| The Gujarat Nagar Brahmin is a prominent community | | | | bride's family. During this ritual, henna artists make fine |
| in West India. The Nagar Brahmin weddings observe | | | | henna patterns on female relatives of the bride on the |
| deep-rooted traditions that start with the families of the | | | | feet and hands. Patel weddings also include a harmony |
| bride and groom approving of the wedding alliance in a | | | | invoking ritual, where participants pray for peace and |
| ceremony known as Chadlo, which is followed closely | | | | harmony during the wedding day. The priests give |
| by the wedding rituals; then the Gujarat dance. The | | | | coconut sacrifices to the gods. The Patel traditions |
| wedding couple is then decorated with flowers, after | | | | require the wedding couple to circle the sacred fire for |
| which a canopy is constructed. The bride then sits on | | | | four times, before taking seven more steps around it. |
| the canopy as she receives gifts from an uncle. This is | | | | When leaving the parents home, the bride's mother |
| followed by the wedding ceremony, where his friends | | | | breaks a coconut as a sign of blessings to the couple |
| and family escort him to the wedding platform. The | | | | Weddings traditions in the Maharashtrian Konkanastha |
| couple then exchanges garlands and the bride's | | | | Brahmin community involves matching the bride and |
| mother gives small sticks to the groom. After this | | | | groom's horoscopes to gauge if the two are |
| ceremony, the wedding party recites verses praising | | | | compatible. A ritual meant to invoke harmony between |
| Lord Ganesha. After this, the bride is given away to | | | | planets follows this closely. The bangle ceremony is |
| the bride by placing her hands into those of the groom. | | | | held thereafter, during which the groom receives |
| Their hands are tied together with a piece of cloth. | | | | bangles from the bride's mother. In a different ritual, the |
| The Nagar Brahmin traditions require the bride and | | | | bride's mother washes the groom's feet as a sign of |
| groom to walk around a sacred fire for seven times | | | | honor. Accordingly, the families must seek blessing |
| while repeating their marriage vows. Before leaving the | | | | from their respective family deities. In the Brahmin |
| parents home, both the bride and groom soak their | | | | community, the bride must pray that goddess Gauri |
| hands in vermillion paste and imprint then on the | | | | blesses her with a lifelong marriage. She does this |
| exterior wall of the parents house. | | | | while sitting on a low stool. This community offers |
| The Gujarati Patel Community observes similar rituals | | | | seven handfuls of rice sacrifice to the sacred fire .the |
| with the Nagar Brahmin community except that they | | | | couple is then showered with rice as they recite |
| include a henna ritual, usually between members of the | | | | hymns. Meals are served on green banana leaves. |