ਜੰਞ

What does janj mean in Punjabi? Janj (ਜੰਞ) is the Punjabi word for the groom's wedding procession, the party of family and friends that travels with the groom to the bride's home or the wedding venue. It is the Punjabi name for what is widely called the baraat.

What does janj mean in Punjabi?

Janj is a feminine noun. The Punjabi-English Dictionary of Punjabi University, Patiala, as reproduced in the Wiktionary entry, gives its Gurmukhi spellings as ਜੰਞ and ਜੰਜ and its Shahmukhi form as جَن٘ج, and defines it in one line: a baraat, a wedding procession by the bridegroom's side, with baraat as its synonym. Used loosely, the same word can also mean a crowd or a group. A person who travels in the procession is a jaanji, a member of the marriage party. The word's history traces it back through Prakrit to the Sanskrit janya, built on jana, a person, which fits a word that is really about the people who gather around the groom.

What happens when the janj arrives?

The groom travels to the wedding venue, often the bride's house, accompanied by his family members and friends. In earlier times he rode a mare, and the mare still appears in many Punjabi processions, though decorated cars are now common too. The party dances to the dhol as it moves, and in a Punjabi procession both men and women take part, while close male relatives of both sides wear turbans as a mark of honour. When the janj reaches the venue, the welcome becomes the milni, the meeting in which matching relatives from the groom's side and the bride's side greet each other in turn.

Does the janj have its own songs?

Yes. The traditional list of Punjabi wedding songs includes one simply called Janj, sung when the janj, the marriage procession, is to be greeted. That tells you how the procession was once received: not quietly at a door, but with singing from the bride's side as the drums approached. Today the dhol and the band do most of that work, but older relatives still use the word janj where others say baraat, and a sentence like 'the janj has reached the gate' still sets a Punjabi wedding house in motion.