Shila Kalyana

An invitation for Kannada and other South Indian Hindu weddings, told as the soapstone carving of Belur and Halebidu. Everything is stone grey; the only colour is what a wedding adds to stone, a pinch of arishina (turmeric) and kumkuma.

Guests arrive at a bare slab with one carved lotus. They offer a pinch of each: the yellow runs out along the petals, a red dot lands at the centre, and the slab is lifted like a stone shutter.

Behind it, the couple's names are engraved beside a carved panel set into a wall niche. The families' note is a shasana, an inscription tablet. The arishina shastra, the muhurtha with the dhare and the oota are bands of a temple wall, each under its own frieze of creepers, swans or elephants. The details stand on a star-shaped plinth, the countdown sits in four lotus medallions, and a carved lamp burns at the end. With RSVP, a guest list and instrumental music.