Vivaha, Hindu marriage, is counted the greatest of the samskaras, the life-cycle sacraments, because for those who do not take the renouncer's path it inaugurates the householder stage on which the whole social and ritual order depends. Its forms vary enormously by region, caste and community, but a set of core acts recurs, most of them organised around the sacred fire that makes the marriage a Vedic sacrifice: the giving of the bride (kanyadana), the joining of hands (panigrahana), and above all the seven steps (saptapadi) taken together around the fire, at the completion of which, in the classical law, the marriage is irrevocably made.
The rite binds the couple through vows spoken to the fire as witness, and its symbolism repeatedly invokes fertility, prosperity and the continuity of the lineage, since one purpose the tradition assigns to marriage is the birth of sons to maintain the ancestral offerings. Around this ancient armature has grown an immense variety of ceremony, feasting and regional custom, but the fire, the seven steps and the framing of marriage as a sacrament rather than merely a contract remain broadly common across Hindu communities.