Kim Ann Zimmermann is a contributor to Live Science. She holds a bachelors degree in communications from Glassboro State College.
When the Moghul Empire invaded during the sixteenth century, they left a significant mark on the Indian cuisine, according to Texas A&M University. Indian cuisine is also influenced by many other countries. It is known for its large assortment of dishes and its liberal use of herbs and spices. Cooking styles vary from region to region.
Sanskrit, an ancient Indo-European language usually referred to in action movies, came from Northern India. How the language started has been a point of argument amongst linguists. It shares many similarities with English, French, Farsi and Russian languages. New DNA research in 2017 found that an Aryan invasion may have introduced the beginnings of Sanskrit. People have been debating the arrival of the Indo-European languages in India for hundreds of years, said study co-author Martin Richards, an archaeogeneticist at the University of Huddersfield in England. Theres been a very long-running debate about whether the Indo-European languages were brought from migrations from outside, which is what most linguists would accept, or if they evolved indigenously. [Aryan Invasion May Have Transformed Indias Bronze-Age Population]
Here is a brief overview of the culture of India.
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Additional reporting by Alina Bradford, Live Science Contributor.
About 13 percent of Indians are Muslim, making it one of the largest Islamic nations in the world. Christians and Sikhs make up a small percentage of the population, and there are even fewer Buddhists and Jains, according to the Handbook.
India is well known for its film industry, which is often referred to as Bollywood. The countrys movie history began in 1896 when the Lumire brothers demonstrated the art of cinema in Mumbai, according to theGolden Globes. Today, the films are known for their elaborate singing and dancing.
Wheat, Basmati rice and pulses with chana (Bengal gram) are important staples of the Indian diet. The food is rich with curries and spices, including ginger, coriander, cardamom, turmeric, dried hot peppers, and cinnamon, among others. Chutneys thick condiments and spreads made from assorted fruits and vegetables such as tamarind and tomatoes and mint, cilantro and other herbs are used generously in Indian cooking.
Many Hindus are vegetarian, but lamb and chicken are common in main dishes for non-vegetarians.The Guardianreports that between 20 percent and 40 percent of Indias population is vegetarian.
University of California: Religions of India
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A study published in April 2016 in theJournal of Indian Ocean Archaeologyfound that some Indian horns have many similarities with horns made in Ireland. This research may suggest that the two countries may have exchanged ideas and techniques in making musical instruments during the Bronze Age. Some horns are frankly shockingly similar, to the point where it is like witnessing time travel, study author Billy Foghl, an archaeologist and doctoral student at the Australian National University in Canberra, told Live Science. If I were to find one of these modern Indian instruments in an Irish archaeological excavation and I didnt know what I was looking at, I would likely assume it was a Late Bronze Age Irish artifact. [Surprising Echo of Ancient Irish Horns in Indian Instruments]
Kim Ann Zimmermann, Live Science Contributor
Diwali is the largest and most important holiday to India, according toNational Geographic. It is a five-day festival known as the festival of lights because of the lights lit during the celebration to symbolize the inner light that protects them from spiritual darkness. Holi, the festival of colors, also called the festival of love, is popular in the spring. The country also celebrates Republic Day (Jan. 26), Independence Day (Aug. 15) andMahatma Gandhis birthday (Oct. 2).
Much of Indian food is eaten with fingers or bread used as utensils. There is a wide array of breads served with meals, including naan, a leavened, oven-baked flatbread; and bhatoora, a fried, fluffy flatbread common in North India and eaten with chickpea curry.
However, Indians made significant advances in architecture (Taj Mahal), mathematics (the invention of zero) and medicine (Ayurveda). Today, India is a very diverse country, with more than 1.2 billion people, according to theCIA World Factbook, making it the second most populous nation after China. Different regions have their own distinct cultures. Language, religion, food and the arts are just some of the various aspects of Indian culture.
India is identified as the birthplace of Hinduism and Buddhism, the third and fourth largest religions. About 84 percent of the population identifies as Hindu, according to the Handbook of Research on Development and Religion, edited by Matthew Clarke (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2013). There are many variations of Hinduism, and four predominant sects Shaiva, Vaishnava, Shakteya and Smarta.
Many people living in India write in Devanagari script. In fact, it is a misconception that the majority of people in India speak Hindi. Though many people speak Hindi in India, 59 percent of India residents speak something other than Hindi, according toThe Times of India. Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, Tamil and Urdu are some other languages spoken in the country.
India has 28 states and seven territories, according to theWorld Health Organization. There is no official language in India, according to aGujarat High Court ruling in 2010, though Hindi is the official language of the government. The Constitution of India officially recognizes 23 official languages.
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Western societies did not always see the culture of India very favorably, according to Christina De Rossi, an anthropologist at Barnet and Southgate College in London. Early anthropologists once considered culture as an evolutionary process, and every aspect of human development was seen as driven by evolution, she told Live Science. In this view, societies outside of Europe or North America, or societies that did not follow the European or Western way of life, were considered primitive and culturally inferior. Essentially this included all the colonized countries and people, such as African countries, India, and the Far East.
Indias culture is among the worlds oldest; civilization in India began about 4,500 years ago. Many sources describe it as Sa Prathama Sanskrati Vishvavara the first and the supreme culture in the world, according to theAll World Gayatri Pariwar(AWGP) organization.
The most well-known example of Indian architecture is the Taj Mahal, built by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan to honor his third wife, Mumtaz Mahal. It combines elements from Islamic, Persian, Ottoman Turkish and Indian architectural styles. India also has many ancient temples.
Indian clothing is closely identified with the colorful silk saris worn by many of the countrys women. A traditional piece of clothing for men is the dhoti, an unstitched piece of cloth that is tied around the waist and legs. Men also wear a kurta, a loose shirt that is worn about knee-length. For special occasions, men wear a sherwani or achkan, which is a long coat that with a collar having no lapel. It is buttoned up to the collar and down to the knees. A shorter version of a sherwani is called a Nehru jacket. It is named after Jawaharlal Nehru, Indias prime minister from 1947 to 1964, butNehru never wore a Nehru jacket. He preferred the achkan, according to Tehelka, an Indian newspaper. The Nehru jacket was primarily marketed to Westerners.
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Indian dance, music and theater traditions span backmore than 2,000 years, according to Nilima Bhadbhade, author of Contract Law in India (Kluwer Law International, 2010). The major classical dance traditions Bharata Natyam, Kathak, Odissi, Manipuri, Kuchipudi, Mohiniattam and Kathakali draw on themes from mythology and literature and have rigid presentation rules.
New World Encyclopedia: Languages of India
The CIA cited similar figures. According to its World Factbook, around 80 percent of the population is Hindu, 14.2 percent is Muslim, 2.3 percent is Christian, 1.7 percent is Sikh and 2 percent is unspecified.
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