page_title: Hajong marriage
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Hajong marriage / History
caption_attribution_description: English: During the ceremony, the bride and groom would pay homage to the gods of heaven and earth and the family ancestors in the wedding altar.
context_page_description: Traditional Hajong marriage is a ceremonial ritual that involves a marriage established by pre-arrangement between families. Within Hajong culture, romantic love and widow re-marriage was allowed, and monogamy was the norm for the Hajong people.
context_section_description: Hajongs are endogamous people. In Hajong society matriarchy declined with the influence of Hinduism, leading towards the growing dominance of patriarchy in Hajong society. When intimacy develops between a boy and a girl without the knowledge of their parents, they are married to each other, provided that they do not belong to close maternal and paternal kinship.
  Exorbitant dowry system was absent in the Hajong society. The Hajongs would give a tolerable bride price or groom price called pon.
  Marriage is usually negotiated by the parents through a matchmaker known as Jahu or Jasu. Temporary shrines are set up on the yard, in front of which the wedding ceremony takes place. Four banana trees act as the pillars of the shrine, the shrine is decorated with paper cuttings with intricate motifs. Hajong marriages of the khutri or warrior class have a sword ritual to symbolise the  mani katri, a sword given by a girl to her husband to protect her.
caption: During the ceremony, the bride and groom would pay homage to the gods of heaven and earth and the family ancestors in the wedding altar.
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