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INDIAN WEDDINGS |
The day that you get
married should be a day that you remember for
the rest of your life.
 From the hymns and verses about marriage
in the Vedas, we learn that mature individuals
were considered ready for marriage after puberty.
In subsequent times however, brides were married
even in childhood, perhaps due to a series of
foreign invasions in North India. In an attempt
to provide security their women from the invaders,
early marriages became the norm. According to
the scriptures of Manu, divorce and remarriage
were not permitted. Most references to marriage
in the ancient texts suggest that the Aryans
were monogamous. However, some references to
polygamy and polyandry have been found in the
Hindu epic of Mahabharata. In medieval India,
the marriage was compulsory for all the girls
except for those opted asceticism. Brahmin girls
were married between ages eight and ten from
sixth or century onwards up to the modern times.
Polygamy was permitted to all who could afford,
and it was especially popular among Kshatriyas
for political reasons. According to the Manasollasa,
the king should marry a Kshatria girl of noble
birth for a chief queen though he is permitted
to have Vaishya or Shudra wives for pleasure.
Today, in India both divorce and remarriage
are completely legal, whereas polygamy and polyandry
are both criminal offences for Hindus, punishable
by law. The Islamic personal law of Sheriat
allows up to four wives for a man, and it is
legal for a Muslim to have multiple wives in
India.
Wedding Varieties
 The
customs during the wedding ceremony in India
are varied and reflect the vast diversity of
cultures of the land. The cultures have influenced
each other with mutual borrowing of practices.
A day before the wedding, the bride and her
friends and female relatives gather for the
ceremony of Mehendi, in which their palms and
feet are decorated with henna. The bride is
teased with music and dance, by the other women
about her future husband and in-laws An wedding
altar or mandapa is erected at the marriage
venue on the day of the wedding, within which
the ceremony is conducted. The poles of the
frame are draped with strings of flowers. On
the wedding morning, various rituals are performed
on both the bride and the groom in their own
homes. Their bodies are anointed with turmeric,
sandalwood paste and oils, which cleanse the
body, soften the skin, and make it aromatic.
They are then bathed to the chanting of Vedic
mantras. Today this is done symbolically, if
at all, with a token application of turmeric,
sandal wood, and oil on the face and arms, before
the bath. The bride now wears all her finery,
helped by her womenfolk. In the north and east,
the ritual of putting Sindhoor, or vermilion
powder, in the parting of the bride's hair is
performed by the groom.. The husband dips his
ring in vermilion powder and traces a line from
the center of his wife's hairline to the crown
of her head. Brahmin grooms who have not undergone
the Upanayana ritual are given a symbolic initiation.
Some warrior communities like the Kodavas involve
sword wielding rituals in the ceremony. The
gathering showers the bride and groom with flower
petals ,While the Western societies glamorized
and commercialized the flowers, it is only the
Indians who have blended their lives with flowers.)
and the couple come out of the mandapa. They
touch the feet of their elders to receive blessings
and are greeted by everyone present. The bride
now leaves for her new home, bidding a tearful
farewell to her own family. She now belongs
to another family and no longer to her parents,
for she has been ritually given away. They proceed
homewards dancing and singing. When the bride
arrives at her new home, an arati is performed
for her by her mother-in-law and she is ceremonially
ushered into the house. She takes care to enter,
auspicious right foot first, gently kicking
over a strategically placed measure of paddy
as an augury of plenty for her new family. In
today's India, the couple then leaves for their
honeymoon.
Weddings Attire
 In
different parts of India, brides wear different
kinds of clothes, ornaments, and adornments.
The bride's clothes are usually typical of the
area. A Rajasthani bride would wear a lehenga,
a Punjabi bride would wear a salwar-kameez,
and a Maharashtrian bride would wear a nine-yard
saree. Most brides wear saris nowadays, usually
in shades of red, pink or mustard. A bride sports
as much traditional jewelry as her family can
muster, for today, she is Goddess Lakshmi incarnate,
harbinger of prosperity to her new home. Like
her clothes, the bride's ornaments also differ
according to local tradition. However, necklaces,
earrings, bangles, rings, a nose-ring, anklets,
and toe-rings are worn by most brides. Ornaments
like armlets, tikas, hathaphula, and waistbands,
traditionally important, are optional today
and not worn in all areas. Traditionally, the
bride was adorned with natural beauty aids.
For example, a paste of henna was put over her
nails, which stained them red. Her eyes were
lined with kajal and scented water was sprinkled
on her. Today, however, most brides, both in
the urban and rural areas, use branded cosmetics
and perfumes. In south India, flowers were,
and remain, an important adornment, while the
north is now beginning to rediscover this pretty
custom. Most grooms in the north wear a shervani
with a churidar pyjama, a bandha-gala suit,
or a western-style suit. Turbans are also very
popular, for the groom and the important members
of his entourage. In the South, grooms either
wear the traditional veshti (dhoti) and jubba
(kurta) or a three-piece suit. North Indian
grooms set forth to their weddings adorned with
a sehera, a veil of flowers tied to the turban,
to screen their faces from the evil eye (scarecrow).
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