Concept of arranged marriages is very common in India . No matter how modern and developed India might have become , most of the Indian weddings are still arranged ones in the 21st century . In ancient India, child marriages took place and from then, the custom of arranged marriages started. Arranged weddings are usually arranged by the family members of the bride and the groom. The girl and the boy meet and then decide if they would want to get married.
Rituals and customs vary depending on the caste and religion of the two parties. India has various religions and castes with everyone following different rituals and customs. Arranged marriages in India are synonymous to the Indian culture and society. In arranged marriages, the girl and bride don’t know each other well before wedding. These weddings have been successful traditions in Indian culture. One can find an ideal match for arranged weddings in newspapers, matrimonial websites, relatives or friends. People practice various customs and rituals for arranged marriages, although every tradition has a different set of customs that are to be followed.
Arranged weddings have stood to be an important factor in upholding the cultural diversity of India. These days, people prefer arranged marriages to the other types of marriages . If the family of bride and groom agree with the wedding, then they plan a wedding program and follow the relevant customs
Since the ancient period, there is abundance of instances where it is evident that love marriages have been taking place in spite of the restrictive measures taken by the ancient Indian society. However, it was looked upon a taboo to express such feelings from unmarried men and women towards each other. Nowadays it is believed that happy marriages begin when we marry the ones we love. Love is a dream and marriage is a reality. And when both dream and reality gets unified, it is the best thing that can happen to an individual.
Love is a wonderful feeling and the couples always wish to experience the marriage, which calls for understanding and daily effort. We constantly need to nurture our feelings. It requires mutual respect for each other and time and attention as any other aspect of life. Love marriage can be the best thing if there is endeavor and commitment from the either side.
Indian love marriages have both pros and cons. This kind of marriages gives us enough time to know the person and then decide about the idea to spend the entire life. The couples can understand each other in a better way. However, if the couples start behaving in a way that is unacceptable for each other, it becomes difficult for them to adjust to this. And later on after marriage when they behave the way they are it becomes difficult for us to accept. But if the love is true, then love marriages nurture love with every passing day. So if one wants to make the love marriage a successful one, then the marriage should be given some more time and commitment and then one can see it blooming.
In Indian culture, marriages are considered to be an important institution and the word of the elders of the family is considered to be final . Until recently, children had no choice but accept the choice of their parents. Nowadays, things have changed and parents allow arranged-love marriages. The concept of Indian arranged-love marriages is that, parents select and then the two are allowed to court each other and the love brews. Some modernists think that there cannot be love between two individuals, unless they know each other. Anyhow, Indian marriages have stood testimony to the fact that individuals who have not seen each other before marriage live happily for years and this cannot happen unless there is love or commitment for each other. People do fall in love after marriage and that is the beauty of arranged-love marriages.
The customs followed in arranged–love marriages in India are traditional and might include all the paraphernalia associated with a typical Indian wedding. These kind of Indian marriages are arranged marriages and have proven to be more successful than the love marriages. In the arranged – love weddings, the marriage is held according to the traditional Indian style. The same rituals are performed – the priest chants the hymns, the bride and the groom take the ‘saat pheras’ or circles around the holy fire, and finally there is the ‘vidai’ of the bride. Pre and post wedding ceremonies are present in the arranged-love marriages.
The special features of the arranged-love marriages in India are many, but one of the important features is that despite being an arranged marriage, a mutual understanding prevails between the two sides as both bride and groom have been given a chance to know each other better and fall in love. Couples do obey the religious dictum and still find marital satisfaction and this very feature adds to the importance of this wedding.
