Hindu Wedding Symbolism

Wedding Symbols: Definition of a Married Hindu Woman

Symbols of the wedding are a way of Hindu cultural expression that basically interprets the marital status of the woman, elaborated by Urmi Chanda-vaz, M.A in culture and Archaeology from St. Xavier’s College in her cultural express video (Chanda-vaz, 2016). The most common symbols of Hindu marriage are Thali or Mangal Sutra, Sindhoor, Bangles and Toe-ring. Thali is a sacred thread, Bangles, made of gold or iron, and sindhoor, a vermilion, which symbolizes the dignity and a mark of respect and love given by the husband during the wedding ceremony, wearing as a representation of a wedded woman. As Erika Buckley, M.A, Sociology from Eastern Michigan University mentioned, wearing a Mangalsutra

The symbols of Hindu wedding differ culturally. For example, Sri Lankan Hindus wear Thali where Bengalis wear Bangles as their symbols. Even then, the design of Thali or Mangal Sutra differs culturally, for example, in the Southern part of India where Tamils live, it is only made of gold and Northern part Mangalsutra made using black beads and gold beads. As gold is a symbol of prosperity and well-being, a woman wearing a Mangalsutra or gold bangle is believed to bring happiness and prosperity to the family, whereas Black beads symbolize the talisman to prevent the evil eye. Each black bead is believed to have divine powers to absorb all the negative vibrations and protect the marriage of a couple, especially the life of the husband refers an article written by Divya Patwari, editor, and writer

According to Parul Chaudhary, PhD in Women Administrators from National University of Educational Planning and Administration, there are many laws related to Hindu marriage, which is denied the rights of women such as property rights, child adoption rights and remarriage (Chaudhary, 2015). Because of this inequality, the possibility of getting paid jobs is decreased among women who shows that they are married by wearing marriage symbols. According to Chin-fen Chang, PhD in social stratification and gender and labor markets from Department of Sociology, The Ohio State University, the employers are reluctant to give high position in work field to the female employees if they are married (Chang, 2006). Due to the prevalence of labor market segmentation by gender and the perspective of the higher officials about married women, the employment stability is affected. Thus, the women are psychologically affected since her freedom of getting a job or getting a promotion is being taken away. This correlates with the familial economic background of the women, hence the economic status of the family also affected (Chang, 2006). This action also related to the country’s economic condition where the productivity of the country might be