Indian Wedding

The Syrian Christians of Kerala, the southernmost state in India, were originally Namboodiri Brahmins whose conversion took place while St. Thomas visited India around AD 46. Their church is known as the Syrian Orthodox Church and its head, Catholicos, resides in Kottayam, a Kerala town. Though embraced Christianity, the Syrian Christians retained many of their Hindu cultures and still follow several old traditions in their weddings. A typical Syrian Christian wedding, an elaborate affair, is arranged by the elders with the bride’s family making the initial proposal to the groom’s people.

Once the proposal is accepted by the groom’s people, ‘Kalyanamurappu’ (arranging the wedding between the boy and the girl) takes place. Male members from the boy’s family go to the girl’s place to fix a wedding date convenient to both. Both families take a decision about the ‘streedhanam’ (dowry in the form of money, clothes, property or jewelry) that the bride will be given at the time of wedding after which she will never make any claims on her father’s wealth.
When this agreement is accepted by the two families, two eldest members from each hold hands in a symbolic clasp and the contract is sealed by covering their hands with an ‘angavastram’ (a white cloth). The respective churches announce the engagement for three consecutive Sundays while the members of the two families and their community are present. The boy and the girl, on the third Sunday, go to their respective churches to take part in the confession and the Holy Communion.
The pre-wedding ceremony, ‘madhuramvekkal’, held a day before the church wedding, is performed separately in the houses of the bride and groom. The ceremonies are similar for both, except one or two. For this, a barber is called to cut the groom’s hair and shave off his beard while the groom sits facing east afterwhich the groom’s eldest sister or female cousin applies oil to his hair, accompanied by a lot of bantering and teasing. Then the groom’s brother-in-law leads him for his bath insisting that he should take it from the westerly direction. After bath the groom comes out from the easterly direction with his brother-in-law holding an umbrella over his head. When he arrives all the women clap their hands and make a noise called ‘korava’, considered very auspicious by all Keralites.
In the meanwhile, in her house the bride sits in an ordinary sari while her brother’s wife anoints her with oil and takes her for the bath exactly in the same manner as performed for the groom. After bath she wears a splendid silk sari, puts on traditional jewelry and a gold chain with a cross on it and decorates her hair with flowers.
After the ‘korava’ is performed, the bride and groom, in their respective houses, sit on a chair with their heads covered. The chairs on which they sit are covered with a white cloth. The priest bless them while a sweet called ‘madhuram’ (pieces of banana fruit soaked in the sweet juice of Palmyra palm) is brought also to be blessed by the priest. The mother or grandmother of the bride and groom feeds this blessed sweet to them.
On the wedding morning in the church, the groom will present a beautiful sari, known as the ‘mantrakodi’ to his bride. In the night before the church ceremony, the groom’s sister draws strands of thread from this sari and twists them to form a cord on which the ‘taali’ known as ‘minnu’, a gold pendant in the shape of a leaf with a cross inscribed on it, is tied.
On the wedding day the priest makes a visit to the houses of the bride and groom separately to bless them. The groom carries the ‘mantrakodi’ sari, the ‘taali/minnu’ and two wedding bands. After receiving blessings from the priest the bride and groom move out of their house with a young girl holding a ‘diya’/lamp in the front.
In the church the wedding rituals are officiated by the priest and after the sermon the bride and groom exchange wedding bands. Throughout the ceremony the bride’s sister stands behind her. Wedding vows are exchanged between the couple and the groom ties the ‘minnu/taali’ around her neck during which the groom’s sister takes the place of the bride’s sister. ‘Taali’ gives the marital status to an Indian lady. The priest places the ‘mantrakodi’ sari on the bride’s head and blesses it. The groom and bride join hands and are declared man and wife.
For the wedding ceremony, the bride wears an off-white silk sari with a wide border embellished with gold embroidery work and glittering stones and a chic blouse in the same material. Her sari ‘pallu’ acts as a veil or she wears a separate veil over her head. She has only very little jewelry on her body, one or two necklaces, five or six bangles on each wrist, a ring on her finger and ear danglers. All these sparkling jewels are made of pure gold. The groom’s outfit consists of a traditional white dhoti and a white shirt.
After the wedding ceremony, the families involved host a grand reception for introducing the newly weds to the guests. Here, the smiling bride is the cynosure of all with her brightly colored gorgeous ‘Mantrakodi’ silk sari and dazzling gold jewelry.

The UP Kayast Bride

The outfits of a UP Kayast bride are an expensive fabulous Banaras silk or any other silk or chiffon sari with beautiful zari embroidery works and a chic matching blouse or a heavily embroidered ‘lehenga-choli and a matching ‘dupatta, the preferred colors being red, magenta and bright pink or yellow. She wears gold jewelry such as necklaces, rings on fingers, ears and nose, lot of bangles on the wrists, anklets and toe-rings known as ‘bichua’. Traditional ‘Kundan jewelry (uncut rubies, emeralds and diamonds set in gold) are also popular among the Kayast brides.