Indian weddings since time immemorial has been a colourful and vibrant affair, more so in the south, where weddings are filled with religious rituals, prayers …. And ofcourse gold. Though some find the brides covered with gold as a waste of money, south Indians don’t, and all for a good reason so. The gold that bride wears on her wedding day is seen as her parents’ blessing for her long and happy marital life. In south Indian weddings especially in Kerala main attractions are traditional Kerala jewelleries such as nagapadathali, sarapoli mala, palakka mala, pavithrakettu mala etcThe gold is seen as auspicious and are placed highly in all the rituals as well. So that they are not even worn on the legs (anklets are usually made with silver).
We often see that when we say ‘He is a south Indian’ people often take it as ‘He is Tamil’. The image of a south Indian is deeply etched in the minds of others as a Tamil Brahmin. So to describe a typical South Indian Hindu wedding, let us take a look at a Tamil Brahmin wedding. The Tamil Brahmin wedding is a long affair stretching over days. Even if some functions associated with the wedding are held in a modern fashion, the actual wedding ceremony is always done the traditional way.
A Tamil Brahmin wedding essentially has three categories of rituals, Pre wedding, wedding and post wedding rituals. The rituals begin a day before the wedding with the panda kaal muhurtham, which is a prayer held for a peaceful and uninterrupted wedding ceremony, followed by the sumangaliprarthana where the bride prays for blessings for a prosperous wedded life. The next major ritual is the palligaithallikkal, which is a fertility pooja, where a pot filled with nine type of grains is immersed in water. The most important of the pre-wedding rituals is the nichhayadhaartham, which is the engagement.It begins with a Ganesh pooja followed by exchange of new clothes for the bride and the groom from the family of the groom and the bride respectively.
Now it’s the wedding day and bride get ready with wearing most elegant gold jewellery designs and day begins at dawn with a mangalasnanam, which is a bath with haldi and kumkum. This is followed by the kashiyatra where in the groom pretends to be going away to kashi for a life dedicated to the gods, where by the bride’s father convinces him to stay and get married to his daughter. Once the groom arrives at the mandapam, his pada pooja is done, followed by which the bride arrives and they exchange garlands in the maalaimaatral ceremony. In some customs, it is done thrice and in some the bride and groom are lifted up by their maternal uncles to show the mischievous relationship and constant support of the uncle to his sister. This is followed by the oonjaal where the bride and groom sits on a swing and are rocked.
Now comes an important and emotional part of the wedding, the kanyadanam. In this ceremony the father of the bride places the bride on his lap and seeks the groom’s promise of love and protection for his girl, on which he gifts her to the groom forever. The groom now ties the thali- mangalsuthra around her neck and they take thesaptapadi. This is the seven rounds they take around the holy ritual fire, each a vow to each other. Each ritual is an art on its own and putting them all together with her beautiful pudavai, flowers and traditional gold ornaments like the beautiful hair jewellery, the nettichutti on the forehead , the chettinad gold necklaces , the dangling jhimkis, the armlet and the bangles, brings together a beautiful fun filled wedding.
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