Soma is the wooer, the Ashvins the groomsmen, Agni the leader of the train, and Savitr gives willing Surya to her lord. The gods approve the Ashvins' suit and Pushan as a son chooses them as fathers. Surya's robe, pillow, eye-salve and car are described. Then: let Pushan take your hand and lead you from here, let the Ashvins carry you on their car; go to the house as its mistress. The paths are to be straight and free of robbers. The bridegroom takes her hand and asks Pushan to send her on as most auspicious.
Pushan, goat-borne guardian of cattle, travels with golden ships across the ocean of the air on an errand to the Sun, overcome by love. The gods gave him, strong and swift and overcome by love, to Surya.
What is different here:
Pushan is himself the one given to Surya, not the escort; no Soma, no procession.
The Atharvaveda's two wedding hymns repeat the Surya verses with changes: Pushan as son chooses the Ashvins as father (14.1.15); the bride is to circle Aryaman's fire, with Pushan called on, while fathers-in-law and their sons wait (14.1.39); and the bridegroom asks Pushan to send her rich in every charm (14.2.38).
What is different here:
Adds the circling of the fire with Pushan invoked; otherwise a reworking of RV 10.85.
Ashvalayana Grihya Sutra 1.7-1.8 (the household wedding)
Pan-IndiaAll traditions
Customs differ by country and village; the common rite is given. The groom takes the bride's hand, leads her three times round the fire and a water pot, and has her tread on a stone. Her brother pours fried grain into her joined hands and she offers it for Aryaman, Varuna and Pushan, each asked to loosen her from this place and not from that. After seven steps, if they travel, she mounts the chariot with the verse "May Pushan lead thee from here holding thy hand"; further verses serve for a boat, a crossroads, the onlookers, and if she weeps.
What is different here:
A human wedding; Pushan is one of three gods of the grain offering and the god of the bride's journey.
The Paraskara manual of the White Yajurveda also calls on Pushan at the wedding: a verse asks Pushan to lead the highly blessed bride to the groom, and when she is seated in her new home a verse wishes that cows, horses, men and Pushan may sit down there.
What is different here:
A different Vedic school; Pushan is asked to settle in the new house along with cattle and people.
Sources: Hymns of the Rigveda, tr. R. T. H. Griffith (1896), hymns read for the Vedic layer; Vedic Mythology, A. A. Macdonell (1897); Hymns of the Atharva-Veda, tr. R. T. H. Griffith (1895); The Grihya-Sutras, Part 1, tr. Hermann Oldenberg (Sacred Books of the East 29)