Indian tradition and Culture

 INDIA-"UNITY IN DIVERSITY"

Indian Culture and Traditions are unique across the world. The Indian Culture and Traditions Essay elaborated on the variety of traditions and cultures followed by people in India. India is a country of having many cultures, traditions, and religions that made people living in a peaceful, colorful, rich, and diverse nation. It is unbelievable that different directions of India like north, south, east, and west have their own cultures and traditions.

India is having 29 states and 7 union territories across all the directions. There are 22 languages and several religions like Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Jainism, Hinduism, etc. exist in India. Whereas Hindi is the official language of India. However, India is the oldest civilization where people still follow their old cultures of caring and humanity. Even though people became modern in today’s world, still they celebrate festivals as per the customs.

Indian Festivals

Festivals play an important role in Indian culture and tradition. People from different religions celebrate different festivals in India. Popular festivals like Diwali, Dussehra, Navratri, Janmashtami, Shivratri, Ganesh Chaturthi, etc. are celebrated by Hindu people in India. Whereas Eid-ul-Fitr, Bakrid, Muharram, etc. festivals are celebrated by Islamic people in India. Other than this, many harvest festivals like Makar Sankranti, Chapchar kut, Pongal, Sohrai, etc. are celebrated by farmers.

However, Christians also celebrate Christmas, Good Friday, etc. festivals in India. There also exist different regional festivals in each state of India like Teej, Onam, Ugadi, Saraswati Puja, Panna Sankranti, Chhath Pooja, Pongal, Lohri, and so forth.

Indian Cuisine

Indian Cuisine is also equally diverse in India like festivals and religions. Indian food and eating habits differ from place to place as each state has its own particular food and eating habits. In other words, people belonging to various parts of the country have their own cuisine, living style, environment, and availability of goods. Indian cuisine is most inspirational. Different states have different cuisines. Indian foods include so many ingredients and are more influential across the world. Indian food is mainly influenced by the diversity of people, so it has a variety of rich Cuisine. North Indian food includes vegetables, roti, dal, rice, fish curry, parathas, etc. South Indian food includes dosa, sambar, idli, vada, upma, uttapam, etc. In general, South Indian people cook food using coconut oil rather than mustard or sunflower oil.

Indian Costume

Indian Costumes are different for the different states of India. It varies depending on the origin, climate, and heritage of the place. Indian culture still follows traditional costumes. In eastern states such as Odisha, West Bengal and southern states like Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, women wear saree as the authentic clothing. It is a single and long fabric piece draped around the body.

In a similar way, men wear Dhoti-Kurta or Kurta-Pyjama as the authentic clothing in eastern states. In northern states like Punjab, women wear salwar kameez and Kurti as traditional clothing. Whereas men wear headgear or turban known as the Dastar as the traditional clothing. In India, all the married Women wear Sindoor, a vermilion powder in the parting of their hair. They also wear bindi, Mehendi, bangles, and earrings as part of their attire.

Indian Literature

In the 19th century, the first literature Rigveda was created in India. It was written in Sanskrit and became the foundation of many religious scriptures and literary works laterwards. Also, the Yajur Veda and Atharva Veda written by the Aryans followed by Indians. Other famous literary works are Ramayana written by Rishi Valmiki and Mahabharata written by Rishi Vyasa in India.

The Biographies of kings like the Mughal Empire, Baburnama, and Akbarnama are also precious literature by which we can know about the era. Other than this, foreign travelers have written some scriptures like Fa Hein and Hussein Tsung which provide knowledge about Indian people’s traditions and lifestyles.

Indian languages.

India’s heritage in languages and literature is one of the richest in the world. Some of the languages that were spoken in India in ancient times and had a rich literature have become extinct, others remained important.

As Sanskrit is no longer a spoken language, it is still a language of many religious rituals and of literature. The old languages have left their mark on the other languages which we speak today.

There are two main groups of languages — the Indo European (Indo-Aryan) and the Dravidian. These two groups have not developed in isolation from each other. Sanskrit was the language of Indo Aryans who came to India.

Sanskrit was gradually standardized and given a highly scientific grammar by Panini. Sanskrit was the language of religion, philosophy and learning. It was used by the upper castes, the brahmans and the Kshatriyas. The common people spoke a number of dialects which are called Prakrits.

Buddhist literature was written in Pali, one of the Prakrits. Ashoka had his rock and pillar edicts inscribed in the popular languages. Among the Dravidian languages Tamil is the most ancient. In the period of Gupta’s Sanskrit again became the predominant language of learning.

The various spoken languages that developed are called Apabhrams which developed in the various regions of India in the medieval period. During the periods of Turks and the Mughals Arabic and Persian entered India. Persian became the court language. The growth of a new language-Urdu-based on the dialects of Hindi and Persian became the common language of towns alt over northern India and the Deccan. Its literature in poetry and prose developed very rich.

There are eighteen languages which have been mentioned in the constitution of India. Hundreds of other languages are spoken by the people of other areas of the country. The variety of languages has made India a multilingual country.

Conclusion on Indian Culture and Tradition 

India is a land of rich culture and tradition which teaches people kindness, generosity, and tolerance. Indian culture differs from place to place as it is a multilingual, multicultural, and multi-ethnic society. Indian culture is a unique blend of modern western culture and historical traditions. India is a country of great legends where many great people were born and remembered forever due to their sacrifice for the nation. People across the world come to enjoy and feel the culture and tradition of India.

Thank You.