grinded mehndi using blender. She and other neighbour women used to sit in thinnai and apply mehndi after doing all household chores. She did not applied mehndi after my father's demise. Now,after I started trying my hands on henna art ,I forced her to apply mehndi by stating I need to enhance my skills by practising. After 20 years she got mehndi applied on her hands. But,she said she is not now excited of mehndi as she used to be in her 20's.