SOUTH
The ongoing currency crisis that the demonetization triggered has become a dark shadow over the wedding season since the shortage of liquid cash is proving an insurmountable hurdle for both the families and wedding organisers. The entire event remains largely dominated by physical cash.
Many marriages are reportedly postponed, some have been cancelled, and in general, a sense of gloom seems to have descended into what should be some of the happiest days in a couple's life.
However, Indians should not be too disheartened. Karnataka has long had a solution to these woes.
Kuvempu, the renowned Kannada poet and the first Jnanapeeth Award winner of Karnataka, widely campaigned for pure and noble marriages. And to this end, he even created a format to achieve this goal.
He named the ritual 'Mantra Mangalya' and arranged the marriages of all his daughters and sons in this manner. Thousands of youths across Karnataka have adored, adopted and propagated ‘Mantra Mangalya’. Even today hundreds of couples choose this concept for their marriage every year.
Here are the main features of Mantra Mangalya:
Recently Karnataka's Social Welfare Minister H Anjaneya arranged the marriage of his daughter as per the Mantra Mangalya rituals in Holalkere, Davanagere district. Around 97 couples had a mass wedding on that day, amidst whom his daughter Anupama got married to Shashwat, a software engineer working in Bengaluru.
Out of 97 couples, seven were inter-caste couples and two were Muslims.
A noble wedding, with these simple concepts, will surely hold unique value in the hearts of the couple, the families and those who attend while also requiring barely any currency at all.