Hindu Wedding Rituals: The Planet and Meaning Behind Each

A Hindu wedding is the most sensual piece of design India ever made. Turmeric pressed onto bare skin by the people who love you. Henna drying on her palms while the women sing. A garland thrown over his neck before anyone can stop her. Then the fire: his hand around hers, her foot on a stone, seven slow steps together, and the last word he says to her is not "wife". It is "friend".

None of this is new. The Rig Veda, the oldest text of the tradition, already has a wedding hymn that reads like a love song. The groom takes her hand "for happy fortune, that thou mayst reach old age with me" and welcomes her as the one "who shall twine her loving arms about me, and welcome all my love and mine embraces". Then he asks the waters to "join our hearts". That is not superstition. That is a love letter with stage directions.

And every stage direction has a planet behind it. In Jyotish, every colour, element, metal and family member belongs to one of the seven planets, and a Hindu wedding uses all seven. Venus throws the party. The Sun lights the fire. Mars sends her brother with the rice. Mercury walks the seven steps with you. Saturn makes you promise to stay. Jupiter blesses you in yellow. The Moon picks the day and the star. Even the games have planets: the sisters who hide his shoes are teasing Saturn. Here is what each ritual means, why it is done the way it is, and what it does for the two people standing in the middle of it.

The planets of a Hindu wedding, at a glance

Find the ritual your family is planning. The middle column is its planet; the last is what that planet brings to your marriage.

Why does every ritual have a planet?

Because Jyotish is a language, and the planets are its vocabulary. The classics give each planet a set of things it governs. Phaladeepika, one of the great classics of Vedic astrology, gives Venus "marriage and festivity", music, dancing, flowers, ornaments, scents and the wife. It gives the Sun the father, gold and fire offerings; the Moon the mother, water, cows and grain; Mars brothers, the kitchen and fire; Mercury friends, truthful speech and rites for Vishnu; Jupiter prosperity and "happiness of the husband"; Saturn longevity and constancy. Parashara, the father of Vedic astrology, adds each planet's colour and its god.

So when a ritual uses a planet's colour, its element, its god or its family member, an astrologer reads it as inviting that planet's quality into the marriage. Turmeric is yellow, Jupiter's hue, so haldi is a Jupiter blessing. The fire's god Agni is the Sun's god, so the pheras belong to the Sun. Once you see it, you cannot unsee it. The wedding is a sentence written in planets.

Why does the wedding date matter so much?

The family asks an astrologer for a muhurat, the moment to start. The word means "a moment", and in Parashara the muhurta is the unit of time the Moon rules. The Moon is also the mind. So the first job of a wedding date is simple: start your marriage with a calm mind, on a Moon that is growing. Parashara counts the waxing Moon among the benefics and the waning Moon among the malefics: you begin on a mind that is gaining light, not losing it.

The planet: the Moon, with Venus and Jupiter awake. The date is picked by the nakshatra, the star the Moon is passing through that day. Our calendar allows eleven wedding stars, and seven of them come from two groups. "Fixed" stars (Rohini and the three Uttaras) are the ones astrologers use for anything meant to last. "Soft" stars (Mrigashira, Anuradha, Revati) are for gentle, pleasant beginnings. A marriage wants both: it should last, and it should stay kind. Our calendar also refuses any day when Venus or Jupiter is hidden in the Sun's glare. Those are the two marriage planets: Venus for the wife and marriage itself, Jupiter for the husband's happiness. You do not start a marriage while its two planets are asleep.

What it gives you. A start under the right weather, not just a free venue. Morning or afternoon is as good as any hour; the oldest wedding manuals list slots from morning to evening, and most Hindu weddings are held in daylight.

Make it personal. A good calendar date can still be wrong for you. Your own birth star rules out some wedding stars. Find your star with the nakshatra finder, find your row below, then check your actual date in the Muhurat Finder or the 2026 and 2027 vivah calendars. The last column answers a question families fight about: can two people with the same birth star marry?

Why match kundlis before the wedding?

To see, before you commit, how two whole lives will run side by side: two minds, two families and the years ahead of both. And let me be blunt: matching only the 36-point guna milan score is pop astrology. A real match reads both full charts, layer by layer.

The planet: the Moon, with Mars checked. Parashara calls the Moon the mind, so every match starts by comparing the two birth Moons: how will these two minds live together? Mars is checked separately, because Mars is heat. When Mars sits in certain houses the chart is called Manglik, and when both partners have it, Parashara cancels it.

Why the 36 points alone are pop astrology. Guna milan scores eight quick factors, and all eight come from one planet: where the Moon sits in each chart. It never looks at the house of marriage, the spouse planet, the strength of Venus and Jupiter, or the years you are about to live through. That is how a couple can score 30 and struggle, or score 15 and thrive. The classic Prasna Marga itself lists fourteen factors for a match, not one number, and says plainly: "If the couple love each other, they can enter into wedlock, even if there is no agreement in other ways."

What a real match reads, in both charts, side by side:

• The spouse planet and the soul planet (Darakaraka and Atmakaraka): who each of you is drawn to, and what each of you is here to do. Find yours.
• The marriage point (Upapada Lagna) and the house after it, which shows whether the marriage holds, and the couple's public face (A7, the Darapada).
• The 7th house of marriage: its lord, the planets in it and the planets aspecting it.
• The divisional charts (vargas): above all the Navamsa (D9), the chart Parashara reads for the spouse, and the D7 for children.
• Venus and Jupiter's condition: exalted or debilitated, in their own sign or an enemy's, retrograde, or burnt by the Sun.
• Exact degrees: a planet at the very edge of a sign (gandanta), too close to the Sun, or in the same sign in the Navamsa (vargottama) reads very differently.
• Strength: Shadbala (six kinds of planetary strength) and Ashtakavarga (sign-by-sign strength scores).
• Special lagnas such as Indu Lagna, the wealth point.
• Running dashas (Vimshottari, cross-checked with Yogini) and transits for both of you, so you know which years will test you and which will carry you.
• Manglik for both, with every cancellation the verses allow.

What it gives you. Not a pass or fail grade but a map: where you will clash, where you will carry each other, and when. Supastro's free Kundli Matching tool reads both charts layer by layer, the 7th house, the Navamsa, the Upapada, Ashtakavarga, Manglik for both and dasha timing, with the 36 gunas as just one layer. Run the free Manglik check too.

Myth vs truth. "36 points mean a perfect marriage": no. "A Manglik must first marry a tree": no verse in our library says so.

The celebrations: haldi, mehendi, sangeet, baraat and varmala

The celebrations before the fire came later than the Vedic core, through families and regions, and the oldest wedding manuals do not describe them. But they speak the same planetary language, and that is why they feel right. Start with the look of the whole thing: the silk, the jewellery, the flowers, the sheer lavish scale of it. Phaladeepika gives Venus cloths, ornaments, flowers, scents and "festivity". A Hindu wedding dresses itself in Venus on purpose.

Why is turmeric (haldi) put on the bride and groom?

The planet: Jupiter. Phaladeepika describes Jupiter's body as yellowish, and gives Jupiter "prosperity in everything" and "happiness of the husband". Turmeric is that yellow. When aunts, cousins and friends press it onto your skin, they are coating you in Jupiter: blessing and growth, put on by hand, before you make a single vow.

Keeping Rahu and Ketu away. Many families say haldi also keeps the two shadow planets, Rahu and Ketu, away from the couple. Uttara Kalamrita gives Rahu "faulty logic", "harsh speech" and gambling, and Ketu "instability of mind": what we would call obsession, illusion and confusion today. The logic is sound Jyotish. Jupiter is a natural benefic, and Phaladeepika teaches that a benefic's touch can cancel a malefic's bad result. So the couple walks to the fire with clear heads, coated in the planet that steadies the shadows.

What it gives you. Every person who loves you touches you before you leave one life for another. You walk to the fire already blessed. The nearest rite in the old manuals is a pre-wedding bath in water scented with "all sorts of herbs".

Why do brides wear mehendi?

The planet: Venus. Venus governs ornaments, scents, flowers and, plainly, sexual pleasure. Mehendi is Venus's art, drawn on the hands that will be taken in marriage. Many families hide the groom's name somewhere in the pattern for him to find: desire, made playful and public.

What it gives you. A Hindu wedding does not treat beauty and desire as the opposite of the sacred. They are part of it. The same hymn that blesses the bride also celebrates her embrace.

Why is there a sangeet, with music and dancing?

The planet: Venus. Phaladeepika gives Venus song, dancing and instrumental music together, along with "festivity". It turns out the sangeet is older than film weddings: one old manual has married women feasted and then four rounds of dancing before the rite.

What it gives you. Joy is not decoration. It is the first thing two families build together, before a single vow is spoken.

Why does the groom arrive in a procession (baraat)?

The planet: the Sun. Parashara gives the Sun royal status. For one day the groom is treated like a king: he arrives with his people, and in the old manual young women come out to escort him and he is welcomed as an honoured guest.

What it gives you. Honour, and a responsibility to deserve it. A king is welcomed because he is expected to protect what he is given.

Why do the bride and groom exchange garlands (varmala)?

The planet: Venus. Venus governs flowers, and Parashara gives Venus the flowering plants. A garland is a choice made with your hands in front of everyone: I pick you. The oldest manuals anoint the couple together with a prayer that the waters "unite our hearts"; the garland is the later, flowering version of the same moment.

What it gives you. A marriage that starts with mutual choice, seen by both families. In the oldest manual's list of eight ways to marry, one is simply "mutual agreement".

What does kanyadaan really mean?

Kanya means daughter, and daan means giving. Her father gives her in marriage, in the oldest descriptions pouring water as he does.

The planets: the Sun and the Moon. Phaladeepika gives the Sun the father and the Moon the mother, and Parashara makes Varuna, the god of the waters, the Moon's god. Father and mother, Sun and Moon, let her go with water: the most emotional moment of the day is the two luminaries releasing their light into a new house.

Myth vs truth. "She is handed over like property": the hymn says the opposite. Near its end, the hymn blesses her to "bear full sway" over her father-in-law and mother-in-law and to "rule supreme" over his sister and brothers. She arrives as the queen of the house, not its possession.

Why does the groom hold the bride's hand?

This is panigrahana: pani is the hand, grahana is taking. In Sanskrit the act became the word, and "taking a bride's hand" simply means marrying her. He says the hymn's line: I take your hand for happy fortune, so that you reach old age with me.

The planet: Venus, with the Sun and the Moon. Venus is the planet of marriage and the wife. The hymn names the gods who give her: Aryaman, Bhaga and Savitar. In Supastro's nakshatra table they rule three stars in a row, Purva Phalguni, Uttara Phalguni and Hasta, and Parashara's dasha order gives those stars to Venus, the Sun and the Moon. The third star's name, Hasta, means "hand". The hand-taking verse is quietly a map of the sky.

What it gives you. Touch comes before every other vow. It is the first public claim: I take responsibility for you, and I intend to grow old with you.

Why do the couple tie a knot (gathbandhan)?

The planets: Venus and Mercury. Just before the rounds of the fire, the edge of her sari is tied to his scarf. The wedding hymn's last verse asks the waters to "join our hearts" and the gods to "bind us close", and Parashara gives the element of water to Venus: the knot is that prayer, made of cloth.

Why a sibling ties it. In many families the knot is tied by a sibling, often the groom's sister. That brings in Mercury. Parashara calls Mercury the "speech-giver", and Phaladeepika gives Mercury your relatives and a sister's children. A sibling tying two people together is Mercury fixing the marriage, and the promise inside the knot is simple: keep talking to each other, and keep it uncomplicated.

What it gives you. For the rest of the rite, neither of you can walk away from the other without the other noticing. That is the whole idea of a marriage, in a knot.

Why do the bride and groom walk around the fire?

The planet: the Sun. Parashara makes Agni, the fire, the Sun's god, and Phaladeepika gives the Sun the fire offerings. In the wedding hymn the bride had three guardians before her husband, and the last was Agni: "Agni hath given the bride again with splendour and with ample life." Walking around the fire is that handover, acted out. The oldest guardian gives her to the new one.

Why this way. You keep the fire on your right, the old sign of respect. The oldest manuals walk three rounds, not seven, and as he leads her round the groom says: "I am the song, you are the words." In Sanskrit, one word for marriage, parinaya, literally means "leading round".

Why three rounds? At every round she also steps on the stone and offers grain, so each vow is made three times before a single step is taken. As I read it, the three rounds bind three things: your word (the verse), your staying power (Saturn's stone) and both families (Mars's rice). Many weddings today walk seven rounds, folding the seven steps into the walk around the fire; in the old manuals, the seven belongs to the steps.

What it gives you. Your vow is made in front of the fire and both families, which is exactly why it counts.

Why does the bride step on a stone?

At each round she puts her right foot on a grinding stone while the groom says: climb this stone, and like a stone, be firm.

The planet: Saturn. Phaladeepika gives Saturn longevity and "constancy". Saturn is the planet of time and endurance, the one that tests whether something lasts.

What it gives you. Footing before steps. Before you walk anywhere together, you promise to stay steady when life shakes. Every long marriage has a Saturn year in it; this is the vow for that year.

Why does her brother pour parched rice into her hands?

This is laja homa. Her brother fills her cupped hands with parched rice, rice roasted until it bursts open, and she offers it into the fire for her husband's long life and her own family's welfare.

The planet: Mars. Phaladeepika gives Mars the brothers, the kitchen and fire. Mars is protection and courage. The brother is the Mars of the bride's family, and the rice has been through fire.

What it gives you. She is not cut off from her family. Her brother is the first man to bless the new home, and her own family's abundance goes into it from her own hands. No brother? The old manuals let a friend stand in.

Why parched rice? It is grain that has already been through fire and burst open: abundance that has survived the heat. Offered back into the fire, as I read it, it asks the fire to protect what it feeds.

What do the seven steps (saptapadi) mean?

Seven steps, seven words: food, strength, growing wealth, delight, cattle (or children), the seasons and, at the seventh, friend. The groom leads her one step per word, then says: "Friend! Be with seven steps."

The planet: Mercury, with all seven planets taking a step. At every step the words add: "May Vishnu lead thee." Parashara makes Vishnu the god of Mercury, and Phaladeepika gives Mercury friends, truthful speech and rites for Vishnu. And each step belongs to a planet of its own, so the whole sky walks with you. No text pairs the steps with planets; this is my reading, built only on what the classics give each planet.

• Step 1, ishe: for food and drink. The Moon. The Moon governs good meals, milk and grain. Then: enough to eat. Now: you will feed each other, and eat together.
• Step 2, urje: for strength. Mars. Parashara calls Mars "one's strength". Then: the strength to work. Now: health, sleep and stamina, guarded for each other.
• Step 3, rayas poshaya: for growing wealth. Jupiter. Jupiter governs prosperity, and its home is the treasure-house. Then: a fuller store of grain. Now: one money plan, not just two incomes.
• Step 4, mayobhavyaya: for delight. Venus. Venus governs happiness and pleasure. Then: comfort at home. Now: fun, intimacy and a home you want to come back to.
• Step 5, pashubhyah: for cattle. Saturn. Saturn governs the buffalo, the plough and patient labour. Then: living wealth that grows with daily care. Now: whatever you build together through steady work. Another manual says "for children" here, and children belong to Jupiter.
• Step 6, ritubhyah: for the seasons. The Sun. Parashara gives the Sun the half-year of its own course, and the seasons are the Sun's year. Then: the farming year. Now: a shared rhythm, and big moves timed together.
• Step 7, sakha: friend. Mercury. Mercury governs friends, and Vishnu, Mercury's god, has led every step to this word. Then and now: the whole point.

Why seven, and not six or ten? Because in Sanskrit, seven steps is what friendship is made of. The standard dictionary defines saptapadina, friendship, as one "formed with any one after taking seven paces together". Walk seven steps beside a stranger and you are friends: that is the old idea. So the wedding walks exactly seven, and the word waiting at the end is friend.

Seven is also the number of planets in a chart. Parashara takes the karakas, the planets that stand for the people in your life, from the seven planets, Sun to Saturn; Rahu and Ketu are the Moon's nodes, points without a body. Six steps would leave one planet out and stop at supplies: food, strength, money, comfort, livestock and timing, a contract with no person in it. Ten would walk past friendship into nothing, because after friend there is nothing left to add. The law keeps the same count: the marriage is complete at the seventh step.

Why this order. Read the steps in sequence and the logic shows: the body first (food, strength), then the home (wealth, delight), then the long run (what you raise, the seasons), and only then the bond. Survival, comfort and time are the floor. Friendship is what you build on it.

Why north. The steps go north, or north-east, a direction one manual calls aparajita, "unconquered". In Parashara, the North is where the Moon and Venus gain strength: the mind and the marriage. The East is where Mercury and Jupiter are strong.

What it gives you. The legal moment of a Hindu wedding. Under section 7 of the Hindu Marriage Act, when the seven steps are part of the rites, the marriage "becomes complete and binding when the seventh step is taken".

Myth vs truth. The "seven vachans" printed on wedding cards are not in the old texts. There are seven words, and the seventh is friend.

Why do married women wear sindoor?

The planets: Mars and Venus. Parashara colours Mars blood-red, and maps the human body onto the zodiac with the head at the first sign, Mesha (Aries). Mesha is ruled by Mars. Sindoor is Mars's colour, worn on Mars's part of the body. Parashara also calls Mars "one's strength". And sindoor is the adornment of a married woman, and Phaladeepika gives ornaments to Venus, so the red line carries two planets at once: Mars's courage and passion, and Venus's beauty and marriage.

What it gives you. Courage, passion and beauty, worn where everyone can see them. Sindoor is a later custom, not described in the oldest Vedic manuals, but it speaks exactly the same language.

What does the mangalsutra stand for?

Mangala means auspicious and sutra means thread: the lucky thread. In a woman's chart, Parashara reads her husband's long life from the 8th house, and Phaladeepika's list of names for the 8th house begins with "Mangalya", from the same root as mangalsutra.

The planet: Saturn. Saturn rules longevity, the 8th house's own subject, and Parashara gives Saturn the dark colour of the black beads many regions string into it. The gold belongs to the Sun.

What it gives you. A thread worn for the bond to last a lifetime. The oldest manuals describe something simpler: a red and black cord her relatives tie on her. The meaning has not changed.

Why is the bride shown the pole star and Arundhati?

Once the stars come out, the groom points out Dhruva, the pole star, and then Arundhati, and he says: "Firm art thou; I see thee, the firm one. Firm be thou with me."

The planet: the Moon. Parashara calls the Moon the mind, and the Moon is the fastest-moving light in the sky. Dhruva means "fixed": the pole star barely moves all night. The vow shows the most restless thing in us, the mind, the stillest thing in the sky, and asks it to learn.

Why Arundhati. Arundhati was the wife of the sage Vasishtha, and in the sky she is the faint star Alcor beside Vasishtha (Mizar) in the Saptarishi, the Big Dipper. I computed the pair 11.8 arcminutes apart, less than half the width of the Moon. She is not bright; you have to look for her, and she never strays from her partner. That is the lesson. The old manual is kind about it, too: if the bride cannot see the pole star, she should say "I see" anyway.

When you can actually see her. From New Delhi in April she is well up from 19:44; in November she does not climb high enough to see until 03:08 in the morning, so winter weddings keep this moment as a symbol.

Why do the bride's sisters hide the groom's shoes (joota chupai)?

While the groom sits at the fire, the bride's sisters and cousins steal his shoes and refuse to give them back until he pays. It looks like pure mischief. As the tradition reads it, it is a small, clever way of settling Saturn.

The planet: Saturn. Saturn rules Makara and Kumbha, and Parashara's map of the body puts those two signs at the knees and ankles. Parashara even describes Saturn himself as lame. Shoes belong to that part of the body, so they belong to Saturn. Saturn also carries the heavy things in a life: Parashara says Saturn "denotes grief", and Phaladeepika gives Saturn misery, reproach and servitude. In a new marriage, that looks like complaints, stubbornness and sadness.

Why this way. The groom has to bargain, lose gracefully and pay to get his own shoes back. He settles Saturn's account on the first day, in laughter and a gift instead of grief, and the bride's side gets the first word in the new family.

What it gives you. A marriage that starts with a joke both families are in on. Joota chupai is a family custom, not in the old wedding manuals, but its planetary logic holds together.

Why does the bride take a new name?

In many families the bride takes her husband's surname, and in some communities a new first name too. As the tradition explains it, the new name settles Mercury.

The planet: Mercury. Mercury is the planet of words: Parashara calls Mercury the "speech-giver", and a name is the word everyone uses for you. Mercury also rules Kanya (Virgo), the sixth sign, and in Phaladeepika's list the sixth house stands for disease, debt, enemies and battle. The tradition's reading is that a new name frees the couple, and the children to come, from that sixth-house baggage of illness and quarrels.

The honest part. I find no verse that prescribes a name change, and the oldest wedding manuals do not mention one. Treat it as a family custom with a good idea behind it: a new name for a new life. Plenty of women in 2026 keep their own name, and that is a choice, not a failing.

If you do choose a new name. Do it the Jyotish way. The naming tradition (namakarana) gives every birth star and quarter its own starting syllable, and Supastro's free baby-name tool shows yours. A new name that starts with your own syllable keeps your Moon's star in it. That part is my advice, not the custom's.

So is any of this superstition?

No. Strip away the planets for a moment and look at what the rituals make you do. Choose a good moment. Check that your minds fit. Let both families bless you with their hands. Promise in public. Promise to stay steady. Share your family's abundance. Speak your vows out loud. Laugh at the shoe game. End in friendship. It reads like a modern guide to a good marriage. The planets are how Jyotish names those qualities, so that a whole community can read them at a glance.

The texts are less rigid than people think, too. One manual says that at weddings, "authority rests with the village": follow your own family's and region's customs. Another lets the bride say "I see" when she cannot. A tradition that flexible was never about blind fear. It was about meaning.

Can you keep the meaning in a 2026 wedding?

• Court marriage first. The Special Marriage Act marries you when each of you says "I take thee" before the Marriage Officer and three witnesses. Add the core rites on a good muhurat: the hand, the fire, the stone, the rice, the seven steps.
• Micro wedding. You need the two of you, a fire, someone who knows the verses and one person from her side to pour the rice.
• Destination wedding. Compute the muhurat for that city; the windows move with the place.
• Inter-caste or inter-faith. If you are both Hindu (the Act also covers Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs), the Hindu Marriage Act accepts either partner's customary rites. If one of you is not, the Special Marriage Act works, in any form you choose. Families still arguing? Read love marriage or arranged.
• Start the preparations on a good day. Uttara Kalamrita names Pushya among the stars for beginning wedding preparations; here are the Pushya dates for 2027.

What else has to be computed before this becomes a prediction?

Frequently asked questions

What do the 7 pheras mean?

The meaning sits in the seven steps: food, strength, wealth, delight, cattle (or children), the seasons, and at the seventh, friend. The walk around the fire is the handover from the fire to the husband.

Why are there seven steps and not six or ten?

Because Sanskrit defines friendship as what forms after seven steps taken together, and a chart has seven planets. Six would stop before friendship; after friend there is nothing left to add.

Is guna milan enough to match a couple?

No. Matching only the 36 gunas is pop astrology, because all eight factors come from the Moon. A real match reads both full charts: the 7th house, Navamsa, Upapada, spouse planet, strengths, dashas and more.

Which planet rules marriage in Vedic astrology?

Venus, for marriage itself, the wife and the celebration. Jupiter rules the husband's happiness, which is why a wedding date needs both Venus and Jupiter clearly visible.

Is kanyadaan giving the bride away?

No. Her father gives her in marriage, and the wedding hymn sends her into the new house as its mistress, to rule it.

Is kundli matching necessary for love marriage?

Prasna Marga says a couple in love can marry even without agreement in the chart. Match anyway, the full way, to know which years will test you.

Can Hindu weddings be held in the morning or afternoon?

Yes, and most are. The muhurat decides the window, and the oldest wedding manuals list slots from morning to evening.

Receipts, for the skeptics

Every line above traces to a text or to Supastro's own calculations. Verse numbers follow the editions linked.

• The love-letter lines: Rig Veda 10.85, verses 36, 37, 39 to 41, 46 and 47 (Griffith's English).
• The bride as friend, equal and mistress of the house: Rig Veda 10.85.26, 27, 42 and 46; "I am the song, you are the words" (the Saman I, the Rik thou): Ashvalayana Grihya Sutra 1.7.6; "With seven steps we have become friends": Hiranyakeshin Grihya Sutra 1.6.21.2.
• Why seven: saptapadina, Monier-Williams dictionary page 1204; karakas from the seven planets, Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra 32.1 to 2; the step planets from Phaladeepika 2.2 to 2.7 and Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra 3.12 to 13, 3.32 and 3.33; directions of strength, 3.35 to 38; the waxing Moon a benefic, 3.11; the unconquered quarter, Ashvalayana Grihya Sutra 1.7.19.
• A real match: fourteen factors, Prasna Marga 21.2 to 3; the spouse from the Navamsa, Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra 7.1 to 8; the Darapada, chapter 29; the Upapada, chapter 30; the Darakaraka, 32.13 to 17. Supastro's Kundli Matching layers: its tool description.
• What each planet governs: Phaladeepika 2.1 to 2.7 and 2.22; colours, gods, elements, royal status, the Moon's muhurta and the body map from Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra 3.12 to 3.40 and 4.4; Mars rules Mesha in Phaladeepika 1.6.
• Rahu and Ketu, and the benefic rule: Uttara Kalamrita chapter 5 (what Rahu and Ketu signify); Phaladeepika 26.30 (a benefic's aspect cancels a malefic's bad result).
• Mercury, Saturn and the body: Mercury the speech-giver and Saturn's grief, Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra 3.12 to 13; Saturn lame, 3.29; Mercury and relatives, Phaladeepika 2.4; Kanya ruled by Mercury and Makara and Kumbha by Saturn, Phaladeepika 1.6; the sixth house, Phaladeepika 1.13; knees and ankles, Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra 4.4. Naming syllables: the namakarana chart in Supastro's baby-name tool.
• The hand-taking stars: the gods Aryaman, Bhaga and Savitar in Rig Veda 10.85.36; their stars from Supastro's nakshatra table; the planets that rule those stars from Parashara's dasha order (Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra 46).
• The bath with herbs, the dancing before the rite, the groom's welcome and the red and black cord: Shankhayana Grihya Sutra 1.11 to 1.12. The eight ways to marry and the father's gift with water: Ashvalayana Grihya Sutra 1.6.
• The fire rites, the stone, the rice, the seven steps and the star: Ashvalayana, Paraskara, Shankhayana, Gobhila, Khadira, Hiranyakeshin and Apastamba Grihya Sutras, the ancient household-ritual manuals (part 1, part 2; Oldenberg's English). "May Vishnu lead thee" at every step: Paraskara 1.8.2. "Authority rests with the village": Paraskara 1.8.13.
• The Sanskrit words of the seven steps: Shankhayana Grihya Sutra in Sanskrit and the Monier-Williams dictionary.
• The 8th house and the husband's long life: Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra 80.2; the name "Mangalya": Phaladeepika 1.14.
• Love outranks the score: Prasna Marga 21.54; same birth star: Prasna Marga 21.15; two Manglik partners: Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra 80.48 to 49.
• Wedding stars, fixed and soft, and the Venus and Jupiter rule: Supastro's vivah calendar rules (based on the timing manual Muhurta Chintamani) and nakshatra table.
• The law: Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, sections 2 and 7; Special Marriage Act, 1954, section 12.
• The sky: Alcor, Mizar and Polaris positions computed by Supastro from catalogue coordinates.