Right & Left

[Bapat Jb]

Re Girish Behamy's querry concerning the position of the woman in 
relation to man:
While I cannot explain why it is so, I may offer a comment.Whether 
the woman is on the right or left seems to depend on several factors.
1) type of ritual involved: viz. in Maharashtra, during wedding, the 
daughter to be married sits on the right side of her father wheras 
her mother sits on his left. In the rituals before the actual 
wedding, she sits(or stands) on the right side of the groom.However,
after the exchanging of garlands, she now sits on his left as his
newly wedded wife. Thus the wife's position in Maharashtra is always
on the left. There are however exceptions to this rule as well.
2)Part of India: In South India, wife sits on the RIGHT of the 
husband during rituals.
While according to the texts, wAmAngi is the correct position for the 
woman, the exceptions seem to be nothing more than customs because
the people I asked were unable to explain the reasons.
One could advance reasons why the bride had to on the right. In olden 
times marriages took place when the bride was essentially a child and 
hence a virgin. A KumAri is essentially pure and can therefore sit on 
the right.( right is the pure side)
____________________________________________________________________
Dr J.B. Bapat                                     Phone (03)9054510
Chemistry Department                              Fax   (03)9054597 
Monash University           e-mail:jayant.b.bapat at sci.monash.edu.au
Clayton, Victoria
Australia
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