‘Solah Shringar’- Sixteen adornments complete an Indian bride - an epitome of beauty.
The Hair

Her hair, is braided into a weave of plaits or tied back at the nape of her neck in a bun with flowers and ornaments wrapping it.

While the Punjabi bride must wear a red parandi. The Bengali and Maharashtrian brides will sport a bun decorated with white flowers. Further south, in Tamil Nadu, white, orange and pink blossoms are woven around the plait. In Kerala, the bride has a veil of jasmine buds-strands of flowers tied to form a net.

The Forehead

Bride’s forehead is embellished with tikka/bindi which run on top of both sides of the eye-brows. An ornament is worn along the hairline.

The mang-tikki is worn by brides in most parts of the country, It is usually a simple round disc, about an inch across, set with precious stones and is attached to the parting of the hair by a chain. The nose ring, as it is called in English, is only seldom in the shape of a ring. In most places it is usually a small cluster or gems affixed by means of a screw to the nostril.

The Eyes

For highlighting the eyes, Kajal made from the soot of diya (earthen lamp) lit with a wick placed in clarified butter is used. Of course a variety of make-up is used nowadays.

The Nose

The biggest nose ring is worn by the Dogra brides. Almost three to four inches in diameter it has rubies and pearls strung on it. The gold wire is in a loop shape with encrustations of pearls, garnets and other beads for the Maharashtrian bride and worn on the left side.

The Ears

The ears are bedecked with the karn phul - a gold ornament with a star or radiated center of about an inch in diameter sometimes richly ornamented by precious stones and fixed to the lobe. Jhumka-a bell shaped ornament made of solid gold usually with a row of tiny beads along its edge, is the favorite among the Bengali, Punjabi, Maharashtrian and Rajput brides. A string of pearls is attached to it and taken behind the earlobe to support the weight of the heavy earring.

The Tamilians give importance to the diamond-studded earring, a central stone encircled by smaller ones. Among the Kashmiris a jeroo is an essential part of the bride’s ensemble and duplicates as the mangalsutra. It consists of a long gold chain worn through a hole pierced in the upper ear lobe and having a dangling end of either gold or pearls.

The Neck

The variety of necklaces is bewildering, and brides, especially the affluent, are seen wearing a series of them of differing lengths. There is the collar of gold beads called the paiti by the Maharashtrian, and the parunia ke gulsari- string of pearls; the hansli a choker of gold pieces.

The Punjabis have the rani haar, handed down from mother-in-law to daughter-in-law and consists of pieces of gold attached with a series of chains.

The Maharashtrian also wear the tanmani, three or four strings of pearls with a central pendant, or the typical path where seven or eight strings of pearls are attached to a central green bead.

The Tamilians have their changali in gold but what is imperative is the mangalsutra of two inverted ‘U’ shaped gold pieces called tail with four gold beads strung on a yellow thread.

The Wrist

The bangle or bracelet is the most significant of ornaments for bangles are above all, the visible sign of marriage. The north Indian brides have, among the Punjabis and Dogras, the chura made of a set of white ivory bangles with red ones at either end. On a thin iron bangle in the front are tied a bunch of kaliras-danglers of thin silver or gold. Also common is coconut and some dried fruits and shells tied together by the red sacred thread.

The Rajput bride wears the ichura- a series of plain, ivory bangles starting from the smallest at the wrist and progressively growing larger till the shoulders, covering the entire arm.

The ivory chuda is also worn by the Gujaratis and in addition are the green and red glass bangles or bangri. Green glass is again the colour for the Andhra and Maharashtrian brides. Of course gold bangles also add to the profusely adorned wrists in all parts of India, either as the thin churi or its broader, flatter version or the thick kara with either the elephant or lion heads.

Further up the arm is the bazubandh or armlet-a precious stone-adorned semi-circular trinket with skeins at both ends to tie them in place with.

The Palms

The palms are covered with an intricate design of mehandi and in the north especially, the application of henna is a special ceremony.

Another popular combination in the north is the haath phool. It consists of five rings in all the fingers, joined to a bangle at the wrist with chains from each ring radiating to a medallion encrusted with stones in the center of the hand, with chains again joining the medallion to the bangle.

The Waist

To keep the sari in place as well as accentuate the bride’s slim waist a belt of gold or silver is used. While the Punjabis call it tagari the Tamilians used the odianmam to hold their nine-yard sari in place!

The Ankle

Anklets are either in the form of simple chains of paizeb heavy thick rings of silver set with a fringe of small spherical bells which tinkle at every movement of the limb.

Toe rings - 'bichua', rings worn around the toes, and traditionally attached along each side of the foot, to the paizeb at the ankle.
Among the Maharashtrians it is an elaborate toe-ring with a parrot, peacock or fish design.

The Dress

The richly woven gold and red brocade sari which is considered one of the most graceful dresses in the world.

The wedding ensemble could be ghaghra-choli in bright red color, the green nine yard paithan of the Maharashtrians, the maroon and gold-bordered koorap-podavi of the Tamilians; the raunak gold and white one of the Sindhis and a similar one of the Keralites or the white with red border sanetar of the Gujarati.