NEW YORK, December 17, 2014 (Swarajya by Aditi Banerjee): Are the Hindu marriage vows inherently misogynistic? Even if those vows were once appropriate, have they become obsolete today? Should Hindu marriage vows be rewritten to suit the times? The answer, as a study of the shastras show, is an emphatic “No.”
There is enormous intricacy and subtlety in the rites of Hindu marriage, and there is also significant variation across different regions, sampradayas (religious traditions), and jatis (clans / socioeconomic groups). The importance of various rites and their different layers of meaning and symbolism deserves its own series of articles, but the focus of this piece will be on the saptapadi mantras, which are the mantras uttered during the seven rounds taken by the bride and groom around the consecrated fire.
In traditional Hinduism, the wife plays a four-fold role: she is ardhangini (the other half of her husband, metaphorically speaking); sahadharmini (partner in the fulfillment of human and divine goals–principally, the four purushartha, or aims of human life: dharma, artha (accumulation of wealth through righteous means), kama (fulfillment of desire through appropriate means) and moksha (self-realization; liberation from the cycle of birth and death)); sahakarmini, (partner in all acts and actions), and sahayogini (partner in all ventures).
Much more of the informative discussion at ‘source’.