Marriages @ Heaven

The marraiges at Chettinad are elaborate, with customs & procedures totally different from the other Hindu marraiges. I'm trying to give a detailed account of the customs and procedures here .......

The 1st day (the day prior to the wedding day) evening starts with family, relatives of the groom or the bride visiting the home. (Normally the marraige happens at the brides home in the native village). Formalities of the "Thaali" (mangal sutra), making the yellow rope, including the main dollar of the thaali etc are done by the grooms "pangali" (the relatives of the ancient familial tree, who are part of the same temple). At the same time the women folk at the brides home build the marraige manai (the platform in which the marriage happens).

The next morning the groom moves to the brides village and brought to the brides home where the marraige happens with the traditional "nagaswaram, melam"and its called the Mappilai Azhaippu (Inviting the groom). Once the pundit performs the pooja, the elders of both families come together to the "manai" and call for the bride to come to the stage and they announce the marraige and the groom ties the knot.

Then it follows the customs of the bride and her sister-in-law and mother-in-law.

Will follow up in the next post about the events which follow later till the evening .....