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What is Nath Utarai ceremony underlined in SLB's Heeramandi? Know this age-old ritual's cultural significance
Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Heeramandi has religiously explored the ritual of the traditional Nath Utarai ceremony. Here's everything that you need to know about it.
Sanjay Leela Bhansali is all about glory and grandeur. The filmmaker is known to have beautifully presented a perfect balance of culture, history, tradition, and folktales through his movies. His recent offering Heeramandi is no less. The 8-episodic Netflix series explores the lives of courtesans in pre-independent India and their struggle for freedom.
Out of several other things shown in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's show, an age-old ritual Nath Utarai ceremony has caught the internet’s attention and everyone is wondering what cultural significance it holds.
What is Nath Utarai rasam?
Nath Utarai in Heeramandi’s context was a ritual used to renounce the virginity of a courtesan. In the series, Mallikajaan (Manisha Koirala) is keen on getting her daughter Aalamzeb (Sharmin Segal)’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 there are two more rituals before that which needs to be done while a woman transitions to be a courtesan?
The first ritual is called Angiya. As a girl enters her adolescence, several changes take place in herself, one of which is the growth of her body parts. Angiya in those days meant bra. So the first time a teenager would wear a bra, it would be during the Angiya ritual. All the courtesans would dance and sing out loud during this to celebrate the first stage of the teen’s transition.
Missi is the second ritual. Where in today’s generation, bright teeth are considered ideal but in old age, the redness of the lips and blackened teeth were considered better. In the Missi tradition, the woman’s teeth and gums were blackened artificially with the use of a powder made with iron and copper sulfate. This was supposed to be a private function of the courtesans which no outsider could attend and the most senior member of all courtesans used to carry out this work.
Post-ritual, the courtesans would break into dancing, singing, and feasting. After this arrived the ceremony which was shown in SLB’s series Heeramandi.
Back then, the madame of the house (Mahal ki malkin) used to charge a lot of money for this ritual. In this bidding was done for a virgin girl where big nobles were called. The girl would be dressed like a bride and would wear a big nose ring on the left side of her nose. This nose ring was a symbol of her virginity. Whoever made the highest bid would have the first night with that girl.
After this night the girl would never wear a nose ring. Many times a rich man or a Nawab would keep the girl in his custody forever and for this, he would pay a hefty amount every month to the Mahal. This was extensively shown in Heeramandi where the character of Tajdar Balouch (Taha Shah Badussha) was initially being set up for Alamzeb’s Nath Utarai.
For the facts, please know that the ceremony’s meaning and significance differ across different cultures and regions. For eg - in some communities, Nath Utarai is done as a symbol of mourning after a woman’s husband passes away. In some other north Indian setups, a new bride does Nath Utarai for a period lasting between 1 month to 1 year marking the completion of a specific phase in her life and transition to a new phase.
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