Indian Wedding

Gujarat is a western state in India and its people, popularly known as Gujaratis, are highly business-oriented. The intelligent, hardworking and hospitable Patel’s or Patidars of Gujarat are very ambitious and they spend excessively on occasions like weddings. Their weddings, arranged on a grand scale, are spectacular, bright and colorful. The couple receives a large number of clothes and jewelry as gifts and it is not an exaggeration, the groom is gifted with cash and gold at almost each ceremony.

For Patel community ‘Chandlo Maatli’ is a ceremony to announce the acceptance of the alliance between the families of the boy and the girl and their consent for the wedding. The bride’s father along with four other male members and auspicious items go to the groom’s house and applies ‘chandlo’/’tikka’, a mark with vermilion, on the groom’s forehead and gives him a token sum of money as a gesture of blessing. An auspicious date for the wedding is finalized after consulting with the astrologer present.

Before the commencement of all wedding preparations, Lord Ganesha is invoked for His blessings through a ‘puja’/prayer conducted in both houses simultaneously on an auspicious day for the smooth going of all the wedding ceremonies.
In the female function Mehendi/Henna ceremony the professional ‘mehendiwallis’ or henna artists make fine beautiful designs on the palms and feet of the bride and the ladies gathered by applying henna paste while other ladies dance to the music. In the evening the family members and friends, in traditional outfit, sing and dance to the beat of the drum. The ladies form a circle and dance the graceful ‘garba’ and later men also come to do the energetic ‘dandia raas, a dance form using sticks.
Pre-wedding rituals include ‘Mandva Mahurat’ wherein a wedding canopy is erected on the ground with the blessings of Lord Ganesha. After a brief ‘puja’ in the shrine inside the house the ‘pujari/priest applies ‘tikka’ on the foreheads of five men from the family and then gives them a stick having a ‘nada chari’/red thread wrapped around it. With joined hands the men take this stick to the site of the canopy and erect it on the earth. This stick represents one of the poles that support the ‘mandva’/canopy.
For the beautification ceremony, ‘Pithi’, a shrine with a picture of Lord Ganesha is arranged and the bride sits on a low stool, her palms upturned. Her paternal uncle’s wife, ‘kaaki’, makes ‘pithi’,a paste of sandalwood powder, herbs, rosewater and a perfume, German mogro and places it on a decorated platter to be blessed by the priest. The female relatives apply this paste on the bride’s skin which she keeps till the next ceremony is over. The ‘kaaki’ also conducts a short ceremony called ‘ookarhi nautarvi’ in which she keeps an iron nail, betel nut and an Indian one-rupee coin in a shallow hole dug by the priest to ban the entry of evil spirits to the wedding venue.
A very important religious ceremony, ‘Griha shanty’ is performed on behalf of both sets of parents by the officiating priests who pray to the deities to ensure complete peace and harmony till the end of all the wedding ceremonies. The bride with a coconut sits beside her parents in front of the sacred fire. While the priest conducts the ‘puja’/prayer that may last for two hours she gives the coconut to her parents and they give it to the priest who puts it into the fire as ‘ahuti’ or sacrifice to propagate peace and harmony among the nine planets. Similar ceremonies are performed in the groom’s house as well.
In the custom ‘Mandap Mameru or Mosaalu’ held the day before the wedding ‘the bride’s ‘mama’ or the maternal uncle comes with gifts for his niece; the ‘mameru’ consists of clothes, jewelry and other gifts including the customary ‘paanetar’, a silk wedding sari usually white in color with red border and ‘choodo’-ivory bangles –now replaced by acrylic or plastic.
‘Varghodo’ consists of the groom’s procession on a richly caparisoned mare accompanied by his relatives and friends to the wedding venue on the evening of the wedding. While the groom, dressed in all his finery and holding a’katar’(small dagger) prepares to leave the priest gives his sister a small bowl covered in cloth and containing coins with the Hindu Swastika on them. She rattles this bowl over the groom’s head to drive away any evil eye and to remind him even after wedding he should remember his sister. His father’s sister-in-law puts a garland on him and gives him a bunch of flowers.
At the entrance, the bride’s mother receives the groom and his procession by performing the traditional ‘aarti’ for the groom and applies the vermilion mark ‘tikka’ on his forehead. The groom is made to step onto a low stool and the mother once again gives him a ceremonial welcome with the ‘aarti’ and vermilion and rice ‘tikka’ on his forehead. The bunch of flowers given by his aunt is exchanged for a decorated coconut with red thread.
Groom’s aunt presents the bride who at this time worships the shrine of Lord Ganesha, with the ‘kanya shelu’ consisting of a platter with a sari, some jewelry, pretty slippers and a ‘mangalsutra’, a red thread with black beads strung on it. With the sari draped around her shoulders and the ‘mangalsutra’ tied around her neck the bride is escorted to welcome the groom. After garlanding the groom she goes back to continue her worship of the Lord. Before entering the wedding canopy the groom breaks two pots, full of rice, placed on the ground by the bride’s mother.
’Lagna’, the wedding ceremony, begins with ‘varmala’ in which the bride is led by her maternal uncle to the altar where she garlands the groom and he recipro/cates it. The priest blesses the couple by applying ‘tikka’ on their foreheads.
A Patel girl looks stunning in her bridal costumes that include a very expensive silk sari heavily decorated with zari works and a chic matching blouse. The beautiful brightly colored sari is draped in the traditional Gujarati style. But the latest trend shows that more and more brides go for richly decorated, stylish and chic looking lehengas available in different shades. During weddings the bride is adorned with 22 carat gold jewelry from head to feet. She wears Mang-tika along the parting of her hair, a big circular nose-ring having a chain hooked into the hair, beautiful necklaces, gold and glass bangles, dangling earrings, ‘payal/anklets, toe-rings and bracelets. These gold pieces are very expensive and are embellished with precious gems or stones like diamonds. The groom is attired in the traditional ‘kurta-dhoti’, but the present trend is to go for the designer ‘kurta-pyjamas’. He also wears a gold chain and a ring.
The bride’s father performs the ‘kanyadaan’ by tying the hands of the couple together in a marital knot. ’hast medap’. The bride’s right hand is kept in the groom’s right hand and they together reach out over the sacred fire below that is not yet lighted. This way the bride’s father gives away the most precious gift, his daughter, to the groom in the belief that he will protect her till the end. Her mother takes a sacred thread called ‘Varmaala’ to join the couple by tying it across them such that it looks like a garland over their hands. After ‘Kanyadaan’ the ‘varmaala’ is put around the bride’s neck.
Chanting Vedic mantras, the priest lights the sacred fire around which the couple makes ‘mangal pheras’ or circumventions four times, three times the groom leads the bride and the last one the bride leads. A small tussle follows at the end of the fourth round to know who comes back to the seat first.

Now the newly weds take the ‘saptapadi’, seven steps around the fire taking a vow with each step. After the completion of the wedding ceremonies all bless the couple by showering rice on them.

Before the bride bids a tearful farewell to her parental house, relatives and friends, the priest conducts a small prayer for the decorated car and applies a ‘tikka’ to the hood and her mother breaks a coconut in front of the car for a safe journey for the couple up to her new house.