#21-21 Female Priests in India … Liberate Hindu weddings

India’s new female priestesses are solemnizing weddings, breaking barriers and stereotypes in the formerly patriarchal sphere. Priestess weddings simplify and shorten the service, and make it more participatory. These weddings are trending among educated women and their mothers, who want equal female participation in place of the traditional Kanya daan, in which father gives daughter to husband. Women priests and their clients see changes in ritual as a way of social reform.

Host(s): Kalpana Pradhan and Frieda Werden
Featured Speakers/Guests: Wedding celebrants. MohanaBaidya, psychologist, wedding guest. Sanchita Bala(MBA student), wedding guest. Female priest and Sanskrit language professor of Jadavpur University, Nandini Bhowmick. Agnita Banerjee, advocate [patent lawyer] and wedding guest. Dr Ananya Bhowmick, first woman in Kolkata to be married by a female priest (2018) and daughter of Nandini Bhowmick. Durga Shirodkar, cyber law expert who has trained to be a woman priest. 

Credits: Produced and reported by Kalpana Pradhan. Supplemental music clips in Bengali language from song Twamiswaranang, composed by Rabindra Sangeet to lyrics from Rabindranath Tagore, and performed by Various, on the album Shubho Milan Lagane – Marriage Songs from Tagore (2007): https://mio.to/album/Rabindranath+Tagore/Shubho+Milan+Lagane+-+Marriage+Songs+From+Tagore+%282007%29

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HFTc6D3_y6AkDQSB8k4FPjiPYEeyvyPB/view?usp=drivesdk