Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (SP)
Mangaluru, Nov 25: There have been a large number of parents who lament about the shortage of Brahmin girls for their Brahmin sons of marriageable age. While the shortage of girls is glaring, more complications arise also out of the fact that the girls have become too choosy and many of them do not like to marry boys who are dependent on farming and those who are not in well paying employment.
In many cases, Brahmin boys have opted to stay in their native places and pursue small business, or serve as priests to eke out livelihood. Here too they are facing lack of girls. For such people, Sri Sonda Swarnawalli Math in Sirsi, Uttara Kannada district, has come as a blessing. During the last some years, under the guidance of Sri Gangadharendra Saraswathi Swamiji of the Math, 40 Brahmin men have married Brahmin girls from Uttar Pradesh (UP).
The scheme, 'Saptapadi' was the brainchild of Narayan Hegde Gadikai and Venkataramana N Bhat Belli. This scheme has mainly benefitted Brahmin boys pursuing farming and also working as priests or archaks in temples. Even though they are educated, finding girls for them has become a hard task. Narayan Hegde found a good solution to the problem during north Indian tour.
During the tour, in 2013, it was found that Uttar Pradesh has about three crore Brahmins and in rural areas, Brahmins there were struggling to perform marriages of their daughters because of the prevalence of dowry menace. After holding detailed discussions with families from UP and Madhya Pradesh, the 'Saptapadi' programme was conceived, he revealed. Under the scheme, eradication of the dowry system was the goal on focus and finding an alliance in which Uttara Kannada Brahmin boys knowing Hindi marrying girls from north India.
If there is a problem in verifying the genuineness or tallying of records etc, the Math is open to help them. For example, Manjunath, a farmer and businessman from Uttara Kannada, married Preeti Mishra from Balrampur Uttar Pradesh four years back. The couple has a daughter now. Preeti said she learnt Kannada in one month and that she had no problem adjusting to the culture and traditions here. Many such girls from UP have high educational qualifications. It is said that out of 40 marriages, only one has so far failed.