The Shri Mantha Ceremony – A celebration of impending motherhood in south India

It’s remarkable what one finds at a south Indian beauty parlor when all one is looking for is a $2 leg wax, tips included.
I had called earlier in the day and set up an appointment for 2:30pm. Time in India, is either to be conquered through mystical practices of dying to oneself or debated about philosophically but certainly not adhered to in the trivial matters of day to day life.
And so it was that I waited well past the appointed time, in the corner of the saffron walled beauty parlor while the owner attended to her very pregnant customer and a hovering mother. The pregnant lady’s name was Sushma. Her thick long hair was deftly braided by the fussy beautician, and the ends woven into a gold ornament. An elaborate bridal floral composition of jasmine and roses was then carefully attached to the braid enveloping it and making an exclamation of the gold ornament.
Sushma’s mother fondly set the ornament in place while describing its origins. It had been in the family for almost a century, and a few generations, it was worn by the great grandmother at her Shri Mantha ceremony and ensured safe deliveries in difficult times.

Ah, so this isn’t a shotgun wedding after all, I thought. Further inquiry into the Shri Mantha ceremony revealed it to be a tradition amongst southern Indian women to celebrate the first pregnancy and initiate the woman into motherhood. It involves a puja (prayer and offering to a deity) followed by an exclusively female celebratory meal with the young mother in waiting’s friends and relatives. The meal is prepared by friends and family and consists of her favourite foods, especially the ones she had been craving through the pregnancy. Gifts of sari’s, bangles and jewelry are given and the choice of color for the gifts is green. Green is said to be an auspicious color, associated with the heart chakra representing the love which created the child and the unconditional love that will be required when it is born.
This ceremony is conducted in the 8th month of the 1st pregnancy, after which the mother in waiting leaves the home of her husband to take up residence with her mother until the child is born.