Mala badal

Mala badal (Bengali: মালা বদল) is part of the traditional Bengali Hindu wedding ceremony that involves the exchange of flower garlands between the bride and bridegroom, and is supposed to mark the first time when the bride and the bridegroom set eyes on each other.

[1][2] In traditional Bengali Hindu wedding, the bridegroom comes to the girl's house to marry her, wearing a topor (headwear) and a Bengali-style dhoti and kurta, and is greeted, usually by the bride's mother along with other members of the family.

After the bridegroom is seated at the canopied wedding altar (chadnatolla), he is offered new clothes as a gift from the bride.

As the auspicious time approaches, 4-5 male members of the bride's family take her, seated on a low stool (pidi), circling round the groom seven times to symbolize that the bride and bridegroom are now "securely wound up to one another".

The two then exchange garlands, a ritual called "mala badal", amidst the blowing of conch shells and the sounding of "uloo dhani", while the purohit chants his mantras.