South Indian Wedding

The marriage, known as kalyanam, is performed on an auspiciously decorated wedding platform, called the manavarai with the participants around the kalasam- a brass or silver pot (human body)- filled with holy water, topped with coconut (head), surrounded by five mango leaves (senses) and placed on a plantain leaf coved with raw rice or paddy. This poorana kumbam signifies self realization- the control of the body mind and the senses.