Religious Ceremonies

• Tamil Shaivite Brahmin ceremony, explained in detail by Padma Vaidyanath.
• Bangladeshi Muslim wedding ceremony -- pictures and short descriptions of some ceremonies.
• Muslim weddings, a summary. Note that some of the traditions described may be purely regional. From WeddingsIndia.net
• Bengali wedding -- pictures and description.
• A Hindu wedding in Hyderabad, from the perspective of a guest from London.
• Jain marriage rituals and procedures, by Yashwant K. Malaiya
• Gujarati wedding ceremony.
• Marriages in Punjab, and another description of a Punjabi wedding ceremony
• An unusual ritual at a Rajput wedding
• Parsi wedding ceremony
• Sikh marriage ceremony -- a brief description by Dr. Pritam Singh in the Singaporean Sikh.
• Pictures of a Kannadiga wedding.
• Articles and essays about Marriage in Islam, from the zawaj.com
• Christian -- Wesleyan, Episcopal, Anglican, suggested Bible readings,
• Jewish wedding customs
• Unitarian wedding ceremonies The Unitarian church is nondenominational and inclusive of all traditions. Intercultural couples who want a formal ceremony often like the flexibility that allows them to draw on their own cultures and traditions.

Merging and Creating Traditions

• Unions breaking tradition. A "HinJew" wedding in Philadelphia. Gaiutra Bahadur in the Philly Inquirer.
• Anis and Juditha's album with a 'Western' wedding in the US and a Bangladeshi wedding in Dhaka.
• Vega and Mala meet on Sawnet, and get married a few years later. (In 2004 they sued to legalize gay marriage in Washington State -- see the news page for more info)
• "How we got married" (or "The Cool-Ass Multicultural Hybrid Wedding-Thingy" :-)), by Melinda and Dorai Iyer.
• A Hindu-Jewish wedding ceremony in California, 2002.
• Love in the time of Kargil. An Indian man talks about his marriage to a Pakistani woman, in Little India.
• A traditional South Indian (Bangalore) ceremony in Seattle. Priya Kumar Bradfield describes her wedding to Christopher Bradfield.
• A Sikh/Methodist couple in New York A Punjabi-American bride and a Methodist groom have a traditional Sikh wedding in New York.
• A short Hindu wedding ceremony. Merging the Gujarati Brahmin traditions with Unitarian and Christian traditions, by Prentiss Riddle.
• A Hindu ceremony followed by a church ceremony An Indian-American Hindu woman marrying an American Christian man.
• The Ideal Wedding Ceremony? -- Arundhati Sankar describes an unusual ceremony that treats man and woman on an equal basis.
• A feminist Hindu ceremony. Radha Rangarajan and Santanu Paul, a Tamilian and a Bengali, were opposed to the traditional Vedic marriage and wrote the script for their feminist Hindu wedding ceremony.
• A civil marriage. This couple barely made it to their wedding :-).
• A Unitarian wedding. An Indian couple from different communities in Houston.
• Raj and Sharon's wedding. Raj, a Hindu, married Sharon, a Reform Jew, in a pair of ceremonies. RAM video clips.
• Vinesh and Darshani/Amber's wedding in Chennai, Tamil Nadu in Jan 98.

Interesting Links

• Are our sisters and daughters for sale?. Statistics on dowry in India. The Dowry Pledge.
• Young Wives' Tales New Adventures in Love and Partnership. Edited by Jill Corral and Lisa Miya-Jervis, Seal Press, June 2001. Gen-X women and marriage, straight and queer perspectives on transforming the institution. Includes 'A Suitable Union', a chapter by Bhargavi C. Mandava on her reluctant devision to have a traditional Indian wedding to placate her traditional parents.
• Deranged marriage. Sridhar Pappu writes about his arranged marriage breakdown in Salon.
• Asian forced marriages to be outlawed in Britain. Telegraph, 18 Jun 00.
• Intermarriages are on the rise. India Abroad, 30 Jul 99.
• The changing face of Indian Christian weddings. India Abroad, 30 Jul 99.
• Transplanting traditional ceremonies to America. India Abroad, 30 Jul 99.
• An Arranged Marriage. Neeta Vallab writes about her brother's trip to India to find a bride.
• Marriage issues in Islam. e.g. marriages between first cousins, dowry, arranged marriages. From the religious columns of Arab News, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
• The Three-Minute Wedding. The Shri Krishna temple in Guruvayoor, Kerala, conducts 35 to 100 marriages a day, and is popular for 'love' or intercaste marriages.
• Maharashtrian wedding feast that will have you salivating. Has pictures and recipes.
• Planning a lesbian wedding
• Indian-American weddings are becoming more elaborate, a report from LittleIndia.
• Legal Issues for South Asian women, some of which relate to marriage and divorce.
• The story behind Western wedding traditions, an entertaining look at how traditions like a white dress, a ring, and a honeymoon developed.
• Who can perform a wedding? Pretty much anyone, though it's best to have a legal civil wedding as well. Interestingly, your best friend, favourite aunt, or cousin's daughter can become a ULC minister and perform your (possibly non-legal) ceremony. See link for more info.
• Mixed Marriages -- a three-part series from Hinduism Today. Part 2, and Part 3.
• Indo-Canadian Mixed marriages context and dilemma. By Jacqueline A. Gibbons.
• Madhubani paintings. The art of Mithila is linked to religious ceremonies, particularly marriage....
• Worldwide wedding customs. The ones from South Asia are mostly incorrect, or relate to one community only, but the entire list may give you some fun ideas. I liked the one from Bermuda...
• A decent proposal. An article about semi-arranged marriage among Indian Americans, in Prism.

On a sadder note...

• Dowry and its attendant horrors continue in the subcontinent. NPR, 19 Jun 00.
• Fight for forbidden love -- a Pakistani couple who married without their parents' consent. BBC Online
• Call for action on forced marriages in UK.
• Pakistan "Romeo" shooting.
• Domestic Violence murders in the US and Canadian South Asian communities, at the Manavi web site.

Credits: Priya Bradfield, Champa Bilwakesh, Susan Chacko