Reversing trend: Two Karnataka brides tie mangalsutras around husbands’ necks

Bengaluru, March 18: Marriages and 'mangalsutras' (sacred marital threads) still very much patriarchal in their favour. It's the woman who has to make more adjustments when it comes to the two 'M's. However, the trend was reversed in Karnataka's Vijayapura district recently where two brides tied the mangalsutra around the necks of their respective would-be husbands to convey a message of gender equality, InUth reported.

Understandably, the incident made the headlines.

One of the newly wed couples - Amit and Priya - belongs to the Lingayat and Kuruba communities, respectively. They got married as per the teachings of 12th century Lingayat social reformer Basavanna who had rejected social discrimination and rituals like wearing sacred thread.

Another couple - Prabhuraj and Ankita - also belong to different communities and during their marriage, they decided against including age-old traditions like 'kanyadan' which is a symbolic 'giving away' of the daughter by her parents. They also did not organise their marriage around the idea of 'shubh mahurat' or auspicious time.

Recently, two marriages in West Bengal made the headlines for similar reasons. While the bride refused to do the tradition of 'Kanakanjali' whereby she has to throw rice behind her head saying she had to pay off her parents' debts. The girl openly confronted those who favoured it saying it one could never replay parents' debts.

In another instance, the father of the bride hired women priests to carry out the programme and also refused to do 'kanyadan' saying his daughter was not a property to be given away.