Pushan Takes the Bride's Hand

The Sun had a daughter, and her name was Surya, the same as his own with a longer last sound. The Rigveda has one long hymn about her wedding, and its verses went on being spoken at weddings long afterwards.

The bridegroom was Soma. The two Ashvins, the twin horsemen, had come as his groomsmen, driving their three-wheeled chariot. Agni, the fire, was to walk at the head of the procession. Her father the Sun, whom the hymn here calls Savitr, was giving her away, and she was willing.

All the gods had been asked whether the match was a good one, and all of them had agreed. The hymn then mentions Pushan for the first time, in a single line that nobody has fully explained.

"When you came as wooers to Surya's wedding, Ashvins, all the gods said yes. And Pushan, as a son, chose the two of you for his fathers."

So Pushan is at the wedding, close to the family and young enough to be called a son.

The hymn describes the bride as she gets ready. Her robe was lovely, and it had been made beautiful with songs. Thought was the pillow she leaned on. Sight was the dark paint for her eyes. Her treasure chest was heaven and earth.

Her cart stood waiting. It was made of her own spirit, the hymn says, and its cover was the sky. Two bright oxen were yoked to it. Its wheels were clean, and the wind was its axle.

"Mount it, Surya," the singers called. "It is golden, it has strong wheels, it rolls lightly. Make a happy wedding journey to your husband."

There remained the hard part of any wedding, the moment when a girl leaves the house where she was born. Somebody has to take her from the people who love her and bring her to the people who are waiting. The hymn names who it should be.

"Let Pushan take you by the hand and lead you from here. Let the two Ashvins carry you on their chariot. Go to the house and be its mistress. You will speak there as one who gives the orders."

The choice suits him. Pushan is the god who knows every road and loses nothing on the way. He brings the cattle home at evening. On this day he is asked to bring a bride safely to her husband's house.

The road itself gets a prayer. "Let the paths be straight and free of thorns. Let no robbers lying in wait find the wedded pair."

And at the far end the bridegroom takes her hand in his turn. "I take your hand for good fortune, so that you may grow old with me. The gods have given you to me to be the mistress of my house." He has one more request, and he makes it to the same god. "Pushan, send her to me full of blessing."

A different hymn of the Rigveda tells the matter differently. It says that Pushan himself was overcome by love, and that the gods gave him to Surya. The poets did not all agree about who married the Sun's daughter. They did agree that Pushan belonged at her wedding.

Some centuries later the priests wrote down how an ordinary wedding should go. The manual of the Ashvalayana school opens the subject by admitting that it cannot cover everything.

"The customs of different countries and of different villages are many," it says. "One should follow those at the wedding. We shall state only what is common to all."

What is common is this. A fire is lit, with a millstone to the west of it and a water pot to the north-east. The groom takes the bride's hand. He leads her three times round the fire, and each time he says, "This am I, that are you. I am the sky and you are the earth. Come, let us marry." Each time she steps onto the stone, and he tells her to be as firm as it is.

Then her brother pours roasted grain into her joined hands, and she offers it into the fire, three times, for three gods. The groom speaks for her.

"To the god Aryaman the girls have made their offering. To the god Varuna the girls have made their offering. To the god Pushan the girls have made their offering. May he loosen her from this place, and not from that one."

She is being untied from her father's house and tied to her husband's, and Pushan is one of the three asked to do it gently.

After the seven steps the journey begins. The manual gives a verse for each stage of it. There is one for boarding a boat and one for a crossroads. There is one to say if the bride begins to cry. The first is for the moment she climbs into the cart, and it is the old line from the hymn.

"May Pushan lead you from here, holding your hand."