Marriage is the most
beautiful bond cherished by a bride and groom in their lifetime. There are
several stages, they need to cover and every stage adds a new chapter in their
life to learn from. The bride and groom make every possible effort to give their
matrimony bond a healthy shape. It’s a very delicate bond, which needs immense
amount of care and understanding from both the sides of bride and groom. The
communities and the cultures in India are vast, due to which the types of
matrimonies celebrated in India are also large in number. Each community has
something different to cater in terms of rituals and ceremonies followed in its
marriages. Jatav is another such community in India, which varies from others
in its matrimonial traditions. Jatav matrimonies are celebrated majorly
accordingly to the Hindu rituals, because of their base in the Hindu society.
Jatavs are believed to be the largest community of
Chamars present in India. They are known to have their origin from the Jat
community and referred with different names across India like Jatba or Jatoi in
Jammu district of India. They belong to an Indo- Aryan group of tribals living
in the regions of Punjab, Rajasthan, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. Jatav
matrimonies are performed according to Kshatriyas and their gotras are also
identical. Ceremonies like cannon shooting at Jatav
Matrimonial and usage of bow and arrow at the birth ceremony called samskara
are similar to Kshatriya. Jatav matrimonies can be seen practised in states
like western part of UP, North- western Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, eastern region
of Rajasthan, Jammu, Haryana and Delhi.
Jatavs are affluent
speakers of Hindi, Braj Bhasha, Punjabi and Rajasthani languages. The languages
spoken largely depend on the region to which the Jatav belongs to. The
community and the district in which the person lives affects majorly on the
language and the personality of the person. Like all other weddings, the
matrimonies of Jatavs are performed with great enthusiasm and positive spirit.
The attire of the bride and groom in Jatav matrimony is almost same as of other
Hindus. Dresses like Lehanga, suit or saree for the bride and Kurta chooridar,
sherwani or dhoti kurta are worn by the groom. The brides are usually decked up
in red or other bright colours and these days groom wear their matrimonial
attire complimenting the colours of his bride’s wedding dress. A prior
discussion between the bride and groom over the wedding dress is a very common
practise these days, which result in a great show at the wedding. Everyone
prefers looking at their best on their wedding day; same is the case with the
bride and groom in their Jatav matrimony.
The food, dressing
style, wedding arrangements in a Jatav matrimony, largely depends on the region
in which the matrimony is taking place. The rituals followed in a particular
district have a lot to contribute to the wedding traditions of the communities
prevalent there. The decoration of the wedding hall is in accordance to the tastes
of the people living there. The bride and groom are taught to value each
other’s emotions and stand by each other at every point in life. Life is said
to some across a number of ups and downs and it is the duty of the couple to
support each other at every stage. The jatav matrimony witnesses a number of
Hindu rituals which binds the bride and groom with the sacred bond of marriage.
Each ceremony is a step ahead towards strengthening the wedding bond and making
the bride and groom realise the significance of their wedding knot. Completion
of the wedding ceremony marks the commencement of a new life for the newlywed
Jatav couple.
Gurleen Kaur writes on behalf of Jeevansathi.com,
which is India’s fastest growing matrimonial website. Jeevansathi.com helps the
users to search matches from their respective community like Devanga
Matrimonial and find suitable brides and grooms like Hindu brides
and many others from our online matchmaking services.