Devanga community is purely a Hindu community from Karnataka and the rituals followed in Devanga matrimony are similar to Hindu marriage. The differences are only due to the regional impacts.
The marriages in Devanga community is mainly fixed through mediators or marriage consultants who keep an updated the list of prospective brides and grooms. Such marriage consultants are contacted by the boy and girl’s parents, and arrange meetings between the families as well as the girl and boy. Alike other Hindu communities, Devangas strictly believe in arranged marriages and matching the horoscopes before finalizing any alliance. Engagement is the time when the families of both the girl and boy make a formal announcement of the wedding and the wedding date.
A day before the wedding day in Devanga Matrimony, the bride arrives the marriage hall and seeks the blessings of the god. The first ritual is harisna, wherein the married women of the family apply oil and turmeric on the hands and feet of the bride. Harisna is followed by the bangle ceremony, where the married women as well as the bride wear the new bangles.
The bride is then bathed with the ceremonial water and various other rituals are continued for the whole night. On the wedding day, the groom wears dhoti and carries an umbrella while visiting the temple. This ritual is called as kashiyatra. The parents of the bride meet the groom at the temple and they wash the groom’s feet, on a silver plate. After a number of the pre-wedding rituals, the groom moves to the marriage hall for sacred thread tying ritual, surprisingly called as mangalsutra, which is for the married women in Northern India.
Mangalsutra marks the end of bachelorhood of the groom and a start of the married life. A grand lunch is arranged for all the invitees. After all the wedding rituals a reception is thrown in honour of the bride and the bridegroom, where the invites give their blessings to the newlyweds.
Author: Rashmi Karan
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