Sunday 29 July 2012

How marriages happen - Jain Community


Jainism is one of the oldest religions of world. Jainism became prominent religion in India at the time of Mahavira .Jainism does not believe in God as the creator of universe.

Marriage is largely a worldly event. It is recommended to all Jain Shravakas (unless they have taken a vrata of Brahmacharya) because the children born of marriage will follow the dharma. The ritual of Jain Wedding is largely governed by the traditional practices that may vary for different Jain communities.

Jain culture believes in peaceful coexistence and mutual dependence through interaction between individuals marriage is considered to be a worldly affair. The typical Jain marriage consists of certain simple rituals and they criticize the practice of dowry. Marriage to the Jains is a declaration by the couple that they desire to be together for a lifetime. According to them, marriage should be grand but there shouldn't be any wastage of time or money.

Like many other communities, Jains also prefer to get their sons and daughters married within the community so that the children thus produced would follow the same dharma. So they look for a boy or a girl within their community through word-of-mouth or through newspaper or online Jain matrimony websites. Once the alliance is fixed a number of premarital ceremonies are conducted during the months of the engagement period like  
Laghana lekhen:
This ceremony is conducted at the girls house during which the family gathers for a small pooja and the astrologer decides the auspicious day for the wedding and writes down a lagna patrika describing the time and date of the marriage and the same is sent to the grooms house.
Sagai
Sagai is the proper engagement function that takes place generally at the groom’s house where the lagna  patrika received from the bride's house is read out(this is called as Lagna Patrika Vachan )  and the wedding is formally announced.


Read the full article here

http://weddingblog.arathymatrimony.com/how-marriages-happen-jain-community/