Kanyadana (Sanskrit: कन्यादान, romanized: Kanyādāna) is a Hindu weddingritual.[1] One possible origin of this tradition can be traced to 15th century stone inscriptions found in the Vijayanagara Empire in South India.[2] There are different interpretations regarding kanyadana across South Asia.
Kanyadana is made of the Sanskrit words kanyā (maiden) and dāna (giving away), referring to the tradition of a father giving his daughter in marriage to a groom. symbolizing the transfer of responsibility and care from one family to another.[3]
In communities where kanyadana is performed as part of the actual wedding, the ritual is carried out through a variety of kanyadana songs. These songs may include the parents lamenting the loss of their daughter etc. Other songs focus on the groom, for example comparing him to the "ideal groom", the god Rama, in the epic Ramayana. Importantly, the kanyadana ritual occurs right before the sindoor ritual (sinduradana).[4]
^Enslin, Elizabeth. "Imagined Sisters: The Ambiguities of Women’s Poetics and Collective Actions". Selves in Time and Place: Identities, Experience, and History in Nepal. Ed. Debra Skinner, Alfred Pach III, and Dorothy Holland. Lanham; Boulder; New York; Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 1998 (269-299).
^Henry, Edward O. "Folk Song Genres and Their Melodies in India: Music Use and Genre Process". Asian Music (Spring-Summer 2000). JSTOR. 20 February 2008.
