Indian marriages are famous all over the world due to its grandness and the scale on which it is celebrated. Also, there are as many types of marriages as the number of castes, religions, cultures and states exist in the country. Every community or group has there own rituals or ceremonies to be performed as a part of the marriages that take place there. Most people from Indian origin want to marry their child in the same caste or religion as theirs. There are endless number of castes in India, all of which are different from each other in one or the other way, they are differentiated either on the bases of god they worship, their origin, or the work they practice.

Some of the castes in India are like Brahmin, Bania, Iyer, shatriyas, Kohli, Khatri, Singh, Punjabi, Pandit, Jains, Karnawat, Sudan, Jaiswal, Kamboj, Kayastha, etc. Out of all the castes Kayasthas are referred to as the writing caste, which are the sub- sects of Brahmans and are mainly the residents of the North India. They worship lord Chitragupta, whose temples are mainly found in the south with the prominent ones in Kanchipuram.

Though, the wedding ceremonies of the Kayastha caste are almost same everywhere, with a little reflection of the area or the region in which they live. They prefer marrying in their own caste. The wedding ceremony, as others, is divided into three parts, pre, during and post wedding. The wedding customs or rituals followed in a kayastha marriage are:

Pre- Wedding Rituals:

Bariksha- A ceremony, which marks the acceptance of the girl and boy to be married with each other. In this, the Kayastha girl’s family sends a silver bowl full of rice, supari and turmeric powder and an envelop containing cash, symbolizing the confirmation of the relation to be formed between two families.

Sagai- Sagai or the engagement ceremony takes place with the exchange of rings called engagement rings in-between the Kayastha Bride and groom. The groom’s family visits the house of the bride with gifts, jewelry and dresses for the bride. The would-be mother- in- law of the bride also applies red ‘tikka’ on her forehead and places all the gift items on her lap.

Haldi ceremony: This ceremony takes places in both the houses of bride as well as the groom separately. As a part of this ceremony, a paste of turmeric, vegetable oil, milk, henna, called ‘Uptan’ is applied on the face, feet and arms of both the bride and the groom by the elder women of the family. The significance of applying this paste is to purify the couple’s mind body and soul for a healthy and happy beginning of their married life.

Tilak Ceremony: Tilak ceremony takes place at the house of the groom with all the bride’s family members present there with gifts, dresses and cash, which are then placed at the groom’s lap by each family member with the application of red tilak on his forehead.

Mehandi: Mehandi is a ritual celebrated a day before the Kayastha marriage; an evening full of fun, dance and feast is celebrated. Mehandi with beautiful designs is applied on the hands of the bride and her friends & relatives. Unlike other caste marriages, Mehandi or Henna designs are made on Kayastha groom’s hands also.

Bhaat- Bhaat is a lunch ceremony organized by the maternal uncle of the bride for the groom and his family members. Gifts are also given by the bride’s uncle to the Kayastha groom and his family.

Wedding Rituals

Baraat: It’s a procession full of dance and joy constituting the groom’s family and friends walking down to the wedding venue. The groom wears Achkan, Chooridar, turban and a Kalgi, after which he is, applied a red tikka on his forehead by his family members.

At the entrance of the marriage venue, the groom’s family gets a warm welcome by the bride’s family, after which the bride comes into the wedding hall and the Jaimala ceremony takes place, in which the Kayastha bride and the groom exchanges garlands with each other, after which they are taken to the mandap, where the actual wedding ceremony takes place, with the priest reciting the spiritual prayers.

Kanyadan ceremony, the ritual where, the father of the bride gives away the responsibility of her daughter to the groom for life time by holding their joined hands in front of the sacred fire. Then a scarf a given to the groom which id tied to the bride’s pallu, after they take seven circles around the sacred fire with the promises of being with each other in all spheres of life. This concludes the wedding ceremony.

Then the bride leaves her maternal house a part of the ceremony called, Bidai, which is a very emotional moment for the whole family as the bride is moves to her new house leaving all the childhood memories behind.

Post- Wedding rituals

After the marriage, the newly wed Kayastha couple is welcomed by the groom’s family in his house, followed by a muh- dikhai ceremony in the bride is greeted by gifts and sweets by all her new family members.

Few useful links:

http://www.jeevansathi.com/

http://www.jeevansathi.com/matrimonials/kayastha-matrimonial/index.php