"Decoding a Hindu Marriage" from: Devdut (website)
In an attempt to understand the women of Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, I think it is important to understand the Hindu religion and the element of marriage, since these two significantly alter the life of a young Indian woman.
In this article, a brief description of Hindu marriages was spoke of and I learned that there are different ways to celebrate a Hindu wedding, it all depends on the location. I read that a Tamil wedding will be different than a North Indian wedding and so on. I think that was important for me to understand because I thought that Hindu weddings would all be the same in India because they are all Hindu, but I am glad to learn that Tamil weddings are different and this leads me to want to research more about them.
The symbolism behind these Hindu weddings made me think a lot about how women may perceive themselves, after understanding what the symbolism means. I read that there are a lot of agricultural symbols in the weddings because India is traditionally agricultural society. For example, the man is seen to be the farmer and the woman is seen as the field. What comes about is the crops, which represents the children. Though this may seem a little bit different to a western, modern girl, I can see the beauty of the symbolism and how the woman might feel special because she plays a substantial part in bringing about something so beautiful as children.
Another symbol that I thought was beautiful was that of the last part of the wedding ceremony where the groom is brought into the house of the bride and since visitors as seen as gods, the "god" is given a gift, the best gift, which is a bride.
As I read this article, I wanted to see this from a different angle and see how a woman may feel important because she is seen as a gift. I think that how these women feel about themselves will be somewhat reflective of the symbolism of a Hindu wedding. Marriage and religion will play a big part in my research and in my observations.
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