<!--QuoteBegin-Mudy+Oct 10 2006, 01:04 PM-->QUOTE(Mudy @ Oct 10 2006, 01:04 PM)<!--QuoteEBegin--><!--QuoteBegin--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Punjabization was defined as loud music, ladies dancing at barat etc.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Till middle of 70s, in our family women never accompanied barat. Even dancing in Barat was not permitted; it was linked with Muslim barbarism. In Punjab, Muslims used to loot Doli or invaded Hindu bride homes just before marriage and take away bride with dance, noise or gun shots.
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An uncle of mine, whose sense of history I have always respected, once told me that "barat" itself is not a very ancient tradition. Except for "Shiv Barat" in Shiv Puran, we do not have much evidence of a huge party of relatives from bridegrooms family attending the wedding - be it in Mahabharata or Ramayana or Kalidas literature. Even now, there are so many communitites which do not bring a grand barat in the weddings.
He told me that the custom of a big barat started from middle ages, with the advent of muslims looting the bride party. (I think we find references of this bride-looting in Maratha literature - but I will let Bharatvarsh and Digvijay throw more light upon this)
Barat was therefore invented, he told me, which used to serve as a small but tactically-armed party of males to safeguard the passage of bride from the predators. Barat party used to mandatorily invite some Kshatriyas even in the weddings of other varnas. In UP/Bihar/Nepal, there is a custom that the brothers or some male relatives of bride, follow the returning barat from behind, from some distance, till some part of the way. This may have been used as the armed detachment to 'watch the back'.
In the modern times, the looting of weddings may be over, but, "barat" may have just lived on as a custom.
Till middle of 70s, in our family women never accompanied barat. Even dancing in Barat was not permitted; it was linked with Muslim barbarism. In Punjab, Muslims used to loot Doli or invaded Hindu bride homes just before marriage and take away bride with dance, noise or gun shots.
[right][snapback]58876[/snapback][/right]
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An uncle of mine, whose sense of history I have always respected, once told me that "barat" itself is not a very ancient tradition. Except for "Shiv Barat" in Shiv Puran, we do not have much evidence of a huge party of relatives from bridegrooms family attending the wedding - be it in Mahabharata or Ramayana or Kalidas literature. Even now, there are so many communitites which do not bring a grand barat in the weddings.
He told me that the custom of a big barat started from middle ages, with the advent of muslims looting the bride party. (I think we find references of this bride-looting in Maratha literature - but I will let Bharatvarsh and Digvijay throw more light upon this)
Barat was therefore invented, he told me, which used to serve as a small but tactically-armed party of males to safeguard the passage of bride from the predators. Barat party used to mandatorily invite some Kshatriyas even in the weddings of other varnas. In UP/Bihar/Nepal, there is a custom that the brothers or some male relatives of bride, follow the returning barat from behind, from some distance, till some part of the way. This may have been used as the armed detachment to 'watch the back'.
In the modern times, the looting of weddings may be over, but, "barat" may have just lived on as a custom.