Each region of India has its own typical bridal make-up and attire. Although every bride has a ritual bath with herbs and milk, geography and local customs determine how she will be dressed.

In Punjab, she wears red, her wrists are covered in ivory bangles stained red and the parting of her hair is decorated with gold ornament called the tikka. Her palms and feet are embellished with beautiful henna patterns.

In the south, she wears yellow silk, ruby and emerald- encrusted jewellery and a wide, gold belt with figures of Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth and prosperity, on her waist. Her hair is woven with countless garlands of tiny, fragrant flowers. In Maharashtra the bride wears green for fertility, her wrists tinkle with gold and green bangles, in her nose she wears a pearl nose ring and her face is framed with strings of lustrous pearls that cascade from her temples down to her shoulders. The Gujarati bride wears red and white and has little dots of white and red drawn in an arch over her eyebrows right up to her temples.

The Indian bride is the epitome of color and glitter. Red, fuschia, green, sunflower- yellow and saffron silks shot with threads of pure gold and silver are draped as saris and every part of the body is adorned with fabulous jewelry made of gold, pearls and precious gems.

The beauty rituals learned by a young woman are perhaps of most significance on the day of her wedding when she has to look her radiant best. Nina Epton writes in her book about the queen who inspired the Taj Mahal, Beloved Empress Mumtaz Mahal:

"A little before midnight Arjumand (later called Mumtaz Mahal) was given a ritual bath by her mother and various aunts. They escorted her to her bathroom wrapped in white cotton. Her long black hair was loosened washed and her face bathed with the same herb infused water.

One of her aunts picked up an earthenware jar containing seven little balls of a creamy substance colored blue,. pink, red, green, yellow, white and orange (seven for luck). These were kneaded into a homogeneous mask and spread on Arjumand's face, neck and breasts, then washed off with perfumed soap.

The following morning was taken up with the bridal make-up, which took the palace experts nearly three hours to apply. Gold leaf was applied to her hairline; a golden dragonfly was impressed upon her forehead on a wax background. Her eyes were heavily underlined with kohl and prolonged by upward slanting strokes of the brush."

Indian myhology and history is full of these kinds of bridal stories and illustrations which not only inspires the contemporary society to enrich its own customs and rituals but also preserves the age old heritage and legacy of their ancestors.