Salman Rushdie married Padma Lakshmi on Saturday at a royal Manhattan wedding attended by his most loyal friends.

The girl from Chennai was seen in a dazzling purple outfit. The 56-year-old Booker Prize-winning author looked bridegroomish in a long black sherwani with a silver-grey dupatta.

Sources say that Lakshmi, who is 25 years younger than her new husband, had insisted on a surprisingly Hindu wedding.

It was Rushdie's fourth wedding and Lakshmi's first. Rushdie arrived with his seven-year old son Milan, from his third marriage to the writer Elizabeth West.

The bride and groom garlanded each other under a `mandap` constructed with sweet-smelling `rajanigandha` flowers. He slipped a ring on Miss Lakshmi's finger to a reading from the `Rigveda`.

The ceremony also included an extract from Shakespeare. A Hindustani vocalist in New York, Marina Alam, a disciple of the Pandit Jasraj, gave a rendering of Sufi songs. A total of 275 guests attended the festive wedding.

The British guests included the columnist Christopher Hitchens; model Iman and William Dalrymple. The American friends included actors Steve Martin and Robert Klein and the rocker Lou Reed.

Lakshmi's choli was stitched in true Bollywood style with its revealing cuts. Rushdie and wife were photographed with their best friends Bill and Hillary Clinton the same night.

There was a sizeable Indian group at the wedding, which included the film director Ismail Merchant, Hot`male` Sabeer Bhatia, and representatives of business and film dynasties.

The food came from the Bukhara Grill, a top Indian restaurant in New York. Its owner, Vicky Vij, said the bride took a close interest in the menu.

They served bhelpuri, haryali chicken, paneer and black pepper cashews for starters, followed by Gujarati dal, gobi, shrimp in special mango sauce and sharabi kebabi among other dishes.

Dessert was rose-flavoured chum chum sweetmeats, lachedar rabri, a milk sweet, and tila kulfi.

Punjabi bhangra dominated the dance floor.