Gruhapravesam…

ordinary indian
Aug 26, 2017 · 2 min read

gruh or gruha means home in sanskrit. pravesa means to enter. gruhapravesam means to enter a new house or to have an house getting ‘ready to occupy’ ceremony. i don’t like calling it ‘house warming’ as there is no need to ‘warm’ a house in the Indian context.

gruhapravesam as practiced these days involves a few rituals, including, having a cow to step into the new house ahead of the other occupants, entering the house formally with a photo of the family deity, performing of a few shanthi homas that are meant to ensure that the home is sanctified through sacred chants and good vibrations. i am sure each of these steps can be debated — i particularly think the entering of the house with the cow leading must have been practiced in the villages and does not count in the urban context where some poor cow needs to be coerced into a house several floors above the ground. the rest are convenient and i particularly like the one that involves invocation to the elements which have been disturbed to create the house and seeking their blessings.

unfortunately, this ritual like all rituals has become cosmetic. people perform these days, gruhapravesam to houses they don’t intend to ever live in and only as a ceremony before the house is rented out. a few years ago, i decided not to attend such ceremonies (‘investment gruhapravesam’ as i call them) as it fundamentally doesn’t sound proper for someone to perform all the rites to live in a place only to desert immediately afterwards.

the magnitude of this phenomena didn’t hit me till the other day when i was informing an elderly person regarding the gruhapravesam we have scheduled for our house in the farm. “will you be able to find people for rent in the village?” she queried in all innocence!! the irony of the question, that too coming an elderly lady, made it difficult for me to answer.

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ordinary indian

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