The movie Jodha Akbar had us drooling over the scrumptious, gorgeous and totally over the top Rajput jewellery and clothes worn by Aishwarya Rai. But a Rajput wedding is not just about the clothes. It’s also about age-old rituals and the essence of royalty that permeates every aspect of the wedding. So if you are a Rajput bride or getting married to one, you will completely identify with these things that happen at a Rajput wedding.
1. There’s no wedding without a chattees guna match
This is serious business! It mostly comes from the Rajput saying, “When even Ram and Sita, who had a perfect chattees guna match, couldn’t live together, what will happen to us mortals?”
2. Rang de tu mohe gerua
The haldi ceremony marks the beginning of the wedding proper. The girl wears an orange sari and is expected to keep herself secluded till the day of the wedding to protect her from the evil eye.
3. Lena dena is on a scale of its own!
And it begins from the tilak and stretches to the wedding day. Guests actually weigh the jewellery in their hands to check whether it’s heavy enough or not!
4. Bang, bang!
What is a Rajput baraat without multiple guns firing in the air at various times? As a friend of mine once put it, “All the guns in the house came out at my uncle’s wedding. When I first saw them altogether, I thought there was a fight among the clans!” So get ready for thayain, thayain as you dance your way to the shaadi venue.
5. Paison ki bochaar
You have to see this to believe it. All the elders of the family will have bundles of currency notes secreted in their clothes. They use the notes to do nazar utarana of the groom and then fling them into the air! It’s almost a competition between them.
6. Here a rajbhog, there a rajbhog
This the quintessential Rajput mithai. Be prepared to be stuffed to the gills by the time the wedding ends!
7. Ghodi is so cattle class, our grooms ride atop elephants
Yup, the Rajputs put the royal in royalty.
8. Nath nahin to dulhan nahin
It’s probably the most essential of all the bridal jewellery. But how can we say no when they are so pretty!
9. Shake it, shake it!
So this might be a UP tradition, but once the pheras are done and the bride and groom are leaving the mandap, the boy’s father is asked to vigorously shake the mandap to symbolise the end of the wedding.
10. Mehfil jamaana
This is another tradition which has come down from the royal past. After the wedding, the groom’s family holds a big Rajput dawaat. While earlier musicians were invited to entertain the guests – like the jhoomer dance and classical Hindustani musicians – these days the dawaat becomes part of the reception.
11. Bahu ke haath ka khaana
The Rajput brides are usually super pampered! They are expected to relax and not do a single thing in her new household! So when you do step in the kitchen it’s a big deal! This bhoj is really looked forward to do, even if you just cook kheer!
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