Is kanyandan relevant today? Why Allahabad HC said ritual is not essential in Hindu marriage

The Indian wedding is replete with centuries-old rituals. Steeped in tradition, some of them are said to be patriarchal. The “kanyadan” is one such ceremony. It’s a big part of the Hindu wedding but is it essential? No, says the Allahabad High Court. It observed that the ceremony of “kanyadan” is not necessary for the solemnisation of marriage under the Hindu Marriage Act.

“Thus, Hindu Marriage Act merely provides saptpadi as an essential ceremony of a Hindu marriage and it does not provide that the ceremony of kanyadan is essential for solemnisation of a Hindu marriage,” a bench of Justice Subhash Vidyarthi observed, according to a report by Live Law.

What are kanyadan and saptpadi? What has the Allahabad High Court said? We explain.

The two rituals: Saptpadi and kanyadan

Saptpadi refers to the seven pheras (circles) taken by the bride and groom around the sacred fire during a wedding ceremony. Each phera has a meaning and during this couples take a vow, which is considered to be unbreakable. They make promises of health, happiness, and well-being and to look after and respect each other.

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The kanyadan ritual is said to be dated back to the Vedic era and involves the bride’s family. The word “kanya” means daughter and “dan” means donation or giving something away, according to the literal translation from Sanskrit.

Kanyadan is performed by the bride’s family, where the parents offer their daughter to the groom in the presence of the sacred fire. It involves a “hasta milap” ceremony – the bride’s father puts her right hand over the groom’s. The father requests the groom to treat his daughter as an equal. It is believed that the ritual purifies the sins of the woman’s parents.

The bride’s mother then pours holy water on the couple’s palms and places flowers, fruits and betel nuts among others. The ritual is completed with the priest reciting mantras.

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The bride’s mother abstains from drinking or eating until the ceremony concludes.

The concept of kandyadan is mentioned in the Manu Smriti, according to which male guardianship is necessary for a woman. The father is said to be her guardian until she is married and then it is passed on to the husband, according to a report in The Times of India.

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The Allahabad HC ruling on kanyadan

The court was dealing with a revision plea filed by one Ashutosh Yadav, challenging an order of the additional sessions judge in a sessions trial. He was contesting a criminal case filed by his in-laws and he maintained before the trial court that his marriage under the Hindu Marriage Act mandated a kanyadan ceremony, which was not performed when he tied the knot.

The court observed that in the impugned order, the trial court had recorded the contention of the revisionist that the marriage certificate filed by the prosecution mentioned that the marriage was solemnised as per Hindu rituals. However, the fact of the kanyadan ceremony needed to be ascertained and therefore re-examination was needed, according to a report in Hindustan Times.

“The Act provides ‘saptapadi’ as an essential ceremony… Whether the ceremony of ‘kanyadan’ was performed or not, would not be essential for a just decision in this case,” Justice Vidyarthi of the HC court said, junking Yadav’s revision plea.

The Hindu Marriage Act

NR Raghavachariar’s Hindu Law, Eight Edition, 1987, stated that “it cannot be denied that ‘Kannikadana’ or ‘Kanyadana’ is an important part of rites of Hindu Marriage in ‘Brahma form’. It is a different matter that omission to perform ‘Kanyadana’ will not result in the invalidity of the marriage. This has been incorporated in Section 7(2) of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, according to a report in News18.

The debate over kanyadan

Many argue that the kanyadan ritual which dates back to the Vedic age, when girls were married off at a very young age and needed a guardian, is outdated today. Several academics and feminists consider the ceremony misogynistic with several celebrities speaking out against it.

Bollywood actress Dia Mirza skipped the kanyadan and bidaai, which marks the departure of the bride from her father’s house, during her wedding in February 2021. She chose to forgo the rituals because “change begins with choice”. In her post, Mirza wrote, “It is time for women to own their own agency, their divinity, their power and to redefine what is old and birth what is new.”

In September 2021, Ali Bhatt appeared in a bridal wear ad, questioning the kanyadan ritual. Sitting in the mandap, dressed as the bride, she asks, why her family has always treated her as the “other” and a temporary part of their family, despite loving her so much. “Am I a thing to be donated? Why only kanyadaan,” she asks in her internal monologue.

But is not celebrities alone. More and more people are speaking out against patriarchal traditions .

In 2019, the video of a Bengali father went viral on X after he refused to perform kanyadan. The man justified the decision and in a speech said that he wasn’t following the ritual because his daughter wasn’t a property to be given away.

Mumbai-based IT analyst Meghna Trivedi, who got married in February last year, said the ritual of “kanyadan” does not make sense in today’s day and age but had to undergo the ritual anyway. Trivedi, a Gujarati who married a Punjabi, told news agency PTI that she asked the priest to find another way but he maintained ‘kanyadan’ is a “must”.

However, some argue that the ritual is misunderstood. In March 2022, content creator Aayushi Gupta wrote in Medium that kanyadan “has always been based on the concept of the father of the bride publicly providing his blessings to the holy union after the groom had accepted the seven vows based on equality, mutual respect and companionship.”

With inputs from agencies