105 Hindu couples tie the knot in mass wedding ceremony

Under the auspices of the Pakistan Hindu Council (PHC), a mass wedding ceremony was held on Sunday at the Railway Ground on II Chundrigar Road.

This was the 18th consecutive annual marriage ceremony organised by the PHC.

As many as 105 couples tied the knot in a collective wedding ceremony. Thousands of people from across Sindh participated in the wedding celebrations.

One couple was selected to be seated on the main stage, while the others were assigned individual booths, where they sat together to perform the marriage rituals in line with Hindu traditions.

The ceremony began with the recital of the Gayatri Mantra, followed by the Ganesh and Om Jai Jagdish Hare Aartis. Maharaj Pandit Jay Kumar Trivedi led the proceedings, chanting Hindu wedding mantras and guiding the couples and their families through the rituals.

To assist the couples in their booths, the rituals were shown live on screens placed throughout the venue.

The Mandap, set up by Pandit Trivedi, featured a unique arrangement. Using rice, two rectangles were created on a board: one with 16 segments, each symbolising a deity, and the other with nine, representing different planets.

Within each segment were items such as betel nuts, cloves, cardamoms and a coin. At the centre of these rectangles was a statue of Ganesh along with a metal water pot.

PHC Patron-in-chief Dr Ramesh Kumar Vankwani said that he felt very fortunate to have organised more than 1,500 weddings in 18 years. He said that this was the 18th programme, with the council supporting 106 couples this time around.

“The Pakistan Hindu Council has been organising marriage ceremonies for the past 18 years,” he said, adding that couples from across Pakistan, including districts like Nawabshah and Mirpurkhas, tied the knot during the ceremony.

So far, the PHC has facilitated over 1,700 marriages. In addition to dowries, he said, the council provided transportation expenses and cash to the married couples.

“We are also building a shelter in Thar for orphaned children. I want orphaned children to call me ‘Babajan’ [father],” he said. “We aim to empower underprivileged people with skills so they can stand on their own feet.”

He asserted that there was religious harmony in Pakistan, and the Hindu mass wedding ceremony was a testament to that.