Anand Karaj

During the time of Maharaja Ranjit Singh and his successors, however, this ceremony fell into partial disuse under the renewed Brahmanical influence at court as well as in society.

The Nirankari reform movement of the mid-19th century made the practice of the Anand ceremony a vital plank in its programme as did the later, more widely influential Singh Sabha.

[2] It is claimed that founder of the Nirankari movement, Dayal Das, resuscitated the ritual of marrying in the attendance of the Guru Granth Sahib and reading the lavan, also known as marriage hymn.

[4] According to Harjot Singh Oberoi, there was considerable intercaste and intracaste variation in the ceremonial customs of the Sikhs prior to the Tat Khalsa's emergence.

Among the Jat Sikhs, a Nai or Brahmin purohit would act as an intermediary initiating negotiations possibly leading to a marriage agreement between the bride and groom households.

Ostentatious displays of loud music and dancing would often be observed in the days preceding the wedding along with the worship of the planets and propitiation at ancestral shrines.

McLeod tentatively concluded that there is no evidence that marriages performed by circumambulating around the Adi Granth was observed or sanctioned by the Gurus, but rather, a result of the Tat Khalsa's ardent efforts to establish a separate identity from Hinduism.

There is negligible information on the conduct surrounding marriage ceremonies in historical rahit-namas, an exception to this - the Prem Sumarg, an early nineteenth century text said to reflect the contemporary religious milieu marked by a preponderant Hindu influence among the Sikh masses, stipulated that the wedding ceremony was to be officiated by a Khalsa Sikh, and after the couple was declared married, they would circumambulate around the sacred fire four times while the lavan were sung.

The resulting guidelines were approved by the General Assembly of Sikh Council UK on 11 October 2014, and state that Gurdwaras are encouraged to ensure that both parties to an Anand Karaj wedding are Sikhs, but that where a couple chooses to undertake a civil marriage they should be offered the opportunity to hold an Ardas, Sukhmani Sahib Path, Akhand Path, or other service to celebrate their marriage in the presence of family and friends.