Indian Wedding Essay

South Indian Tamil Brahmin Iyer weddings, like many other Hindu weddings, typically last about 2–3 days. It is celebrated in the Vedic style, where importance is given to the traditions and rituals which have been passed on over centuries.

There are 27 ritualistic ceremonies overall that take place during the 3 days (pre-wedding, wedding and post wedding). I will expand on a few of them (not all) briefly, as they are very complex and cannot be dealt with in detail here. I will predominantly focus on the rituals that highlight the role of the bride and the rituals that are performed to augment her fertility and ability to bear children.

Iyer Brahmin families begin to search for a bride or a groom within the Iyer Brahmin community itself. The foremost criteria for potential spouses is compatibility of the Nakshatra. There are 26 Nakshatras in total. It is the star sign of the individual according to the Hindu calendar, which indicates the planetary positions at the time of the individual's birth, and are said to predict their character accurately. This compatibility is vital as it assures the success of a marriage between the bride and the groom. If their Nakshatras are compatibile, a ceremony called Vaang Nischaya is performed, where there is an exchange of thamboolam (coconut, betel leaf and arecanut) before elderly people of both families, by the brides and grooms parents, symbolizing the agreement of the union of the two families.

Since the bride's side organises the entire wedding, Iyer marriages always take place in the bride's place of residence. The groom and his parents travel to the bride's place the day before the wedding, after all the arrangements have been made. Yatra Danam is a ceremony performed to receive the groom's family where a thamboolam, with two conical structures called Paruppu Thengai Kutti is