Hello readers, Do you know the culture, customs, and traditions of India? If your answer is No, then don’t worry In this blog we try to define all India’s cultures, customs, and traditions.
Indian culture is full of several unique traditions customs and, which outsiders might find intriguing. Most of these originate from the ancient Indian scriptures and texts, which have dictated the way of life in India for thousands of years. As we know that there are various Cultures, Heritage, and Traditions in India. India’s culture and tradition are something which has now renowned all across the world. We all refer to India’s customs and traditions as very diverse and unique.
Also, the culture of India is full of several unique customs and it’s tradition, Most of the Indian culture is originate from Ancient India, sculptures and it’s texts.
Now let’s take a look at 18 cultures of India
Greeting – Namaste
Namaste is one of the popular Indian customs and it’s just not restricted to an Indian territory anymore. It becomes famous in another part of the world like you have seen Barack Obama, who has been seeing doing namaste on various occasions, the UN Secretary-General Ban ki-Moon has also greeting everyone with a namaste at times square, New York, NJ on the first international yoga day.
The namaste or namaskar is one of the five traditional forms of greeting mention in ancient Hindu scriptures and the Vedas. It translates to ‘ l bow to you ‘, and greeting everyone with its way of saying ‘may our mind meets’. It’s indicated by folded palms, palms are placed before the chest and the word Namah can also be translated as ‘ nama ‘.
Indian Festivals and regions
India has also seen a large number of festivals, because of the prevalence of diverse religions and groups. There are lots of festivals celebrates in India for example:-
- Muslims celebrates EID.
- Christians celebrates Christmas and Good Friday.
- Sikhs celebrates Baisakhi and Lohri.
- Jain’s celebrates Mahavir Jayanti.
- Holi, Diwali, Makar Sankranti, etc. many of the festivals are celebrates in India because festivals of India is endless.
Indian Family Structure – Joint Family
India is a country where we can see the joint family. A joint family is that where the entire family lives together like parents, children, grandparents. In some cases, relatives have also lived together mostly because of the cohesive nature of Indian society. They live together in the same household utilizing a kitchen and often spend money from a common purse which is contributed by all. Generally, senior male family member respects for their seniority and good judgment.
Indian Symbols – Fasting
Fasting is also a part of our Indian cultures like Karwa Chauth, Teej, Navratri among Hindus, and Ramzan among Muslims. Fasts or Vrat are ways to represent your sincerity, resolve and express your gratitude to your God and Goddess. People throughout the country are observing the fast on a different day of the week in the favor of your particular God or Goddess. People believe that if you doing that, you are depriving your body of a basic necessity. You punish yourself to clean off the sins that you have committed until the day of your fast.
The rules and regulations of fast are rapid according to the particular occasions. The origin of a fast probably comes with the Vedic rituals of kindling a sacrificial fire for the purpose of the sacrifice. Upvas is a Sanskrit word that means to abide stable in a state of abstinence and abstained from the foods.
Indian Religious Custom – Holy Cow
In the Indian culture, people consider the cow as a holy animal and she is worship as a mother figure. Its depiction of the bounty of mother earth and lord Krishna who grow up as herder depicted as playing flute among cow and Gopis. Lord Krishna is also known by the name of ‘Gopala’ and ‘Govinda’ which means to protect his ‘friends and cows’. Cows have auspicious significance in the Indian culture and religions. Even the lord Shiva trusted vehicle is Nandi – it is a sacred bull.
Feeding a cow and contribute to making a shelter for cows have immense religious importance for Indians. In the Vedic scriptures, various verses is emphasize they need to protect and care for the cows. As we know that cow is a source of milk. The cow’s dung are so useful to make energy, a source of fuel and it is special for rural India. Killing cows or cow meat is banned in several states in India by cow’s law.
Indians’ religion and culture are appreciate and express their gratitude towards and these innocent animals who give back to mother earth.
Architecture Of Temples
Most of the temples are located at the magnetic wave line of earth, which helps in maximizing the availability of positive energy. The copperplate (called Garbha Griha and Moolasthan) of the temple is buried under the main idol absorb and resonate energy to its surroundings. Going to the temple helps to having a positive mind and garnering positive energies, which in turn lead the healthier functioning. It also practices to take off footwear before we entering in the worship places because they would not bring dust and maintain cleanliness.
Indian Marriage
The concept of an arranged marriage in India traces it origin to early in the Vedic times. In ancient time swaymbar ceremony is arrange for the royal families, it will be arrange from the bride’s side. The swayambar has to be arrange from the bride side for its suitable match from all over the kingdom. The bride side invites people to compete in some competition.
The bride has to choose their ideal husband, even today concept of arrange marriages favorite for the Indians and it’s an integral part of the Indian traditions.
Indian Religious Symbol
Indian traditions and their sculptures contain various signs and symbols that have multiple meanings like the usage of the swastika is in the Indian context, it does not point towards Adolf Hitler or Nazism. It is the symbol of the Lord Ganesha, he is the remover of obstacles, arms of the swastika signify the four Vedas and the four constellations on the four primary aims of the human pursuit. The swastika is a symbol of prosperity and good fortune, it is widely distribute all over the ancient world.
The importance of swastika is very important for Hindus because it represents peace, luck, hope and harmony, and prosperity. It is considered a symbol of Lord Shree Ganesha, Lord Vishnu, and the Sun. It is advisable to place the swastika on the northeast of the puja room in your houses.
Tradition and Customs – Atithi Devo Bhavah
In India, we say ‘Atithi Devo Bhavah’ it is also an integral part of India’s culture and tradition, it means that ‘the guests are equal to god’. It is a Sanskrit word that is take from Hindu sculptures, which has later become part of ‘code of conduct’ for Hindu societies. Since the guests are always been supreme importance of Indian cultures.
Dresses of India
Clothing in India is depending on different geography, culture and climate, clothing depends on each region of India. Historically, male and female clothing are evolve from simple garments like Kaupina, langota, achkan, Lungi, sari, and gamcha to cover up the body. There are different clothes according to the occasion of India. In the urban areas, western cloth is common and uniformly worn by people of all social levels.
India, has great diversity in terms of weaves, fibers, colors, and material of clothing. Code of color is follow on the basis of its religion and ritual concerned. Clothing in India also encompasses a wide variety of Indian embroidery, its print and hard work embellishment, its styles, and wearing clothes. A wide variety of Indian traditional clothing and western styles is seen in India.
Indian Dances
India is a land of ‘unity in diversity’ and in our dances there is no difference. There are a different form of dance which can be classified as classical or folk. Its origin is in the different parts of the country, and there is a way of representation of particular culture which originates in the eight classical dances. It is classified as Indian classical dance and mention in the Hindu Sanskrit text as ‘Natya Shastra’.
Performing Arts
There are a lot of types of performing arts like:
- Bharatnatyam
- Kathakali
- Mohiniyattam
- Kuchipudi
- Oddisi
- Manipur
- Sattriya
All the dance mentioned above is a complete dance-drama, where the dancers performance narrates of an entire story. It is entirely and exclusively through gestures. Such stories are mostly based on Indian mythology. Classical dances are strictly classified as performance according to it’s rules and guidelines written in Natya shastra.
Classical dances, folk dances originate from different region of our country. It is mostly based on stories that are orally pass from one generation to the others. Folk dances are mainly tracing their importance in the rural areas, it process for a suitable match is long and tiring effects. It matching with some criteria likes the horoscope, caste, religion, and professional status.
Cuisine – Indian Food
Indian cuisine are not only a form of an integral part in the culture of India but also a critical factor that India is most popular in worldwide. There are a lot of varieties of regional foods and traditional food of India like pav bhaji, chole bhature, makke ki roti, and sarso saag, etc. Cuisine are vary form of the spices, herbs, vegetables, and fruits. Indian foods are so heavily influence by the regions
India’s diversity in its soil, climate, culture, and ethnic groups and occupation and these cuisines are varied substantially. The fiber, however, it’s throughout the nation and consists mostly of rice, Bengal gram, and wheat so the vegetarian food its an integral part is Rajasthani food, Gujarati food, and south Indian foods are cuisines.
The nonvegetarian foods famous from North India, Bengali, central part of the Mughals and also in Punjabis. In India there are so many varieties of the Indian cuisines, spices, vegetables, and fruits and also India is famous for its street food and chaats.
Scriptures & Epics
We know that Indian literature is a very great epic they are write in the forms of stories, poems, plays, etc. Famous epic of Indian literature is Ramayana and Mahabharata by Ved Vyas, it is in the form of the poem in Sanskrit language. Epics are written in the order of the values of loyalty, devotion and sacrifices are truth and the moral education of the stories is pretty good over the evil.
Indian Martial Arts
India, is the home of a few unique styles of martial arts, which have its ancient origins. Martial arts is mainly use for the self-defense, technique and fitness. In today’s time some martial arts form is also use for healing. Weapons are use in some martialarts. Some forms of martial arts like wrestling, Gatika, Boxing, Pehlwani, Malla yudha etc.
The No.1 martial artist of India is Vidyut Jammal has bringing global recognition in the indian martial arts and the actors have been training in the art form since an early age.
Languages
In India there are many languages like Hindi, Bengali, Sanskrit, Marathi, Gujarati, Telugu, Tamil and Manipur, etc. There are also 400 languages which are still unknown but Hindi and English are widely speak for official purposes. There are 190 languages that have become very few surviving speakers.
Indian Media
Media, is the communication outlet or tools which are use to store and delivers information or data to the people. Media comes in different formats, like print media, books, magazines, and newspaper,s etc. There are four types of media like printmedia, broadcast, radio, and internet. The language of media works to convey the meaning through the signs and symbols, it is suggested by the way of a scene is set up and filmed.
The media are interactive, digital, networked, simulated, and virtual, it contains various types of softwares.
National Flag of India
The National flag of India is called Tiranga it is a horizontal and rectangular tricolor of India, colors of Tiranga are saffron, white and green, and an Ashok chakra which color is blue. It is adopted on 22 July 1947, 73 years ago it is designed by Pringles venkayya and it became the official National Flag of India.
The flag was retained as the Republic of India, ‘Tricolour’ always refers to the Indian National flag. The manufacture of this flag is held by the ‘KHADI DEVELOPMENT AND VILLAGE INDUSTRIES COMMISSION. This flag is the pride of Indians and we salute the Indian freedom fighters who sacrifice their lives for independence.
Conclusion
In this blog, we try to give you the details of Indian culture and its tradition. As we all know that India is a country of different cultures, religions, customs, and traditions.
In India, you get the different types of religions like Hindu, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, etc. You will also get different types of cuisines like make di roti, sarso da saag, lassi, idli sambhar, chhole, etc. You will also see the different types of festivals celebrated in India.
There are also different types of dance performances, dresses, etc. according to occasion and religion. Also, different types of media are exist in India’s customs and traditions.
Overall, India is a nice country and we love their food, languages, martial arts, epics, and traditional dance. India is in our heart and we love this country. Hope you like this blog about Indian culture and its tradition, if you have any query write in the comment box. Please go through our website www.aboutindia.in.