Rite 06 · Before the wedding
Suwal Pathai
Days ahead, the women gather to fry the suwal — the sacred breads offered first to the gods and the ancestors. They knead and fry and sing as they work, an old song calling the forebears down to bless the union before a single guest has arrived.
The whole weddingSuwal Pathai · सुवाल पथाई
Rite 06 of 19Known locally as
Suwal Pathai
/ su·waal pa·thaai / सुवाल पथाई
frying for the gods — the sun-dried, deep-fried breads offered to the gods and the ancestors before the wedding begins.
What it is
A rite found only in Kumaon: wheat and rice flour are kneaded, rolled into thin discs, dried in the sun and deep-fried into suwal — offered first to the gods and the family's ancestors before anyone eats.
Why it's done
No celebration can begin without inviting those who came before. As the suwal are made, the women sing an old song that sends a bee as a messenger to call the ancestors down to bless the union — the departed are guests of honour at every hill wedding.
How it unfolds
The women gather in the kitchen and courtyard, flour to the elbows, frying in great pans over wood fire and singing the suwal songs as the stacks grow.
Who needs to be there
The women of both households, led by the eldest among them.
What's special — and how we keep it
It's equal parts cooking, prayer and gossip — a kitchen full of women and song. We remember the smell of it, and the voices carrying across the courtyard.
Her side, and his
The bride's side
The bride's women fry their suwal at her home, calling her ancestors to her wedding.
The groom's side
The groom's women do the very same at his — each kitchen cooking for its own gods and its own forebears.
Pandit ji, the mantra & the song Draft
The mangal geet
The suwal songs — the old verse that sends a bee as a messenger to call the ancestors down to bless the union.
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.