Glow on your wedding
The ubtan ceremony marks the beginning of the customary dressing up of brides and bridegrooms. Wellness, beauty and rejuvenation remain the purpose of all such preparations , says Sharmila Chand

Our mothers and grandmothers also had Cleopatra’s bath as part of their bridal preparations

The ritual of ubtan is the legacy of the rich Indian heritage. Known as battne di rasam in Punjabi, and kappumanjal in Tamil, ubtan is one of the vital components of the concept of solah-shingaar (16 ways of beautification of the body).

Traditionally, the ubtan ceremony marks the beginning of bridal makeup and customary dressing up of brides and bridegrooms. The entire family gets together for the ubtan ritual. The echoes of ved mantras, or traditional folk songs, along with the bride and bridegroom in their respective homes undergoing several rounds of ubtan in the presence of a large number of family members, complete the picture perfect.

In today’s times, the objective of ubtan remains the same — cleansing and beautification of the skin. However, the practices have changed. Thanks to the lack of time and, thereby, the approach towards all things in life, especially wedding ceremonies, how convenient it is to simply hit a well-known spa or a parlour. An urban retreat, away from the relentless bustle of the marriage preparations at home, the bride finds solace at the hands of her spa attendant.

It is interesting that a closer look at the fancy name facials or treatments reveal that actually they are all based on ingredients which have been used traditionally in ubtan paste. For instance, Javanese mandi lulur with Cleopatra’s Elixir at VLCC is a popular bridal treatment based on ancient techniques. "Lulur is a Javanese word meaning coating the skin," explains Shobha Sehgal, head of Spa Business and Beauty Zone, VLCC Group. "It is a luxury experience which coats your body with the most exotic herbs and oils. Traditionally, it is a luxury treatment for a bride prior to her wedding day. It is a body scrub and skin polishing treatment that uses a mixture of finely ground herbs, spices and roots of plants. This procedure is followed by a wonder bath with milk and rose petals. This bath treats the skin exposed to the rigorous life and environmental hazards," says Shobha.

Our mothers and grandmothers, too, had Cleopatra’s bath as part of their bridal preparations but never understood the exotic names and features. Today, it is perhaps the USP of the spas not to be missed.

"Exotic pomegranate journey" at Kaya Kalp, ITC Mughal, in Agra, is another example of a perfect blend of age-old ingredients and modern style.

Kaya Kalp’s signature blend of exotic pomegranate, lime and ginger deeply cleanses, polishes and softens the body to perfection. An application of an exotic pomegranate ginger body lotion leaves the skin glowing and vibrant; this replenishes moisture, leaving the skins texture flawless.

Thus, it becomes apparent that the extensive menu at various spas taps the beneficial properties of ingredients which have been the principal constituents of ancient ubtan like turmeric, Bengal gram and sandalwood. Turmeric, commonly called haldi, is also known as haridra (that which corrects the complexion of skin) by virtue of its complexion-enhancing, healing, antiseptic and skin caring properties. It forms an extremely useful component of ubtan. Sandalwood, commonly called as chandan, is also known as gandhasaar (deodorant) in Sanskrit, and because of its daahprashaman (soothing) and varnya (complexion improving) properties, it helps in providing coolant and deodorising effect to the skin.

Various other ingredients are also added in ubtan like petals of rose and jasmine, khas-khas, drops of lemon juice and other herbs to get beautifying applications as face and body packs. Such applications are blended from optimum concentrations of powdered extracts obtained from sandalwood, turmeric, walnut, mustard, red sandalwood, fuller’s earth and various other clays. Clays have absorbed the sun rays and remnants of plants and minerals of the earth over thousands of years, by virtue of which they have gained immense healing and rejuvenating properties.