Bridal Saris in South Indian Weddings
A wedding is the binding of two hearts, two souls ready to live a life together. Indian weddings are known for their traditions and ceremonies, through which one can experience the richness of the Indian customs. Over the years, the traditional purity has remained; we hope it will remain significant in the generations to come.
The bridal wear for the various ceremonies is chosen with a lot of care & interest, understandably, as for a bride the grand elegance with which she presents herself is very important for the occasion which is one of the biggest events in her life.
Saris are chosen for various ceremonies which include the nichayathartham in which the marriage invitation is read out. The invitation includes the details of the bride and the groom with their personal details, gothras and to which village their forefathers belonged. The bride and groom are officially engaged in God’s name.
Kasi yaatrai refers to an age-old Brahmin ritual where the groom takes up ’sanyaasam’ for spiritual pursuit. He would ultimately be ‘convinced’ by the bride’s father to return and take up “grahastham” or family life and that the bride will assist in his subsequent spiritual pursuit. The groom will then agree and garlands will be exchanged by the bride and groom.
They would then head to a swing (oonjal) in the mandapam. Respected womenfolk of the household will perform rituals with classical singing to ward off “evil eyes” as the bride and groom are seated on the oonjal. The bride gets a sari just for this ceremony -usually picked out in gorgeous morning colours like orange, yellow, maroon or green in lustrous Kanjivaram silk.
They then proceed to the mandapam where rites of the marriage- are performed. The bride is seated on her father’s lap and he offers his daughter to be taken care by the groom. For this ceremony, the bride is gifted a sari by the groom’s mother in shades of green or red. The priests chant mantra and the thali is tied with three knots around the bride’s neck. The three knots correspond to the tie-up of the mind, body & spirit. The newly wed couple then take blessings from the elders and the priests.
The sari’s are filled with heavy borders and pallu work with various designs, zaris, motifs, colours and may portray themes. The different ceremonies find the bride in traditional yet attractive saris and are relevant and thematic to the ceremony that is being performed.
Click here to view Sarangi’s wide collection of Kanjivaram bridal saris.