Indian Wedding

Andhra Pradesh, one of the Southern Indian states, has a rich and varied cultural heritage and the Andhra/Telugu weddings are as zany and glitzy as the Hyderabad Palace. Most of the Indian weddings involve several colorful rituals and the Telugu wedding is not an exception.

Pre wedding rituals: The choosing of the auspicious time of the day, Muhurtam, for the wedding is done through a ceremony. Andhra weddings usually take place in the evening hours between 7pm-11pm. Pendlikoothuru, a ritual conducted a day or two before the wedding, has the bride and the groom smeared with oil and turmeric. After bath the girl wears a sari, bangles and flowers on her hair and the boy a dhoti. Mangala Snaanam, the auspicious bath, taken by the bride and the groom individually implies the physical purification before proceeding for the marriage. The Aarti ceremony is done by the family members applying oil to the bride and the groom and doing aarti around them to safeguard them from evil influences. After bath the bride worships the goddess Gouri and the groom at the same time performs the Ganesh Puja. Snathakam, an important ritual conducted a few hours before the actual wedding muhurtam, involves only the groom as he wears a silver thread on his body. Kashi Yatra or journey to Kashi is another interesting unique ritual done at the end of Snathakam wherein the groom says that he has renounced all worldly pleasures and is going to Kashi, a holy place in North India. At this the bride’s brother requests him to stay back and offers his sister in marriage.
The actual wedding begins with the bride’s maternal uncle carrying her in a bamboo basket to the mandap/wedding altar. The bride looks too enchanting in her bridal costumes that consist of a bright colored silk sari, usually red color considered very auspicious or any other similar bright colors and decorated with heavy zari works or any other eye-catching embellishments and a matching blouse/jacket. From head to toe each part of the body is adorned with precious gold jewelry studded with pearls and stones. Pearl is immensely popular as it is a Hyderabadi specialty. Even the head along with the hair is decorated with small trinkets and the hair is adorned with a lot of natural flowers like jasmine. The grooms wear a South Indian dhoti and a shirt in their style except in a Brahmin wedding they are bare-bodied on the upper torso, draping only an angavastram, a piece of cloth.
Next is Kanyadan where the girl’s father gives away his daughter to the groom separated from the bride by a screen that is placed between them. While the priests chant the sacred Vedic mantras the couple applies a paste of cumin seeds and jaggery on each other’s hands symbolizing that they cannot be separated for ever. Then the screen is removed and the groom ties the mangalasutra, generally a golden necklace with alternate black and golden beads, around the bride’s neck with three knots followed by exchange of garlands while the relatives and friends shower flowers and turmeric rice called akshata on them. Then the couple takes seven steps/saptapadi together around the fire with the bride’s sari end tied to the groom’s dhoti. Finally the groom slips toe rings made of silver on the bride’s toes. When the wedding ceremony concludes the parents of the bride clean the groom’s feet with water.
The post marriage rituals include Graha Pravesh wherein the bride enters her husband’s house with all rites and fanfare. Sixteen days after the wedding the two mangalasutras are tied together on a common string with a few black or golden beads between the two plates to avoid clash with each other, symbolizing perfect harmony among the two families.