Gujarati kankotri wording, section by section

A Gujarati kankotri is written in sections: the invocation, the nimantran in which the parents announce the wedding, the list of mangal prasango (the functions), the venue, the swagat lines that name relatives, the tahuko from the children, and the family's signature. Many kankotris also give the Vikram Samvat tithi beside the English date. Below are lines for each section that you can adapt, and a note on the tithi.

Many families call this writing of the kankotri's text kankotri lekhan. Below, it's taken one section at a time, in the order the sections appear.

The opening

Many families add their kuldevi or kuldevta by name on the second line, for example ॥ શ્રી અંબે માતાજી પ્રસન્ન ॥. Others use ॥ જય શ્રી કૃષ્ણ ॥, especially in Vaishnav families.

The nimantran

The nimantran is where the parents announce the wedding of their child and invite the guest. A common form, from the groom's parents:

સ્નેહી શ્રી (dear) opens the letter, a reminder that the kankotri began as a letter. અ.સૌ. (akhand saubhagyavati) is written before the names of married women, ચિ. before the groom's name and ચિ. સૌ. કાં. before the bride's.

The mangal prasango

The functions are listed in the order they happen, each with a date and time. The names below are the ones families use most; your family may hold some and not others.

The venue

Swagat lines and the signature

The tahuko

The tahuko is the children's line, and it can be as playful as the family likes:

Adding the tithi

Many kankotris give the Vikram Samvat date beside the English one, such as “વિ. સં. 2083, માગશર સુદ __”, with the tithi filled in. Gujarati families follow the Vikram Samvat year that begins the day after Diwali, so a December wedding falls in the new year. Ask your priest for the exact tithi of each function; don't work it out from a website, since a tithi can begin or end in the middle of a day.

An English version of the nimantran

For a bilingual kankotri, the English page follows the Gujarati one closely:

Common spelling slips

• શ્રી, not શ્રિ, in the invocation and before names.
• પધારશોજી at the end of the request, the respectful form.
• ચિ. સૌ. કાં. for the bride, written in full the same way on every page.
• The same spelling of each name in the nimantran, the swagat lines and the signature.
• Dates in one format throughout, for example તા. 12-12-2026.

Putting it together

On a printed kankotri these sections sit on different panels; on a digital one, each can take its own page, in the same order. The kankotri meaning guide explains where each section comes from, and the first kankotri guide covers the offering to Ganesh before any are sent. For designs with a page for each section, see the wedding templates, and more guides are under kankotri and Gujarati weddings.