{"id":328,"date":"2024-11-18T11:59:23","date_gmt":"2024-11-18T11:59:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/vdm_blog\/?p=328"},"modified":"2026-07-26T01:55:30","modified_gmt":"2026-07-26T01:55:30","slug":"varapresanam-seeking-consent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vedicmarriage.com\/blog\/varapresanam-seeking-consent\/","title":{"rendered":"Varapre\u1e63a\u1e47am (Seeking Consent)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The pivotal step in a Vedic marriage is Varapre\u1e63a\u1e47am<\/strong>, the formal proposal. The \u1e5agveda (RV 10.85.9) sheds light on this sacred practice:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\n\u201c<\/span>\n

somo vadh\u016byur abhavad a\u015bvin\u0101st\u0101m ubh\u0101 var\u0101 |
s\u016bry\u0101\u1e43 yat patye \u015ba\u1e43sant\u012bm manas\u0101 savit\u0101dad\u0101t ||<\/p>\n

\u2014 \u1e5agveda 10.85.9<\/p>\n

Soma was the bridegroom; both A\u015bvin\u0101 the accompanying ones. When S\u016bry\u0101 wished for a husband in her mind, Savit\u0101 bestowed Soma as her husband.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n

Two representatives, known as varas<\/em>, are sent from the groom\u2019s side to formally seek the bride\u2019s hand\u2014reminiscent of the A\u015bvin\u0101 seeking S\u016bry\u0101 for Soma.<\/p>\n\n\n

Once the bride\u2019s father gives consent, seeing that his daughter wishes for marriage, the two wooers are sent away with prayers for their safe journey.<\/p>\n\n\n

Two Important Points<\/h3>\n\n\n

There are two important things to be noted here:<\/p>\n\n\n

    \n
  1. First, the willingness and happiness of the bride-to-be is required, as much as that of the elders arranging the marriage. This is indicated specially in the verse \u015ba\u1e43sant\u012bm manas\u0101<\/em>\u2014\u201cwho wished by her mind.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n
  2. Second, savit\u0101dad\u0101t<\/em> means given, handed over, or bestowed upon. The wording of the mantra is ambivalent (or rather, intentionally so) on whether the bride is bestowed on the groom, or the groom bestowed on the bride. That mutual bestowal is the ideal. Yet a fraction of people read it as the bride being bestowed on the groom, since he takes her to his home (patrilocality). This is the source for the logic of kany\u0101d\u0101na<\/em>\u2014although the modern kany\u0101d\u0101na ceremony itself is not Vedic and is therefore omitted by fundamentalists like \u0100pastamba (as opposed to traditionalists) from discussion.<\/li>\n\n<\/ol>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The pivotal step in a Vedic marriage is Varapre\u1e63a\u1e47am, the formal proposal. The \u1e5agveda (RV 10.85.9) sheds light on this sacred practice: \u201c somo vadh\u016byur abhavad a\u015bvin\u0101st\u0101m ubh\u0101 var\u0101 |s\u016bry\u0101\u1e43 yat patye \u015ba\u1e43sant\u012bm manas\u0101 savit\u0101dad\u0101t || \u2014 \u1e5agveda 10.85.9 Soma was the bridegroom; both A\u015bvin\u0101 the accompanying ones. When S\u016bry\u0101 wished for a husband in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":801,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tales-from-the-vedas","category-vedic-rituals"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.vedicmarriage.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/kings-assemply.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vedicmarriage.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vedicmarriage.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vedicmarriage.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vedicmarriage.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vedicmarriage.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=328"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.vedicmarriage.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":802,"href":"https:\/\/www.vedicmarriage.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328\/revisions\/802"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vedicmarriage.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vedicmarriage.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vedicmarriage.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vedicmarriage.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}