Indian marriages: exploring the psyche of rituals

Observing the rituals performed in traditional Indian marriages states clearly that age-old long past (3500 years at least) traditions of Vedic Civilization is perfectly followed up, where the 'nature' comes as primary worshiping object, including the sacred fire, which was a major deity and theme of the Vedic era [1] .

From the dawn of human civilization in Indian subcontinent, the Vedic Period, whose collected wisdom remained unwritten for three thousand years since 1500 BC.
If Incan [2] and  Mayan [3] civilizations are correlated with the Vedic civilization, we find much common points concerned with the nature and human attitude towards it, as our today's concept of 'Back to Basics', which is the need of the hour for us all equally.

These cultures are long past, thousands of 
years back in time with their strong sociology and tech, somehow suggests the possibility of some 'Common Axis' among these grand civilizations of the past [4] [5] . 

Like many other known past, this too came to exist not and new civilization (Aryan) and religion (Buddhism) sprouted on it's ruins.

But..yes..it's interesting to see those long forgotten past with their words, deities, rituals being observed by masses, just as if 'something' inspired them to do so, despite their 'present' of 2013,which is so different and so far away from 1500 BC.

The simple and logical explanation could be made for this flow of human mass that this also follows the Haeckel's Biogenetic Law (Theory of Recapitulation), i.e. Ontogeny repeats Phylogeny. (With different formulations, such ideas have been applied and extended to several fields and areas, including the origin of language, biology, cognition and mental activities, anthropology, education theory and developmental psychology.) 

Agni is the most sacred deity of the Vedic period. He occupies a prominent place only next to Indra. Two hundred hymns of the Rig-veda are devoted to him [6].

Gods are different phenomena of nature-fire, wind, sun, earth, moon etc. Natural phenomena personified as gods, were endowed with powers.

Why did Vedic seers call the phenomena of nature as gods?

The epithet देव (Dev) was originally applicable to sky, sun, moon, dawn, fire, lightning etc. and afterwards extended to earth, storm, rain, and even to the night. Yaska calls every object of worship or praise, a देवता (Devta).

Vedic books containing poetry, history, geography, archaeology, anthropology, anthropomorphism, palaeontology, genesis of the deities, science, phonetics, science of language, ethnology, mythology, theogony, jurisprudence, religion, vedanta, philosophy of people and places therein..

Famous Indologist F. Max Muller has said about: "You will find yourselves everywhere in India between an immense past and an immense future, with opportunities such as the old world could but seldom, if ever, offer you". 


#Pictures of this blog-post are under strict copyright laws.
#Thanks to Aniket Pandey for his consent to photograph his marriage event and use some pictures for this blog-post.
 #Some more links of the same author about Vedic phenomenon being observed are:[7] [8] [9] .

Anecdotal Ritual

  Vedic rituals are something that have been of great spiritual importance to most of South Asia and its neighboring areas like Indonesia and South-East Asia. The people in these areas with varied beliefs have followed these rituals for several millennia. Vedic rituals are today involved in prayers and religious models followed in modern Hinduism. 

 Yagna is usually performed in special occasions like a marriage or housewarming wherein special sacred substances are offered into the fire. A puja is performed either privately or publicly; when done publicly, it involves the anointing of a statue of a deity and then offering flowers, incense and special food prepared specially for the deity. This puja is performed by the priest of the respective temples to be followed by chanting and devotional singing with the waving of a small camphor burning lamp to illuminate the image of the deity. There is usually an opportunity for dhyana and meditation too. 

 Though vedic rituals seem insignificant in the modern and fast world of today, it is a very important part of everyone’s life. Making it an everyday ritual brings lots of positive changes to your life, and the meaning of life. .

 Agni (Sanskrit: अग्नि) is a Hindu deity, one of the most important of the Vedic gods. He is the god of fire^[1] and the acceptor of sacrifices. The sacrifices made to Agni go to the deities because Agni is a messenger from and to the other gods. He is ever-young, because the fire is re-lit every day, and also immortal.

Etymology:  The word agni is Sanskrit for "fire" (noun), cognate with Latin ignis (the root of English ignite), Russian огонь (ogon), Polish "ogień", Serbo-Croatian oganj, and Lithuanian ugnis—all with the meaning "fire", with the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European root being h₁égni-. Agni has three forms: fire, lightning and the Sun.

In Hindu scriptures, Agni is the God of Fire, and is present in many phases of life such as honouring of a birth (diva lamp), birthdays (birthday candles on a cake), prayers (diva lamp), weddings (Yagna where the bride and groom circle 7 times) and death (cremation).

Vedas:  Agni is the first word of the first hymn of the Rigveda:

 अग्नि॒म् ई॑ळे पुरो॒हि॑तं यज्ञ॒स्य॑ देव॒म् ऋत्वि॒ज॑म् । होता॑रं रत्नधा॒त॑मम् ॥ agním īḷe puróhitaṃ / yajñásya devám ṛtvíjam / hótāraṃ ratnadhâtamam Agni I laud, the high priest, god, minister of sacrifice, The invoker, lavishest of wealth.

Faith Matters: Vedic Rituals En Masse

'Faith' is a science of bodily-powers which transcends the confine of human body and finally acts as desired/projected.

'Particle Physics' too believes that the 'Graviton' are the only closed 'String' form (particle/energy:the duality) which has capacity to move through all other 11 known dimensions.

Such is the human spirit that one fine morning we found out that villagers are busy in erecting a huge podium for their faith sake to observe the oldest known rituals of Indian civilization, that is 'Vedic' observation and offerings to 'Agni' the 'Fire'.

Temporary tents were erected in the field by the villagers for the participants..

And a temporary covered-podium for the sermon of the Saints, who were gathering from the different parts of this huge nation..

And a temporary staying-utility-there-in the field too for the guest who shall share their insight with audience..

A central canopied structure made purely of Bamboo stem & leaves with native decorations.

This centrally erected structure shall be the place of worship with a place of 'sanctum sanctorum' in the most central to it.

And the Vedic rituals of worshiping 'Fire' with various 'Mantras' from 'Rig Veda' and other age-old scriptures would contain a wish for the well-being of all humans including the mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms with the crucial balance of Nature with everything.

More references for the 'Yajna' (the sacred fire worshiping):

 (courtesy:Wikipedia)
In Hinduism, yajna (Sanskrit यज्ञ wikt:yajna; also Anglicized as Yajna, Yadna) is a ritual of sacrifice (also "worship, prayer, praise, offering and oblation, sacrifice" according to Monier-Williams) derived from the practice in Vedic times. Yajna is a ritual of sacrificing and sublimating the havana sámagri (herbal preparations) in the fire accompanied by the chanting of the Vedic mantras. The sublime meaning of the word yajna is derived from the Sanskrit verb yaj, which has a three-fold meaning of worship of deities (devapujana), unity (saògatikaraña) and charity (dána). An essential element is the sacrificial fire - the divine Agni - into which oblations are poured, as everything that is offered into the fire is believed to reach God. As the name of the service, the term yajna is linguistically (but not functionally) cognate with Zoroastrian (Ahura) Yasna. Unlike Vedic Yajna, Zoroastrian Yasna has "to do with water rather than fire".(Drower, 1944:78; Boyce, 1975:147-191)
Rituals associated with temple worship in Hinduism are called agamic, while those involving communication with divinity through Agni are considered to be Vedic. Temple rites in modern-day Hinduism are a combination of both Vedic and agamic rituals. The ritualistic portion of the Hindu scriptures is called Karma-Kanda. Parts of Vedas which describe or discuss Yajnas or sacrifices fall into this portion. The Nambudiri Brahmins of Kerala are among the most famous Śrauta Brahmins who maintain these ancient rituals.
Today, only a few hundred individuals know how to perform these sacrifices and even fewer are able to maintain the sacred fires continuously and perform the Śrauta rituals. Only a few thousand perform the Agnihotra or basic Aupasana fire sacrifice daily .

#place:Bhitthi, Ambikapur, India.
#date:11th February, 2012