A wedding

This painting depicts a wedding ritual particular to Mithila that takes place in the bridal chamber. This ceremony for blessing the couple is conducted in private and is witnessed only by its participants who are the bride, groom, and some of the bride’s female relatives.

Here the couple in the painting’s center is being blessed by the bride’s female relatives, who hold auspicious objects: a fan, incense, and lit lamps. The half-veiled figure with one eye visible and standing frontally (at right) represents the naina jogin (eye goddess), a semidivine being believed to possess magical powers. She averts bad luck and protects the newlyweds from the evil eye. In the ceremony represented here, the bride’s four female relatives also act as naina jogin as they stand in relation to the wall painting in the bridal chamber, where her image would have been placed in the corners.