Gold decked brides of Southern India

For Indians, wedding is a once in a life time event. One of the ideas of making the wedding memorable is to make it big and fat. They spend their life-time earnings, borrow from friends and relatives, sell off their property, and almost drown themselves in neck deep debts. So, it wouldn’t be wrong to say, “Everything is fair in love, war, and weddings.”

One of the world’s largest gold consumers is Indians. You see wealthy families spending on tons of jewellery at their weddings. This craze for gold is quite evident in South India. If you have attended any South Indian wedding, you know how the bride’s weighed down in gold. Other than adorning themselves with this dazzling metal, its liquidity makes it a great security against financial crisis. Traditionally, in Hinduism, gold is a symbolic of the Goddess of Wealth, Lakshmi and so is considered as auspicious.

World Gold Council did some number crunching to get a bird's-eye-view of gold demand in India. Its 'India’s gold market: evolution and innovation report' says that brides from Kerala wear most gold – 320 grams or 40 sovereigns. Whereas, Andhra and Tamil Nadu brides follow closely by sporting gold of 300 grams on an average.

Underlining our eternal fascination for gold, the report said India a third of respondents aged between18-33 years said that they would invest in gold if they were given fifty thousand rupees. South consumes almost 40% of the gold with Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai and Cochin being the main centres. The West consumes 25% with Ahmedabad and Mumbai as main centres. With New Delhi and Jaipur as main centres, north accounts for 20% demand. Kolkata is the main centre in East that demands 15% gold.

No big fat Indian wedding is complete without gold in it.