Right & Left

[mrabe at artic.edu]

In response to Dr. J.B. Bapat who writes:
>One could advance reasons why the bride had to on the right. In olden
>times marriages took place when the bride was essentially a child and
>hence a virgin. A KumAri is essentially pure and can therefore sit on
>the right.( right is the pure side)

By Occam's Razor a simpler explanation may be that during the wedding
ceremony the bride stands to the right UNTIL the appointed time for her to
move to her appointed place as wife, at her husband's left.  Iconographic
sanction for this reasoning is common in South Indian KalyANa-sundara mUrti
groupings and occurs as early at the mid-6th c. at Elephanta, where Parvati
stands on Shiva's right side, being presented to him by "brother" Vishnu at
her right side.

Michael Rabe
Saint Xavier University
& School of the Art Institute of Chicago