|
“An Indian Wedding”…and the words
evoke a scenario of gaiety, of color, of music and fasting. Although
these elements of rejoicing and celebration are common to all castes
and communities in every corner of Indian, it is difficult to
generalize and paint a uniform picture as the canvas is very wide and
the social set-up complex and multi-hued.
People of varied ethnic
origin, belonging to various strata of society, speaking myriad
tongues and worshipping different gods and goddess make up the rich
amalgam that constitutes the Indian cultural heritage and tradition.
But there is a common thread that makes up the warp and weft that a
wedding is a celebration of life itself. Rich and poor alike make a
wedding an affair to be remembered life-long albeit the poor have to
do everything on a shoe-string budget.
In the Punjab,
preparations for a wedding begin several days ahead. This is
particularly true to the home of the bride–to-be. For in India,
generally, weddings do not take place in a temple or a mosque but in
the bride’s home where the bridegroom’s party arrive with
family and friends. After the marriage ceremony, the bride goes away
to her new home with her bridegroom and his entourage. This is to
put it very simply but he preparations entail much forethought and
rituals.
For a start, the young
girl who is getting married is surrounded by a bevy of girl friends,
cousins, aunts, and other women members of the family who anoint her
with a concoction of turmeric, sandalwood powder and oil a day before
the wedding. This herbal beauty balm is to make her fairer, cleanse
her skin and beautify her. Ivory bangles called chaurha are
ceremoniously donned on both wrists, her hands decorated with
designs in henna and her hair arranged in a coiffure adorned with
flowers and jewels. Her attire may be a sari or a lehnga
(a voluminous skirt, gathered at the waist) with a top known as a
“choli” and over it a diaphanous chaddar or dupatta
(a veil to cover the head). The auspicious color is red. Bedecked
and bejeweled the bride waits for the bridegroom’s arrival,
heralded by the sound of music and the beating of drums and a
vanguard of dancers.
The bride’s home,
illuminated with lights and festooned with flower garlands and with
an elaborate welcome gate is the hub of activity. She receives him
at the portal of her home with a garland, generally of flowers. This
is a custom handed down from the days when a girl, particularly from
a princely family, chose her husband from an assembled galaxy of
suitors. She garlanded the one she favoured with the jaimala
and that ritual continues till today although, in some cases, the
parents of the bride may have selected her future husband.
The bridegroom and his
party are then served a sumptuous dinner. Traditionally, it was a
vegetarian meal prepared by professional cook or halwais as
they are called. The variety of vegetarian dishes in Punjab is vast.
Choicest seasonal vegetables are cooked in pure ghee (clarified
butter); there is always a dish of a rice pullao – a
fried rice with an addition of black mushrooms (morel) or green peas.
On the other hand, green peas may be curried with pieces of paneer
(cottage cheese) or the paneer may be mashed and made into koftas
(paneer balls that are fried and then curried). Chick peas (known as
kabli channa) are generally an accompaniment. They are made with an
addition of tamarind and spices and are a delicious dish served with
“puris”, small deep-fried bread that balloons up and in
crisp on the outside but soft inside. For nobody would dream of
serving at a wedding dry chapattis made of wholemeal and eaten every
day in the ordinary course of events. Then there is a yoghurt
preparation generally with varhas which are small savoury
cakes made of ground pulses of a particular variety, flavoured with
sliced ginger, green chillies and raisins. All the main dishes are
rich with ghee and spices. Other accompaniments are a variety of
pickles and chutneys and also papads, again made of pounded pulses.
The meal is rounded off with a variety of sweet dishes. The
traditional desert is a halwa in winter it could be made of carrots
or of ground lentil with an addition of khoya (milk condensed
till it becomes creamy and solid), garnished with almonds, raisins
and pistachios and covered with thin edible silver foil. In
addition, there may be freshly fried jalebis, a saffron-colored sweet
made of a fermented batter, deep-fried and then dipped in a sugar
syrup. In summer, kulfi would be served which is the Indian
ice-cream, again made of condensed milk with an addition of saffron,
pistachios and set in earthen cone-shaped containers. And the whole
rich repast is rounded to with paans, betel leaf with betel
nut.
In contrast to the
exuberance at a Punjabi wedding, a wedding in Kerala is a quieter
affair with much emphasis on the religious rituals. Of course,
present-day preparation are much simplified and generally confined to
one day for the whole celebration whereas in the past they were
spread over a few days. As in other parts of India, the population
of Kerala consists of Hindus, Christians and Muslims. Christians do
not hold a wedding during the period of Lent; similarly the Muslims
observe Ramzan. The period of fasting and no wedding takes place
during these days. The typical Brahmin wedding in Kerala is worth
observing. It starts with the boy and girl to be married being given
a ritual oil bath. The actual wedding ceremony is the Vedic Ceremony
where the bride and groom take seven circumambulations around a fire
to the chanting of Vedic slokas or verses. This is universal
to most Hindu weddings in the north and south. It is interesting to
note that in Kerala, a Brahmin wedding ceremony must be completed
before nightfall whereas in North India the actual ceremony generally
takes place later at night after the bridegroom’s party has been
feted at dinner.
Kerala being a coastal
state on the west of India, is studded with coconut palms and groves
which abound in the interior also. In fact, coconut is one of the
mainstays of Kerala’s economy. It is not surprising therefore
that it features prominently in the cuisine. Another important plant
that contributes both to the economy and to the culinary
repertoire is the banana
of which several varieties are grown in Kerala. It is the leaves of
the banana, or plantain as it is known, that serve as platters. The
wedding guests sit cross-legged on the floor and fresh green plantain
leaves, duly washed, are placed before them. There is no cutlery as
the custom is to eat with one’s own hands. The elaborate menu
consists of a series of dishes starting with avail, a stew-like
preparation of a mixture of vegetables with a white sauce. This is
followed by toran, again vegetables garnished with dry
desiccated coconut. The next dish is olan: the olan
prepared at a wedding is with coconut milk added to boiled
vegetables. Kalam is the next item on the menu: it is made
with curds with an addition of unripe banana and zimikand, a
tuber. Green chillies add zest to the dish.
Tamarind water and
jaggery are the main ingredients of pachhari which follows.
This is a sweet-sour preparation in which lady’s fingers and
gourd are cooked. With a tempering of mustard seeds and an addition
of coconut, the pachhari is ready to be relished. Fresh
ginger finely cut like matchsticks, is added to tamarind water and
jaggery which is the basis for injipuli, spiced with green
chillies. All these spicy and savoury dishes are served on a bed of
rice. A small bowl of pure ghee is kept on the left of the plantain
leaf and added at will as the wedding guest partakes of the highly
spiced and tasty items.
Fresh papadams are
also served. The dessert at a Kerala wedding is either of two
specialties paladaaprathaman or chka prathaman, both of which
are made with milk. Rice is added to the former and jackfruit to the
latter. Lots of coconut is necessary for the festive varieties. So
we see how coconut and the banana are predominant in the wedding
cuisine in Kerala. A marked difference between the Punjabi wedding
fare and the Kerala cuisine is the restraint on oil is cooking in the
latter, which is a much healthier form of cooking than the oil or
ghee saturated Punjabi food.
Whereas pure vegetarian
fare is enjoined at both Punjabi and Kerala traditional weddings,
non-vegetarian food is served at Bengali weddings. The festivities
start a few days earlier when the first formal agreement for the
marriage is arrived at. A puja takes place at this ceremony
known as pattipatra. Fish and meat are served. Generally, on
the actual day of the wedding, the formal engagement takes place with
the arrival of the bridegroom’s family at the bride’s
house. They bring sweets, a sari and jewels for the bride. Then the
girl’s parents and other close relations make a return visit to
the bridegroom’s home to bestow their blessings on him. They
give him gifts and then escort him and his family and friends to the
prospective bride’s home. He is given a new set of clothes and
a number of elaborate dishes are served. This ceremonial feast is
known as ai burho bhat. The menu must include 5 types of fired
dishes which consist of a variety of fried vegetables and fried fish.
Another dish is shukto
which consists of several vegetables but karela, or bitter gourd, is
a must in this. Fish is also the main ingredient in murhi ghanto
which is prepared with the whole head of a large fish, generally
rahu, a species of large carp. Alternatively, there may be a
dish of pulses in which the fish head is cooked. This is known as
macher mathe dia dal. Mutton and chicken are also served. The
desert is usually payash, a milk
and rice preparation.
Besides this, sweet yoghurt (mishti doi) and sweet made of
channa (cottage cheese) are also served.
On the actual day of the
wedding, the auspicious date and time of which are ordained by the
stars, the bride and groom both fast till after the ceremony. As in
other parts of India, the ceremony is conducted according to Vedic
rites with seven steps (sapt padi) being taken around the fire.
After the completion of the religious ceremony, the bridegroom puts
sindur, a red powder, in the bride’s parting in her hair. Kusum
dinga is the Bengali name for this and then he drapes a veil on
her head. The auspicious color for the bride is red and the
auspicious time of the ceremony is generally after sunset or godhuli
which is when the cows come home. After the completion of the
marriage rites, the feasting takes place which is again a lavish
series of delicately flavoured fish dishes, rice, vegetables, sweets
and sweet yoghurt.
| 
