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Journalism of Courage
A temple in Rajasthan receives several kilos of wedding invites every year.
A bunch of wedding cards,rich and modest some of ordinary paper,others a mix of matted and translucent sheets,with golden threads or glitter spread over them lie at the feet of an idol of Lord Ganesha at the Trinetra Ganesha temple in the Ranthambore National Park. A priest pulls out a maroon card and reads aloud the golden embossed print in Hindi,inviting Ganesha to the wedding ceremony of a couple in nearby Sawai Madhopur.
Dadhich,a fifth-generation priest looking after the temple,spares time to talk about the tradition,as the wedding season is currently off. Otherwise,his day is spent opening envelopes and reading aloud the contents of the card if they are in Hindi or English. Those in other languages are opened before the Lord for him to read them himself.
He doesnt know when the tradition began but legend has it that the first wedding invitation the temple received was that of Lord Krishna with Rukmini,even though the temple itself was built in the 11th century,long after that marriage. It is believed,he says,that Ganesha was not invited to Krishnas wedding,and therefore,rats chewed up the path on which the marriage procession was moving. Because of this belief,many Marwari families belonging to the Shekhawati region of Rajasthan,whether they are living in the state or outside the country,make sure to send their first wedding cards here, says Dadhich. The temple keeps the cards for a year,after which they are dissolved in water and the paper recycled.
