Symbols of Kinship Identity

This study is a part of my broader interest in traditional Hindu culture. It is influenced by the recent trends in the study of kinship, marriage and rituals in Sociology and Social-Anthropologyfrom the point of view of individual families, this study shows that marriage negotiation and marriage settlement occupies a much important place than marriage rituals, because Hindu marriage is settled for the whole life and once marriage rituals are performed nothing can be done to revoke it. Therefore, every possible attempt is made to select the best available match for a bride or a groom. There is intrinsic relationship between Astrological beliefs and other beliefs related with Hindu marriage and together these beliefs express some of the important aspects of Hindu cosmology.from the Hindu perspective, reality is not given, rather it is made during ritual context and Marriage ritual acts as a paradigm for all other rites at the domestic level.Without a proper study of ritual symbols, kinship identity of men and women cannot be understood properly because outside the symbolic domain of rituals, there is no recognisable reality of kinship identity.