Si­mone Sant-Ghu­ran

This is the fi­nal part in a se­ries on tra­di­tion­al Hin­du wed­dings.

On a Sun­day, the ac­tu­al Hin­du wed­ding cer­e­mo­ny oc­curs ei­ther un­der tents at the bride's home or at a tem­ple. A nup­tial bath of milk and scent­ed wa­ter is pre­pared for the bride and for the groom at their re­spec­tive homes, in or­der to re­move the har­di paste which had been placed on them two days ago. Af­ter this, the bride be­gins her trans­for­ma­tion in­to the beau­ti­ful­ly adorned "Du­lahin" (bride) that she will be­come in a few short hours.Mean­while, at the groom's home, wed­ding guests are in­vit­ed to dine for lunch. Some time af­ter lunch, the Du­la­ha's (groom's) en­tourage leaves from his res­i­dence and pro­ceeds to the Du­lahin's home.Guests join the car (or foot) con­voy to the Du­lahin's home or to the tem­ple. The Du­la­ha, ac­com­pa­nied by much fan­fare, ar­rives at the Du­lahin's house with his pro­ces­sion.Ac­com­pa­nied by the ro­bust sounds of the tas­sa, his en­tourage, head­ed by his fa­ther, greets a group led by the Du­lahin's fa­ther. As a sign of wel­come, the Du­lahin's fa­ther presents the Du­la­ha's fa­ther with a lota (brass pitch­er) filled with wa­ter, five coins, man­go leaves and a sin­gle flower. A pun­dit (re­li­gious leader) fa­cil­i­tates this sym­bol­ic meet­ing, which is known as the Baraat Mi­lan.

Af­ter this, the Du­lahin's moth­er and fe­male rel­a­tives wel­come the Du­la­ha. They per­form Aar­ti (a sym­bol of wel­come and ho­n­our) and scat­ter rice and flow­ers around him; this is called the "Par­chay." A pu­rifi­ca­tion rite is then done at the en­trance of the Du­lahin's home by her fa­ther. The Du­lahin's broth­er then wel­comes the Du­la­ha by ap­ply­ing a chan­dan (ti­ka) on his fore­head and giv­ing him gifts of co­conut, rice, cloth­ing and mon­ey. Af­ter this, the Du­la­ha and his en­tourage are tak­en to a re­cep­tion area where the Du­lahin's fam­i­ly of­fers them hos­pi­tal­i­ty and re­fresh­ments.

It is at this point that the Du­lahin makes her first pub­lic ap­pear­ance, adorned in a yel­low sari and ac­com­pa­nied by her moth­er, she makes her way to the al­tar. She per­forms poo­ja (prayers), and the Du­la­ha's el­der broth­er gives her gifts of cloth­ing and jew­el­ry. Af­ter this, moth­er and daugh­ter leave and the Du­la­ha is es­cort­ed to the al­tar to wor­ship with the Du­lahin's fa­ther.Then comes the long-await­ed mo­ment, when the Du­la­ha and Du­lahin meet. The Du­lahin is now dressed in a red sari and dur­ing the Kanyadaan cer­e­mo­ny, a loya (ball) of flour with sil­ver coins in­side, is placed in her hands. Her par­ents then place their hands be­neath hers and the Du­la­ha places his hands be­neath theirs. The Du­lahin's par­ents then ask the Du­la­ha to ac­cept her, and then they of­fer their bless­ings for the cou­ple.

Dur­ing Paani Gra­han, the Du­la­ha and Du­lahin for­mal­ly de­clare their ac­cep­tance of each oth­er. Of­fer­ings of ghee, gugul, rice, sug­ar and laawa are made in­to the fire, prayers are said and the cou­ple cir­cles the sa­cred fire at the al­tar sev­en times. Dur­ing the Sap­ta Pa­di, the cou­ple take sev­en steps to­geth­er in a norther­ly di­rec­tion and the mar­riage be­comes com­plete when the sev­enth step is tak­en.Mar­riage vows or sev­en con­di­tions are asked of the Du­lahin to the Du­la­ha. The Du­la­ha, in turn, asks the Du­lahin to up­keep five con­di­tions. Once these are said and agreed up­on, the Du­lahin takes her place to the left side of the Du­la­ha and they gar­land each oth­er.The Sin­dur Daan, takes place af­ter­wards, when the Du­la­ha places sin­dur (ver­mil­lion paste) on the part­ed hair of the Du­lahin, un­der a cloth cov­er­ing. One of his mar­ried fe­male rel­a­tives com­pletes the process. Wear­ing sin­dur is a sym­bol of be­ing wed­ded.This is fol­lowed by the bless­ing and wear­ing of the rings. The Man­gal Su­tra Daan fol­lows, and the Du­la­ha places a Man­gal Su­tra (mar­i­tal neck­lace) around the Du­lahin's neck. The fi­nal bless­ings are then giv­en by the pun­dit, who chants mantras and sprin­kles holy wa­ter on the cou­ple. Rel­a­tives, in turn, show­er them with rice and flow­ers.

Guests are in­vit­ed to par­take of a veg­e­tar­i­an meal. Some of the ap­pe­tis­ers served are phoulo­rie, katchourie and veg­etable samosas with var­i­ous man­go, tamarind or pom­me­cythere chut­neys. Main cours­es are tra­di­tion­al­ly served on ba­nana leaves, which are topped with paratha roti, rice, cur­ried chan­na and pota­to, cur­ried man­go and chataigne, bo­di, pump­kin, karhee, sal­ad and a spicy condi­ment called "moth­er-in-law" (a pep­per rel­ish with car­rots, lime juice, cu­cum­bers and caraili).Nowa­days, un­usu­al dish­es are be­ing of­fered, such as to­fu and soya served with pi­geon peas, gof­ta and sa­heena served in sweet and sour sauce. Dessert of ras­gul­la, barfi, gu­lab jamoon, ladoo and kur­ma is pre­sent­ed af­ter­wards to guests, in dec­o­rat­ed bags or box­es. No al­co­hol is served on the com­pound.All of this pomp and cer­e­mo­ny is com­mon­place to­day, how­ev­er, in Trinidad and To­ba­go, Hin­du mar­riages were not recog­nised by the State un­til 1946–over 100 years af­ter the ar­rival of the first in­den­tured, In­di­an labour­ers to our shores.

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