Indian 'Marriage' Culture

Several foreign countries, (mostly) differentiate India from other countries by culture and fine arts viz., The Vedas, The Upanishads, Epics like Ramayana, Mahabharata, Mahabhagavata,Bhagavad Gita, Classical music, Dance,Ayurveda..so on.

Undoubtedly, Marriage is one of the most important and traditional aspects of our culture.
One can write an encyclopedia on Indian(of different religions and regions) marriages.

I like to share some views on marriage-culture in a Hindu-perspective.

* Several decades back, marriage was a 5-day grand event.

Analogous to the 5-year plan in Indian economy, people(bride and bridegroom parents and relatives)
used to make 5-day plan that comprises of several simple events(do not ask me the probabilities!:))
viz., competitions(village-cultural), musical nights (traditional, like Hari Katha,Burra Katha, classical dances etc.,).

Amazing food(Vivaha Bhojanambu:)) preparations(food department plays a vital role to attract crowd:)).

* The core part of the marriage event is, the (Veda) mantras chanted by the priest(The core-event
manager/screen play-direction department).In general, they used to chant mantras for hours during several 'small' sub-events of the core event. People believe that those mantras are so powerful and will make the relationship between the Hero(beautifully decorated Bridegroom-God) and the Heroine(beautifully decorated Bride-Goddess)
so strong.

For decorating the leads(I mean the bride and the bridegroom), several garlands,flowers,chandan,turmeric..etc. are used.

* Some role model couples are:
Sita(or Janaki) & Sri Rama
Parvathi & Parameshwara
Rukmini & Sri Krishna

Marriages of the above couples were beautifully described by great Poets(and Rishis) like Valmiki,
Kalidasa and Veda Vyasa.

The following is a four-and half minute video song that describes the marriage of Goddess Sita and God Sri Rama.The song is so popular in AP to so much extent that, hardly people find marriage video without it.In other words,the probability that finding a Telugu-marriage event without this song is very close to zero.

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