Rajput Wedding

Bikaner has been full of surprises for us.. we planned to stay a couple of days, and we were even unsure if to go or not, but at the end we left it, one week after we first arrived in the middle of the night, with our hearts and minds full of great memories :)

..one of the surprises has been that our lovely Camel Man, alias Vijay, our host, invited us to a wedding, a Rajput wedding! :) clearly it didn`t take long for us to accept! What a fantastic opportunity, one night at the wedding.. :)

well, this was our interpretation..but soon the invitation extended to the three nights of the wedding.. then to the three nights and the last "ceremony closing" lunch.. and finally to the three nights, the last "ceremony closing" lunch and the "after ceremony closing lunch" dinner!!!... uhaoo.. too much even for us.. finally we managed to go to one night at the bride party night and at the proper wedding night, skipping all the rest without offending anybody.. :) ..

So, the first night, all the women of the bride family dance, one by one, a traditional Rajput dance... really great.. here is a video.. funny to see as the people wave a ten rupees note on the head of the dancer and then donate it to the musicians or the servants of the house.. an expensive business!! :) ..

..then here is a short video of the proper wedding night..
funny enough we didn`t even see the wedding.. we were a bit puzzled when we found ourselves in the middle of all the men eating the great food, no woman around.. then we realized that all the women were in the other part of the garden, well separated by the man, having the same food and enjoying the night :) ...mind, it is not a strict separation, just a convention, which is not followed at every marriage.. anyway, everybody is free to walk anywhere.. :) ..food was great and the music was excellent!.. :) ..
ahhh... we didn`t see the wedding ceremony! the party was starting to fade.. people leaving with their big bellies (not as big as Ami`s or mine), musicians more and more tired and drunk people trying to convince us about the convenience of the combined marriage wrt the love marriage... anyway, we didn`t see much of the bride and groom.. then we found out why.. the priest had performed their horoscope and fixed the marriage for some time around 1a.m.!.. and the ceremony itself lasts for about 2 hours!.. ..so the couple had to spend the hours before the ceremony in prayers..
at this point we made our way back home :) ...

and just to give you an idea of what is going on the night of the wedding in the family of the groom, here a video taken in Jaisalmer. Clearly it is not the same wedding!
I manage to film the procession of the groom from his house to the wedding venue. He is on a horse, preceded by musicians, dancers, lights... and the spare holy cow!.. :) ...the ten rupees whirlpool fast on the dancers` heads here as well.