Top 10 interesting customs and tradition of India, which are going to change your perception about India.

India is full of customs and traditions that are still unexplored by the world’s travelers. These are the ways people living in India for centuries. 

10) Language and Dialects in India:

Image Illustration by Zemir Bermeo

India is called a land of fascinating languages and dialects. If you travel from north to south and west to east, you will pass through nineteen thousand mother tongues and twenty-three official languages are spoken in India. Hindi is widely spoken particularly in the northern part of India and even more than 10% of Indians speak English as a second language.

A) List of 23 official luggage spoken in India in alphabetical order:

01) Assamese, 02) Bengali, 03)Bodo, 04) Dogri, 05) English, 06) Gujarati, 07) Hindi, 08) Kannada, 09) Kashmiri, 10) Konkani, 11) Maithili, 12) Malayalam, 13) Marathi, 14) Meitei 15) Manipuri, 16) Nepali, 17) Odia, 18) Punjabi, 19) Sanskrit, 20) Santali, 21) Sindhi, 22) Telugu and 23) Urdu.

09) Way of Greetings in India:

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“Namaste, Namaskar or Namaskaram” is the most popular way of greeting in India. This gesture is performed by placing your palm together near the chest, fingers remain upwards positing, and making a slight bow. As we all have seen this respectful way of saying hello, goodbye or thanks is highly appreciated by the entire world during the “Covid outbreak”. In the literal sense, the meaning of Namaste is “I bow to you” or I bow to you out of respect.

Another popular saying is “Atithi Devo Bhava” a Sanskrit verse from Hindu Scripture that translates as “Guest is equivalent to God”. From thousands of years in Indian culture, guests have always been given supreme importance.

08) The family system in India:

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India has joint family culture, where the entire family lives together in one house. Which includes parents, wife, children’s and occasionally relatives. The senior male or female play the role of “Margdarshak” this means all the important financial and social decision makes by this person on behalf of the entire family. According to the requirement, equal benefit transfer to every member of the family and respect, relationship and teaching have given too more importance.  Now a day due to economic development and urbanization people start opting for nuclear families as well in India too.

“Arranged marriage” is still a very strong tradition in India. This is very much visible in history and even Vedas times as well, where suitable matches from around the kingdom would compete in competitions to win the hand of a bride.

07) Cuisine in India:

Image taken from memorable India 

Every region in India has its own cuisine with a Signature dish or ingredients. It is one the best country for foodies, you can easily find Veg and non-veg food according to your pocket. You will get freshly cooked food in India because it’s in a culture that, people eat only fresh food at home and cook according to need. Food is prepared in a very scientific way early time but still, you can enjoy plenty of fresh green Ingredients, wonderful herbs, spices used for flavor, aroma to enhance color, and healing properties.

Must try Dishes:

a)   Chhole Bhature

b)   Bharwa Bhindi

c)    Masal Chai

d)   Samosa

e)    Kulche

f)      Panipur/ Golgapa

g)    Jalebi

h)    Dhokla 

i)       Aloo Parantha

j)       Barfi

k)     Kadhi

l)       Hydrabadi Biryani

m)  Ladoo

n)    Halwa

o)    Rogan Josh

p)   Dosa

q)   Saag

r)      Kebab

s)     Kheer

t)      Chicken Tikka

u)    Butter chicken

v)    Sondesh/ Rasgolla

w)  Achaar

x)     Sahi Paneer etc 

In Indian tradition, people eat with their hand instead of cutlery because they believe, it maintains digestive system because of slow eating and you can enjoy your food with self-touch and feel. They wash their end thoroughly before and after meal and use right to hand to eat. If few parts of India you can also witness people eating on Banana leave instead of using any artificial cutlery.

06) Religion in India:

Image taken from Beauty of India 

India is a land where people from different religions live harmoniously. Around 78% of the population belongs to Hinduism, 14% belongs to Islam, 3% belongs to Christianity, 2% belongs to Sikhism, 1% Buddhism, and 0.5% Jainism.

The cow is a sacred animal in Hindu culture and is depicted in mythology as accompanying several gods such as Shiva on his bull Nandi, or Krishna, the cowherd god. The horns represent the gods, the four legs are ‘Vedas’ (ancient Hindu scriptures) and the udder is the four objectives of life – desire, material wealth, righteousness, and salvation. Consuming beef or killing a cow is considered sinful, and it is illegal to slaughter a cow in several states.  

Fast “Vrats or Upvas” is a  key part of Indian culture, as the means of giving thanks to god, going without the necessity of food you will clear your sin and save one day of food for others. Fast is observed on various days on a range of religious occasions.

05) Temple in India:

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Exploring the Indian temple is a magical experience. Most of these temples build at a place, which is positive in energy. Most of the temple features one main idol. Its good practice to have a shower before entering a temple or at least wash your hand and feet to clear yourself from negative energy.

 Major temple in India

a)   Badrinath

b)   Rameshwaram

c)    Jagannath

d)   Dwarkdhish

e)    Sri Virupaksha

f)      Kedarnath

g)    Lingaraja

h)    Amarnath Cave temple

i)       Golden Temple

j)       Shirdi Sai Mandir

The cloth should be appropriate to indicate respect and allow you setting comfortably cross-legged on the floor. Avoid wearing leather or animal skin of any kind as this is offensive to practicing in Hindu.

Need to remove your footwear entering any Hindu worship place. We suggest choosing shoes that are easy to remove, if you wish to keep your socks on, that is fine.

04) Festival in India:

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You can be part of hundreds of festival in India, which mean you can enjoy different thing at alternate day. This represents rich culture and traditions, each festival is different according to the state, religion and few are community-based.

Hindu celebrate Diwali, Holi, Makar Sakranti. Muslims observe Eid, Baisakhi is celebrated by Sikh.  Jain commemorate Mahavir Jayanti and Buddhists mark Buddha’s Birthday. Christmas and Good Friday are celebrated by Christens too. Few festivals to honor Saints, Public figures, and Gurus.

03) Clothing in India:

You can see a variety of clothing choices in India, according to climate, culture, religion, and ethnicity of particular region. Clothing in India progressed from simple garments covering the body (Sari wear by woman, Dhoti can be wear by both male and female but mostly use by man only, Gamcha, Langota, Lungi, etc) you can witness clothing according to dance as well which is not common wear but used on special occasions. You can also witness western clothing special in urban areas of India.

You can see embroidery cloths, the printing of cloths and silk clothing which is loved by people. Her clothing is also worn by particular colors to represent a religion or a particular ritual.

People wear Topi, Pagdi, Turban, etc in all part of India and this does not mean to them just a piece of cloth but they wear it as a piece of pride. Every religion or area has its own style of headgear. You can witness more than 100 types of headgear.

02) Dance in India:

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India offers a wide variety of dance forms and you can see each state has a different dancing style. The Hindu Sanskrit “Natyashashtra” ( text of performing art) recognized eight Indian classical dances, which includes

Hindu Form of Dance:

01)  Kathak in north, west, and central part of India.

02)  Sattriya you can witness in the Eastern part of India (Assam)

03)  Manipuri you can enjoy in Manipur

04)  Oddisi you can witness in Odisa.

05)  Kuchipudi in Andhra Pradesh

06)  Bharatnatyam in Tamil Nadu

07)  Kathakali in Kerala

08) Mohiniyattam in Kerala.

 

These are not just form of dance but it’s a way of telling stories from mythology through gestures and movement and few of form and performed by particular Dance Gharna as well.   

In the Sikh religion, Bhangra is performed by males, and Giddha is performed by females. There are another form of dance too like Nati is performed by both male and female in Himachal Pradesh, Other dances is like Ghoomar, Bhavai, Chari, etc.

Kathputli dance is an ancient form of puppet dance. This form of dance also narrates stories along with social problems prevailing in the country.

01) Literature of India:

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Indian Literature is very rich in its all form. Apart from Vedas which are a sacred form of knowledge, there are other work such as Hindu Epics Ramayana and Mahabharta, treatises as Vastu Shastra in architecture and town planning and Arthashastra in Political Science.

The most famous works in Sanskrit are the Hindu holy texts like the Vedas, Upanishads, and Manusmriti. Another popular literature, Tamil literature has a rich literary tradition spanning over 2000 years, and is particularly known for its poetic nature in the form of epics, and philosophical and secular works    

Other great literary works, which marked the golden era of Indian literature, include 'Abhijanam Shakuntalam' and 'Meghdoot' by Kalidasa, 'Mricchakatika' by Shudraka, 'Svapna Vasavadattam' by Bhaasa, and 'Ratnavali' by Sri Harsha. Some other famous works are Chanakya's 'Arthashastra' and Vatsyayana's 'Kamasutra'.

Hindi literature started as religious and philosophical poetry in medieval periods in dialects like Avadhi and Brij. The most famous figures from this period are Kabir and Tulsidas. In modern times, the Khadi dialect became more prominent and a variety of literature was produced in Sanskrit.

Chandrakanta, written by Devaki Nandan Khatri is considered to be the first work of prose in Hindi. Munshi Premchand was the most famous Hindi novelist. The other famous poets include Maithili Sharan Gupt, Jaishankar Prasad, Sumitranandan Pant, Mahadevi Varma, and Ramdhari Singh 'Dinkar'.