Rite 18 · After the wedding
Katha
Once the couple is home, the family holds a katha — a day of recitation and puja to bless the new marriage. It is kept at home or at a temple; in our family's case, high on the ridge at the Vriddha Jageshwar shrine, which made it ours twice over.
The whole weddingKatha · कथा
Rite 18 of 19Known locally as
Katha
/ ka·thaa / कथा
the homecoming blessing — the day of recitation and puja the family holds once the couple is home, to bless the marriage.
What it is
Once the couple is home, the family holds a katha: a day of puja and the recitation of sacred story, in thanks and in blessing for the new bond. It's held at home, or at a temple — in our family's case, at the Vriddha Jageshwar temple, the 'old' Jageshwar high above the valley.
Why it's done
The wedding joins two people; the katha asks the gods to keep them. To open a marriage with scripture and offering is to set it on the firmest ground a hill family knows.
How it unfolds
The Pandit ji recites and the family makes offerings through the day, the couple seated at the centre of it, before everyone shares a long meal together.
Who needs to be there
The couple, the family, and the Pandit ji.
What's special — and how we keep it
Ours was held at Vriddha Jageshwar, on the ridge above the temples — which made it ours twice over. We remember the long walk up, and the deep quiet at the top.
Her side, and his
The bride's side
Her family come as guests now, to the home and the marriage their daughter belongs to.
The groom's side
His home hosts the day — the recitation, the puja, the shared meal that blesses the new bond.
Pandit ji, the mantra & the song Draft
Pandit ji's part
The Pandit ji leads the whole day: the recitation, the puja, and the closing havan over the sacred fire.
The mantras
The katha recitation and a closing havan; the verses are the family Pandit ji's, kept the way his line has always kept them.
The mangal geet
The women sing the homecoming and thanksgiving songs.
In photographs
8 frames from this rite, in the order they happened.
Photographs in association with Balaji Photographer — a studio out of Barechhina, on the Almora–Pithoragarh highway.