Indian Wedding

Maithil Brahmins belong to a region called Mithila lying between the lower regions of the Himalaya Mountains and the River Ganges in the North-Eastern India. These people are supposed to be the highest ranking caste and are politically very influential. They celebrate all the important Indian festivals with great enthusiasm

and extravaganza. The same spirit and pomp are reflected in their weddings as well.

For a Maithil Brahmin, giving away a girl in marriage is like offering the gift to a God. The parents might love her dearly, but would not keep her in their house for a long time. When the daughter of a family attains the marriageable age her father starts looking for a suitable match for her. Maithil Brahmins take extra care in the process of match making. “Panjikars” or registrars would match the “panjis or horoscopes of the two families and ascertain there exists no blood match between the two families of the boy and girl down five or six generations to avoid any incest.

The Maithil Brahmin brides are dressed in dignified and fabulous traditional Indian saris. Mostly the saris are in red color, other glitzy colors are also in vogue. The bridal sari is either Banarasi silk or any other expensive quality decorated with rich zari works. She is adorned with all the traditional Indian jewelry studded with precious stones, like necklaces, bangles, earrings, nose-rings, toe-rings, rings, anklets etc.

The groom’s attire consists of cultural dhoti and kurta and a customary headgear known as the “pag” in red color. The men in “barati”/wedding procession wear yellow or white “pag”.

Rituals before wedding include “Siddhant” or the match-making wherein the astrologers of both families fix an auspicious date for the wedding after carefully consulting the Maithil “Panchang” or lunar calendar. The “Panjikar/astrologer makes a letter called “Patra” in which the wedding between the girl and the boy is confirmed.

On the wedding day the women of the bride’s house wait for the arrival of the groom at the courtyard. A small “Kalash” or pitcher decorated with “Amra pallav”/mango leaves and “kumkum”/vermilion powder etc and an ox yoke are placed in the center of the courtyard. Men and women, having different ritual responsibilities, wait separately for the groom’s arrival. The women of the bride’s family give a warm reception to the groom while the bride’s assistant, “Vidkari” welcomes the groom by applying sandal paste on his forehead. Then the groom, after bath, changes his “dhoti” and the “jenu”(sacred thread).

Maithil Brahmins follow a strange custom in which the bride seeks the blessings of the ‘dhobi’s or washerman’s wife who dies before her husband and always remains a “suhagin”, one who never becomes a widow. A little bit of yoghurt is touched to the hair of the washerman’s wife and the bride too is given a little yoghurt to eat.

Now, both the bride and groom visit the “Kuldevi” shrine, the lineage Goddess of her family. It is only this moment that the groom ever enters this shrine, In the “Gauri Puja” performed there the bride thanks Goddess Gauri for blessing her with a husband like Lord Shiva. The Goddess is symbolically represented by a betel nut kept on the head of a clay elephant.

“Otangar” is another important ritual in which eight Brahmins pound rice, an indication of the belief that marriage mixes and combines seed or bloodlines joining “patri”-lineages in innovative ways. The groom also participates in the ritual ‘Otangar’.

“Nana Yogin” or Grand mother Yogi is a very popular ritual wherein the women place flowers, betel leaves etc on a tray which is used to make “Aarti” of the groom.

In the actual wedding ceremony the bride and groom sit in front of the sacred flame made of sandalwood and ghee. A Brahmin “Pujari”/priest performs all the wedding rites. In “Kanyadaan” the bride’s father takes the groom’s hands and places his daughter’s hand in them followed by the “Saptapathi” rite wherein the couple makes seven circles around the sacred fire, the seven steps symbolizing the first seven steps of their wedding life.

After the wedding rites the groom applies ‘sindur’/vermilion powder at the parting of the bride’s hair. This ‘sindur’ will remain there as long as her husband lives. “Ghungat” is an interesting ritual in which the groom veils his wife’s head for the first time and her brother unveils her, This indicates the dual lives of a woman, one in her parent’s house and the other-veiled one-in her husband’s place.

In the ritual “Durbakschat”, held on the wedding day or the next day, Brahmin men toss husked rice at the couple wishing them wealth and prosperity. Women, in the ritual “Chumaon”, move a tray containing cultural things over the couple. Such multi-color wedding rites last for four days at the end of which the bride says farewell to her family and friends and leaves for her new house along with her husband.