🎵 Not The First, Not The Last, But The Archetype Hindu Wedding — Ram-Siya Wedding!

Happy Vivah Panchami!

Dear Reader,

It was not the first wedding of Hindu culture, it wasn’t the last of its kind either, but if an everyday practicing Hindu is planning her wedding, the archetype in her mind is almost certainly to be the wedding of Ram and Sita.

The grandeur is not the quality sought to be recreated. Most of us are people of limited means. It is the emotions of those involved, which in their purest form and at their peak momentarily elevate a terrestrial ceremony to a celestial event; an activity of mortals to a divine ritual. 

Today, Vivah Panchami, the date of Ram and Sita’s wedding, gives us an opportunity to recall how our immediate folk culture recounts, remembers and celebrates the event.

I come from Awadh, Ram’s Kosala, and we have a virtually unending list of musical pieces derived from or based on Ram-Sita vivah. I am told Mithila, Ram’s sasuraal, has a similar treasure in their culture. 

But if only one example is to be shared, it has to be of Tulsi. Here is the description of Ram-Sita vivah from the Ramacharitmanas — सखिन मध्य सिय सोहत कैसे (Sakhin Madhya Siya Sohat Kaise).

Until next time,

Arush