Director Sanjay Leela Bhansali is all about majesty and grandeur. The filmmaker is known for beautifully representing a perfect balance of culture, history, tradition, and folktales through his movies. His recent series, Heeramandi, is no less. The eight-episode Netflix series revolves around the life of courtesans in pre-independence India and their quest for freedom.
Out of several other things shown in the series, an age-old ritual Nath Utarai ceremony has caught the attention of everyone, and everyone is wondering what cultural significance it holds. Today, let’s take a look.
Nath Utarai Rasam:
Nath Utarai, in Heeramandi’s context, was a ritual used to renounce the virginity of a courtesan. In the series, the character Mallikajaan, played by Manisha Koirala, is keen on getting her daughter Aalamzeb’s Nath Utarai done. It is a ritual every woman who seeks to be a courtesan needs to go through as part of the transition.
But do you know Nath Utarai is the last step, and two more rituals before that need to be done while a woman transitions to be a courtesan?
According to reports, the first ritual is called Angiya. As a girl approaches adolescence, she undergoes various changes, one of which is the development of her physical parts. In those days, angiya meant bra. So the first time an adolescent wore a bra was during the Angiya ritual. During this time, all of the courtesans would dance and sing loudly to commemorate the beginning of the teen’s transition.
Missi is the second ritual. In today’s generation, white teeth are considered ideal, but in earlier times, red lips and darkened teeth were regarded as preferable. In the Missi tradition, the woman’s teeth and gums were artificially darkened with a powder containing iron and copper sulfate.
This was supposed to be a private function of the courtesans that no outsider could attend, and the most senior member of all courtesans used to carry out this work. After the rite, the courtesans would dance, sing, eat and enjoy themselves.
After this arrived the ceremony, as shown in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s series Heeramandi. Back then, the madame of the house (Mahal ki malkin) used to charge a lot of money for this ritual. This auction was for a virgin girl and huge nobles were called. The girl would dress like a bride and wear a large nose ring on the left side of her nose. The nose ring was a sign of her virginity. Whoever placed the highest offer would get the first night with that girl.
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