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Local Rituals

The Sylethi people, originally from Bangladesh, have unique wedding and death rituals that differ from traditional Bengali practices. Their wedding includes the 'panokhili' ceremony and the 'dhamail' dance, symbolizing the union of the couple, while the death ritual 'macchomukh' involves offering burnt catfish to Bhairav after a mourning period. These rituals highlight the regional variations within Hinduism and the distinct cultural identity of the Sylethi community.

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18 views1 page

Local Rituals

The Sylethi people, originally from Bangladesh, have unique wedding and death rituals that differ from traditional Bengali practices. Their wedding includes the 'panokhili' ceremony and the 'dhamail' dance, symbolizing the union of the couple, while the death ritual 'macchomukh' involves offering burnt catfish to Bhairav after a mourning period. These rituals highlight the regional variations within Hinduism and the distinct cultural identity of the Sylethi community.

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priyasha.2024.673
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Sylethi wedding and death rituals.

The sylethi people are a community of people originally belonging from the syleth district of
Bangladesh. After the partition and creation of Bangladesh in 1971, many sylethi hindus moved
from Bangladesh to India, in the regions of Silchar, Shillong and Tripura.

One very interesting wedding ritual of this community is the “panokhili” ceremony. This takes
place in the bride's house after the date of the wedding is decided. Married women of the house
cut beetle leaves to prepare paan and one special type of paan known as “khili-paan” is
prepared. This khili-paan contains two toothpicks of gold and silver. The entire preparation is
then offered to the local temple deity, as a formal invitation to the gods to bless the union. In the
case of my family, this temple was the local laxmi-narayan temple at shillong.

Sylethi weddings also involve the performance of a particular dance style known as “dhamail”. It
accompanies the use of mirdanga, kartals and many other musical instruments which
are usually played by the men while the dance is being performed. This dance form is
similar to musical chairs, where one by one the dancers are removed by the dancers
who can dance very fast as the beats gear up the speed. This dance form mainly
relates the love of Radha and Krishna and the inner significance of this dance form is
that the newly wedded couple must unite their souls in such fashion.

Another important death ritual which is done by this community, which may have ties to
tantrism owing to the nature of the ritual. This ritual is known as “macchomukh”. After
the 14 mourning days following someone’s death, when permission is granted to eat
non veg again on the 14th day, families prepare burnt catfish, kept in a secluded room
and offer it to Bhairav. This is said to officially signify the re-emergence of non-veg food
items in the kitchen.

To conclude, sylethi rituals are somewhat different from traditional bengali rituals.
Though they both fall under the larger definition of hinduism, we see how regional
variations lead to different interpretations and different ways of conducting things.
While dances and offerings are made everywhere in every part of India and the world in
general, regional differences make the sylethi way of ritual unique.

Bibliography
1) Oral accounts from mother and grandmother
2) https://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Dhamail_Gan

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