Rajeev Menon at 14:45, 25 January 2026

2026-01-25T14:45:00Z

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[[File:Kanyadaan1306.jpg|alt=Hindu Wedding Ritual|thumb|296x296px|Performance of the kanyadana]]{{Short description|Hindu wedding ritual}}
{{about||the 1965 film|Kanyadan (film)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2020}}

'''Kanyadana''' ({{Langx|sa|कन्यादान|translit=Kanyādāna}}) is a [[Hindu wedding]] [[ritual]].<ref name=Enslin>Enslin, Elizabeth. "Imagined Sisters: The Ambiguities of Women’s Poetics and Collective Actions". Selves in Time and Place: Identities, Experience, and History in Nepal. Ed. Debra Skinner, Alfred Pach III, and Dorothy Holland. Lanham; Boulder; New York; Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 1998 (269-299).</ref> Inscriptional evidence of this tradition can be found on 15th century stones found in the [[Vijayanagara Empire]] in South India.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Mahalingam|first=T.V|title=Administration and Social Life under Vijayanagar|year=1940|url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.103527|publisher=University of Madras|pages=[https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.103527/page/n283 255]-256}}</ref> There are different interpretations regarding kanyadana across [[South Asia]].

The kanyadana [[ritual]] occurs before the [[sindoor]] ritual (sinduradana).

{{Hinduism}}

== Etymology ==
Kanyadana is made of the [[Sanskrit]] words ''kanyā'' (maiden) and ''dāna'' (giving away), referring to the tradition of a father giving his daughter in marriage to a groom, symbolizing the transfer of responsibility and care from one family to another.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hunt |first=Stephen |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oFsPEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA213 |title=Religions of the East |date=2017-05-15 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-351-90476-6 |pages=213 |language=en}}</ref>

According to Sanjeev Newar, as a forensic truth, Kanyadana has 2 different meanings. The 1st means - father asserts that he no longer holds rights over daughter (that every parent in even modern society holds over minor children) and is offering her for a higher cause of society as she has grown up and is ready for the next phase of her life. While the 2nd means - father asserts that he will offer whatever is necessary to his daughter to make her journey into a new phase of life comfortable and meaningful. Newar had addressed this due to some people misinterpreting the tradition, adding that others have spread propagandas against it.<REF>{{Cite web |url=https://x.com/SanjeevSanskrit/status/1951654872962527622|title=Kanyadana - The Essence |date=2025-08-02 |access-date=2025-08-04}}</REF>

==Kanyadana songs==
The wedding ritual may be accompanied by a variety of kanyadana songs. These songs may include the parents lamenting the loss of their daughter. Other songs focus on the groom, sometimes comparing him to [[Rama]], portrayed in the ''[[Ramayana]]'' as the "ideal groom".<ref name = Henry>Henry, Edward O. "Folk Song Genres and Their Melodies in India: Music Use and Genre Process". Asian Music (Spring-Summer 2000). JSTOR. 20 February 2008.</ref>

==See also==
*[[Hindu wedding|Vivaha]]
*[[Marriage in Hinduism]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* Gutschow, Niels; Michaels, Axel; Bau, Christian (2008). ''The Girl's Hindu Marriage to the Bel Fruit: Ihi'' and ''The Girl's Buddhist Marriage to the Bel Fruit: Ihi'' in ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=DK-eoCXM_WsC Growing up - Hindu and Buddhist Initiation Ritual among Newar Children in Bhaktapur, Nepal]''. Otto Harrassowitz Verlag, Germany. {{ISBN|3-447-05752-1}}. pp. 93–173.

{{Indian wedding}}
{{Bengali wedding}}

[[Category:Hindu wedding rituals]]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kanyadana}}

Kanyadana - Revision history

Rajeev Menon at 14:45, 25 January 2026