India is a multi-cultural city with many religions co-existing together. The north Indian culture is entirely different from south Indian culture and West Indian regions are different from east India. Among these, south Indian culture boasts of its elementariness and simplicity. The people are very humble and follow every marriage ritual with devotion and seriousness. Wedding for Tamil community is an occasion where near and dear ones come together to bless the future couple. It is a festivity which is marked by the unification of all family members. The Tamil wedding rituals are performed in Hindu Vedic style which is a 3-4 days long affair. The Tamil bride and the groom look spectacular on their wedding day wearing expensive and elaborate wedding dresses. For an Indian girl, marriage is a very important event and even after several years of marriage, she can tell the story of her marriage with minutest detail. Besides the grandeur of her marriage, Indian bride spends most of the time on deciding her wedding dress. It is the wedding apparel that holds a special place and is never thrown away even after decades. A Tamil bride reflects the sanskriti of India as she is draped in a nine yard saree which is yellow, golden or white in color. The cloth of the saree is in pure silk bought from the most renowned shops in Tamil Nadu. Matching jewelry is worn by the bride made of gold and is heavy weight. A lot of gold hair accessory is attached with golden pins on the head and covers the entire forehead. White bunch of flower is mandatory for every Tamil bride that is put around the hair bun. Few other jewelry is also worn by the bride that includes heavy necklace, gold waist band, several bangles in each hand, anklet around the ankle and toe rings. A Tamil groom equally compliments his bride and wear subtle colors which balances the bright attire of the bride and the pair complements well when sit together. The bridegroom traditionally wears a plain white dhoti and white patta on his shoulder along with a plain kurta. But, today the groom is experimenting and also wears western suits on their wedding. On the wedding day, series of rituals take place which starts early in the morning with mangal snaanam where the bride and the groom take holy both for purification. This is followed by Kashi yatra where the groom pretends to leave for kashi yatra to devote himself to god. The girl’s father then intervenes and stops the groom from leaving and requests him to accept his daughter as her life partner by marrying her. The groom then returns back and enters in the wedding hall. The bride and the groom then exchange garlands with each other. This is followed by another ceremony known as oonjal where the Tamil bride and Tamil groom are made to sit on a swing and the married females offer milk and banana pieces to them. They circle rice balls around the couple in circular motion which is done to keep the evil forces away from the couple. Kanyadaan is then performed by the parents of the bride where the mother of the bride applies kajal in groom’s eyes and the bride’s father washes grooms feet with water and milk as he is considered an incarnation of lord Vishnu. The bride with the help of sister-in-law changes her saree and wears another saree given by the groom’s family. The groom ties mangalsutra around her neck which is a symbol for married women among Hindus and holds bride’s right hand in his left hand and take seven rounds around the sacred fire. The bride touches a grinding stone each time they complete a round. After completing the rounds the groom and the bride are pronounced husband and wife. They tale blessings from elders before stepping into a newly married world. Tamil weddings are a tradition in itself attended by large number of close and distant relatives.
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