When it comes to Indian marriages nothing can beat it when it comes to the fun, cultural traditions and the plethora of activities that takes place. India being a land of varied traditions and ancestral cultures descending from all parts of the world each community has their unique way of carrying out marriage ceremonies and the activities involved.
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Me belonging from Bengali community, I have witnessed several marriages of this section as it involves the traditional Hindus 7 pheras with the fun tradition of exchanging gifts like it happens in other communities, with the bride providing more gifts generally. It is also subtly used in many sections as a form of dowry with mainly people belonging from western parts of India, namely the Marwaris.
There is the Punjabi wedding, which is the pompus show with great and loud enjoyment as the people from Punjab are so warm and loving. I have my dearest female friend Karampreet Kaur Walia for whom I got a ticket to witness the Punjabi flair in wedding first hand. They really celebrate the wedding with great show and pomp as they take it in a joyful stride like all others but with an extra mile. The Punjabi wedding takes place in the Holy place Gurudwara with four, and it is locally known as Anand Karya and it is known as the heavenly bonding of two souls.
Moving south you will find another unique culture of Dravidian marriages where, in some communities, an Uncle can marry his niece. They also have a major Christian population down south, the ones that generally follow the western methods such as Catholic or Protestant would do likewise.
To round it off there is also the Muslim marriage, which is known as Nikah and is done under the name of Allah, where only after the marriage can the husband see and touch the wife breaking the barrier of a veil like cloth !!!!!!!!
That completes the synopis of a wide ranging story of various cultures involving marriages in India.
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Mitrajit