Mangalsutra carries a very special place in Indian marriages.
As per the age-old tradition, the groom is expected to tie this auspicious necklace around the bride’s neck.
In a marriage, the Mangalsutra signifies multiple things – togetherness, an auspicious relationship and long life for the partner.
Sadly with time, the Mangalsutra has been reduced to just a symbol that signifies whether a woman is married or not.
Though tying Mangalsutra has been exclusively done by the groom so far, recently two couples from Karnataka have challenged this age-old notion.
They have set a new example of gender equality with the brides tying Mangalsutra on their husbands during the wedding.
Priya and Amit, are software engineers belonging to different castes, who are embracing the beautiful gesture of equality in the marriage.
The second couple is Industrialist Prabhuraj, who too married in the same style as the bride Ankita tied the sacred thread on him.
Both the marriages happened together, and the couples decided to break many old traditions like not deciding the date & time of the wedding basis “Muhurta”.
The two grooms are cousins and their fathers are ardent followers of Basavanna, a 12th-century community icon, who had preached the equality of men and women.
The wedding was attended by hundreds of relatives and friends from the four families, with everyone appreciating the way these couples decided to break sense-less traditions and pushing the case for gender-equality strongly.