A wedding ceremony at Satyampet village near Surpur in Yadgir district saw a unique development on Monday as the bride and bridegroom paid homage to Surpur MLA Raja Venkatappa Naik who passed away on Sunday before entering wedlock.
The wedding of Akkamahadevi, daughter of farmers leader Mallikarjun Satyampet and Amaramma, and Mallikarjun, son of Parvathi and Linganagowda from Wadi, was scheduled for Monday.
However, the mortal remains of the MLA were also brought to the town for the last rites that same day.
The bride and the bridegroom and those who gathered for the wedding decided to pay homage to not only Raja Venkatappa Naik but also a farmer who died in Haryana recently when he was, along with other farmers, fighting for a cause there before starting the wedding.
The bride and the bridegroom and the attendees stood in silence for a minute as a mark of respect to the departed souls before proceeding with the wedding.
The wedding was special on other counts also. It followed no standard procedure that is normally followed in the form of various rituals.
In what was called Vachana Mangalya, a simple marriage ceremony was followed with the essence of the Vachana literature composed by the Sharanas, especially those from the 12th century led by Basavanna. There was no purohit, no auspicious time considered and there were no wedding gifts for the new couple.
What was more surprising was that the Preamble of the Constitution was administered as an oath to the couple and the attendees.
Senior lawyer G.S. Patil hoisted the Basava flag to mark the beginning of the wedding ceremony. Instead of blessing the couple with coloured rice, people showered flowers to complete the wedding process.
Speaking on the occasion, scholar R.K. Hudgi called upon the people to opt for simple marriage ceremonies without considering any auspicious time and inviting a purohit to perform the rituals.
“Marriage is fixed on earth not on any supernatural place such as heaven. We marry here, we live here and we die here. We need to come out of all superstitions such as considering auspicious times and other meaningless rituals followed in traditional marriages and adopt simple and progressive marriage methods,” he said.
State president of the women’s wing of Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha Nagaratna Patil termed the wedding as a combination of Kuvempu’s Mantra Mangalya and Basavanna’s Vachana Mangalya.
Indhudhar Swamy of Gadi Somanal Math, Siddabasava Kabeerananda Swamy of Chigaralli Marula Shankara Devara Math, Murugha Rajendra Swamy of Gurumathkal Math, Lingayat scholar Vishwaradhya Satyampet, journalist Shivaranjan Satyampet and others were present.
