Rite 16 · After the wedding
Sasural
She crosses a new threshold — escorted the whole way there by her own brothers — and is welcomed into the family that is hers now too. A reception waits on the groom's side, and a day or two of their own rites, before the new life begins to settle.
The whole weddingSasural · ससुराल
Rite 16 of 19Known locally as
Sauraas
/ sau·raas / सौराश
the in-laws' home — what Kumaon calls the sasural — the husband's home, which the bride now enters as her own.
What it is
The bride's arrival and reception at the groom's home — the grih pravesh. Her family doesn't simply send her off, though: her brothers escort her the whole way there. The groom's side then receives her with a reception of their own, and a day or two of their own rituals, before the new life settles.
Why it's done
Crossing the threshold marks her entry into the new family. She's often asked to tip a measure of rice with her foot as she steps in — a sign she brings Lakshmi, and prosperity, into the home.
How it unfolds
Her brothers walk her all the way to the groom's house — someone of her own beside her until the very last step — and head home only the next day. At the door her mother-in-law or sister-in-law receives her, and over the days that follow the groom's family hosts the reception and keeps its own rites, folding her in.
Who needs to be there
Her brothers, who see her safely there; and the groom's mother, sisters and wider family, who receive her.
What's special — and how we keep it
The first hours in a new house, among new names — daunting and tender at once. We remember who reached out first to make her feel at home.
Her side, and his
The bride's side
She arrives a guest who is now family — asked to tip a measure of rice with her foot as she steps in, bringing Lakshmi into the house.
The groom's side
His home receives her: his mother or sister at the threshold, the reception and his family's own rites unfolding over a day or two.
Pandit ji, the mantra & the song Draft
Pandit ji's part
A small grih-pravesh puja may bless her first crossing of the new threshold.
The mantras
Grih-pravesh verses, welcoming Lakshmi into the home with the bride. (The exact recitation is the family Pandit ji's.)
The mangal geet
The groom's women sing the welcome-the-bride songs as she comes in.
A fasak — talk around the rite
Fasak फसकa chat, a natterWhy the brothers — and never a sister?
When she leaves, it's her brothers who walk her all the way to the groom's house. Why never a sister?
So that someone of her own stays beside her the whole way, right up to the new door. In the old days that simply fell to the men — they were the ones who went out, while the women kept the home running.
But that's only how it was. Why couldn't it be a sister, or any woman she loves, by her side instead?
You're right — there's no real reason it can't. I think we'll see it become a mix, in time. Perhaps it already is, quietly, in homes like ours.
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.