Guru Nanak's wedding ceremony, from a manuscript of the Janam Sakhi (Life Stories)

This painting portrays various male and female guests watching an official perform the marriage rites for Guru Nanak and his bride. In most Indian traditions this ceremony takes place after the arrival and formal reception of the bridegoom and his party by the bride’s family, as depicted in the painting to your left.Here, both Nanak and his bride are shown seated on abench and facing the marriage official with their hands clasped in a gesture of respect. In Sikh tradition the marriage ceremony is known as the lavan phere, as its primary components include the recitation of a marriage hymn (lavan) and the ritual circumambulation (phere; circling around) of the Adi Granth (Primal Book), the most sacred of Sikh texts. The official in this painting appears, however, to be performing a ritual more in line with Hindu marriage customs, which involve kindling and circumambulating a sacred fire.

It is possible that a non-Sikh painter—a Hindu—created this work and visualized the event in terms that were more familiar to him.