Assamese Wedding

By Author: Ankush Singhal
Total Articles: 173
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India is a land of diversity and with diversity comes various different cultures. The wedding customs have same meaning and importance for every religion. The Assamese wedding is the kind of marriage that generally happens between the people belonging to Assam situated in the north-east region of India. They follow Hinduism but their traditions have certain symbols that make their wedding different from others.

The families generally search a life partner for their sons/daughters through word of mouth as the community is small and does not marry outside of it. Once the wedding is fixed, an informal celebration takes place where the groom’s mother gifts the bride a gold ornament and accepts her as her daughter-in-law. The pre-wedding rituals are very simple yet interesting comprising of rituals like Juran ceremony. It’s a ritual where the groom’s mother arrives at bride’s place and is welcomed by bride’s mother who greets and gives her xhorai, a brass plate with a stem. Tel diya is the next ritual where groom’s mother puts a betel leaf and ring over bride’s head and pours oil three times. The mother-in-law ...
... then puts vermilion on bride’s hair parting and gifts her wedding trousseau.

Early morning on the wedding day, daiyan diya ritual is celebrated in which a bowl of curd is sent from the groom’s house for the bride which she eats half and the rest of the curd is sent back to the groom to finish it. Thereafter, both take a ceremonial bath in their respective homes. The water that is used for purification is brought from the nearby lake or pond by the mother of bride and groom and the bride and the groom after taking bath gets dressed for their Assamese marriage

On the wedding day, the Assamese bride wears a traditional Assamese dress known as mekhla chadar, a two piece silk cloth wore at the time of wedding. The groom wears a silk kurta along with dhoti and white scarf. The reception takes place before the wedding rituals are performed and the guests are served sumptuous and delectable food marking fish and meat as the highlights in the food menu.

After the reception marriage rituals begin and the groom enters in the bride’s house where the mother of the bride welcomes them by performing an aarti for the groom. Before entering, the groom has to pay heavy bride price to bride’s younger sisters during Assam matrimony. After groom enters inside the wedding hall his feet are washed by the younger sisters with milk and water. The groom is then lifted by bride’s brother and taken to the mandap hall. The bride enters after the groom and drinks amrit which is a mixture of ghee, honey, curd, raw milk and sugar on the entrance. She is also lifted on the shoulders by her maternal uncle and brought to the mandap hall.

The wedding ceremony is celebrated in front of the sacred fire which depicts god’s presence and both, the bride and the groom exchange garlands with each other and like Bengali marriages the relatives blow conch shells. The pundit chants mantras and tells the bride and groom about their duties after marriage. The bride throws rice into the fire after which the groom puts vermilion on bride’s hair parting and puts mangal sutra around her neck. The bride leaves her parents home and enters to her husband’s home where she will take the responsibility of the house. The rituals are very similar to Hindu matrimony.

Thus, the Assamese wedding is solemnized only after the above stated rituals are followed. The groom and the bride after marriage become husband and wife and share family responsibilities.

Kanika Jain writes on behalf of Jeevansathi.com, which is India’s fastest growing matrimonial website providing online Indian matrimonial classified service. Jeevansathi.com enables users to create and search corresponding matches for their respective profiles like Gujarati matrimony, Marathi matrimony wherein users can avail free registration and make initial contact with each other through services available on Jeevansathi.com via Chat, SMS, and e-mail.