Anand Karaj

When two souls become one

 As India is a country inhabited by people of different religions, it should come as no surprise as to how culturally diverse the country is. When it comes to festivals and festivities, Indians are known for setting colossal benchmarks. As for a wedding, there is no holding back and every wedding becomes a grand and exquisite affair. There are different types of weddings in India and the customs and rituals vary from one caste to another, one state to another and one religion to another. In this issue, Wedding Affair will be getting into the nitty-gritty details of a Sikh Wedding, also known as Anand Karaj which translates to “A blissful union”.

It’s a common misconception that a Sikh wedding is the same as a Punjabi one. The state of Punjab is a Hindu state and its denizens are known as Punjabis and follow Hinduism. It is said that during the late 1400s, Guru Nanak Dev, a person who was always mystified by religion had gone out for his daily bath and prayers. He went missing for three days and came back a changed person armed with the realization that there is no “Hindu” neither is there a “Muslim”. At around the late 1400s and early 1500s Guru Nanak Dev went around doing missionary work and this eventually led to the emergence of Sikhism. As Sikhism laid its foundation in Punjab, Sikhs from Punjab spoke in Punjabi. This just goes to say that not all Sikhs are necessarily Punjabi. This is probably where the confusion had arisen from and hopefully this has been informative enough to dispel it.

What happens before the wedding