Rite 09 · Before the wedding
Mahila Sangeet
The women's night, given over wholly to music. Mangal geet and shakun-aakhar — the old auspicious songs of Shiva and Parvati's own wedding — rise in call and answer, led by the gidaar and carried late, and tender, into the cold hill night.
The whole weddingMahila Sangeet · महिला संगीत
Rite 09 of 19Known locally as
Shakun Aankhar
/ sha·kun aan·khar / शकुन आँखर
the auspicious songs — the women's blessing-songs of Shiva and Parvati's wedding — what the sangeet truly is in Kumaon.
What it is
An evening given over to the women's singing: mangal geet and shakun-aakhar, the auspicious wedding songs, led by the gidaar — the women singers — and answered by the whole gathering.
Why it's done
These songs aren't entertainment, they're a blessing. Most retell the wedding of Shiva and Parvati, casting the couple as the gods themselves; to sing them is to fold this small hill wedding into a divine one.
How it unfolds
The women gather, often with a dholak, and sing in call-and-response deep into the night — teasing songs for the in-laws, tender ones for the bride, sacred ones for the gods.
Who needs to be there
The women of both families and the village; the gidaar lead.
What's special — and how we keep it
These tunes are passed down only by ear, mother to daughter, and heard nowhere else. We remember the voices — and which aunt knew every verse.
Her side, and his
The bride's side
The bride's women hold their own night of song, singing her wedding — and her leaving — in.
The groom's side
The groom's women hold theirs, singing his coming marriage. Both homes fill with the same old tunes.
Pandit ji, the mantra & the song Draft
The mangal geet
Mangal geet and shakun-aankhar — Shiva and Parvati's own wedding retold — led by the gidaar in call and answer. Songs like 'De Dyawa De Dyawa' carry through the night.
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.