Wedding Rituals In Jainism

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"Weddings are important because they celebrate life and possibility" is a quote by Anne Hathaway about her viewpoint of marriage. Marriage is a union between a bride and groom to become a married couple. When Jain couples are trying to get married, they have to obey the rules of their religion. Both males and females are not willingly to have sex before marriage. "According to Jainism, sex [before marriage] represents bad karma for Indian people" (Priyanka Thukral Mahajan). Jainism is a long religious wedding ceremony for an Indian couple. However, Jain couples must respect their family traditions of three marriage ceremony stages: pre-wedding, wedding, and post-wedding.
Pre-wedding helps the bride and the groom to be prepared for the actual wedding ritual. The five pre- wedding rituals for Jainism are Laghana Lekan, Laghana Patrika, Vachan, Sagai, and Manga Mandap. Laghana Lekhan is the beginning of the wedding ritual. Families, friends, and relatives attend a small puja at the bride 's place. A priest goes to the bride 's place to announce the date of their marriage. Next, Laghana Patrika Vachan is a similar wedding ritual as the Laghana Lekhan. Jain Pandit writes a letter of the date and time of the wedding. The letter written by the priest is sent to the groom 's residence. The second stage of the wedding ritual is where the groom does a performance of Vinayakyantra Puja and the bride opens the letter from the priest. The priest begins to read the letter to families,