Marriage: 100 Stories Around India’s Favourite Ritual

by Devdutt Pattanaik

Hindu wedding rituals contain many aggregated truths from Harappan and Vedic times, to those that came with the Greeks, Sakas, Kushan, Huns, Turks, Afghans, Persians, Arabs, even Europeans. The ‘sindoor’ and ‘bangles’ originated in Harappan civilization while the ‘mangal sutra’ has Dravidian roots. The ‘seven-step ritual’ comes from Rig Veda, but back then the ritual was for all forms of agreement, not just the wedding union. The ‘Kashi-yatra’ ritual evokes fears of Brahmins that their sons would become Buddhist or Jain monks. The ‘baraat’ comes from the Puranic story of Shiva’s wild hordes accompanying him to Himavan’s house to fetch his bride. The ‘sehra’ of the horse-riding groom, practised by Muslims also, comes from Central Asian custom of preventing the ‘evil eye’ from falling upon the handsome young groom as he sets out to fetch his bride. While ‘haldi’ (turmeric ritual) has Hindu roots, the ‘mehendi’ (henna ritual) has Islamic roots. The popular ‘sangeet ceremony’, once a North Indian practice, full of bawdy songs, is now a family song-and-dance affair around the world, thanks to Bollywood. The ‘engagement ring’ is a Christian idea. The ‘wedding certificate’, though seemingly secular, has roots in Judeo-Christian-Islamic ideas that value the written over the spoken.