Paper Topic:

Why Sacrifice is Significant; Why are rituals important

HINDU RITUALS AND SACRIFICES

In a Hindu arranged marriage there are various rituals and customs According to Hindu Sastra there are four stages of life and the second stage is Grahastha Ashram (the householder stage , which signifies married life and it begins when a man and a woman come together and marry . Marriage takes the form of an institution , which teaches the actual values of life . Every stage in life has its own charm . A married life also has its own charm and importance . In the Indian society , there are mostly arranged

marriages with various steps . The first step starts with the selection of the bride and the bridegroom . The marriage among Hindus gives the illusion of not only the union of two souls but of two families . A Hindu wedding not only involves the bride and groom but the entire community , friends , family and relatives as everybody participates in their coming together

A Hindu marriage symbolizes not just a bonding of two individuals but also the bonding of understanding , commitment , mutual love and spiritual growth . In Hindu , tradition marriage is not just about celebration and fun it demands sacrifice , companionship , dedication , and surrender by both the partners . The rituals and customs associated with marriage portray the real essence of wedding . Mangalsutra is one such symbol of marriage . It is not just a jewelry item it has lots of significance to an Indian married woman . It is a sacred thread of love and goodwill worn by married women as a symbol of their marriage

The groom ties it around the neck of the bride on the day of their marriage signifying their union . Mangalsutra is the token of dignity and love given to a bride by her groom . It serves to protect their marriage and life of their husbands

Another religio-cultural element dominantly shared by most tribes who used to sacrifice bovines in to satisfy dead relatives and /or ancestral spirits . The role of supernatural carrier of the dead soul attributed to the sacrificial bovine , particularly to the water buffalo . The ritual installation of the horns or skulls of the sacrificed bovines on the megalithic monuments belong to the memorial or to the burial class . The frequent erection of forked posts , shaped as a pair of bovine horns , during the celebration of the mortuary rites at issue . Note that , especially in Indonesia , tribal longhouses decorated with real or wooden buffalo horns or with buffalo-heads made of straw such buildings , largely identified with the ancestors of their inhabitants and , in some instances , with a mythical figure of the Sacred Buffalo symbolising the same . The socio-economic functions attributed to the sacrifice of bovines performed at funerals , concerning the redistribution of cattle wealth and the redefinition of each family 's status and kinship links with the other families within the clan unity based on the major or minor lot of cattle wealth offered to common ancestors . The best instances of this social function of the sacrifice of bovines are represented by the...

6 pages

33.0 KB

Free sing-up