(Garhwali folk Songs, Himalayan Folk Songs, Indian Folk Songs)
Bhishma Kukreti
Gotrachar is one of the important stage of Hindu wedding . When the marriage procession of groom reaches to the wedding place (bride’s village in old days, now, wedding places in cities) , the var narayan Pooja (respect of groom) Dhuliarg etc are performed by Pundits of both sides.Now comes the Gotrachar ritual. In fact in very old time, the match makers used to make wedding matches and at this stage the bride’s family and groom family members used to know detailing about each other. Pundit jee from one side asks the questions in Sanskrit Kim gotr…(what is your gotra, what is the name of father, grand father, great grand father, the first person of the jat/caste ) . Apart from it there is question for both sides about which river is nearby. Asking river was very important aspect in India. As river denoted the fertility of the land and by knowing the river, the mannerism of a person/family/society was also detected. In other words, river was the symbol of civilization and richness of families living neaerby that river
Now the gotrachar is formal chanting .
At gotrachar stage of wedding ceremony, Pundit jee from both the sides are busy in chanting Gotrachar mantra and the professional Mangal singer and female village singers sing the Gotrachar mangal . The important aspect of Gotrachar Mangal is that the Mangler (singers ) indicate that the bride family belongs to relative of Lord Shiva in symbolic fashion as
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