Eternal India Encyclopedia

ETERNAL INDIA encyclopedia

A GREAT DESTINATION

THE DIVERSITY OF INDIA

India is more than a country. It is a continent. It is not a coherent unit possessing uniform qualities and characteristics. India consists of a variety of different and distinct entities called States (25 in number) which differ sharply from one another in physical characteristics, climate and peoples. Stretching from the Himalayas in the north and jutting into the Indian Ocean in the south and westwards from the Arabian Sea to the Bay of Bengal in the east, India is not a cohesive mass but a constellation of states and peoples distinguished by compelling differences and customs. India has been aptly called the “epitome of the world.” India is a land of striking contrasts. “The diversity of India is tremendous”, wrote Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first Prime Minister. "It is obvious, it lies on the surface and anybody can see it." Kashmir, in the shadow of the Himalayas and one of the most beautiful regions of India, lies in the temperate zone. In most other parts of India, except the coastal belt, it gets very hot in summer and rather cold in winter. Central India is a dry region which does not receive much rainfall. But in the north-east, in Assam and Meghalaya which has Cherrapunji, the wettest place on earth with an average annual rainfall of 1150 cm or nearly 40 feet, it never stops raining. India's physical diversity is matched by her incredible cultural diversity, the product of her antiquity and history. The Aryan tribes came to India from Central Europe 2000 years before the Christian era bringing with them the beginnings of a faith that was later to grow into Hinduism. Buddhism and Jainism are religions which were bom in India. Later with the successive waves of Muslim invasions, Islam became a transplant in the soil of India. Christian- ity came with the arrival of St.Thomas on the west coast of India in the 1st century. The Jews were there before St.Thomas. Legend says that the first batch of Jews to reach the Malabar Coast came in King Solomon's merchant fleet around 1000 B.C. and when the Apostle set foot on the soil of India he was received by a Jewish girl. The Zoroastrians, who are now known as the Parsis, fled their native Persia in the face of religious persecution about 766 A.D. and were given a safe haven in India. Sikhism, founded by Guru Nanak in the 16th Century, is India's youngest religion. This intermingling of religions has made India a land of temples, mosques, churches and synagogues. There are temples and temples, from the famous ones like those of Madurai, Ramesh- waram and Puri to the Kami Mata Temple at Deshnok in Rajasthan where rats are fed and cared for in the belief that they will one day be reincarnated as holy men. In Cochin in the state of Kerala in South India you can see the oldest Church in India built in 1503 as well as the Jewish synagogue built in 1568, one of the oldest in the world. The Jama Masjid, India's largest mosque, is in old Delhi. It took 12 years to build. - This religious mosaic has resulted in a proliferation of festivals. No other country has so many festivals as India, each celebrating some event in the remote past. Hemis Gompa, the biggest Bud- dhist monastery in Ladakh (Kashmir) is the site of a three-day festival in July each year commemorating the birth anniversary of Guru Padmasambhava. The chariot festival held in Puri in June/July every year is the most spectacular of the great temple festivals of India. Held in honour of Lord Jagannath, Lord of the Universe, it attracts thousands of pilgrims from all parts of the country.

Dussehra, the victory of good over evil, is celebrated all over the country, in different ways. But in Calcutta and West Bengal it becomes the worship of the goddess Durga, a symbol of infinite power and strength, the avenging deity. Durga Puja in West Bengal is more than just a festival. It is a five-day cultural exposition with dramas, music performances, competitions and games of skill being held throughout the night. The festival of Ganesh, the deity with an elephant's head, the god of good omen worshipped by Hindus, is celebrated in Maharashtra with enthu- siasm. The festival lasts 11 days and like the Durga Puja inWest Bengal, has developed into an exposition of Maharashtrian art and culture. The Dussehra festival in Mysore, Karnataka, is a 10-day affair, the highlight being an impressive procession of caparisoned elephants. The Goa carnival celebrated all over Goa in February each year is a joyous expression of the spirit of the carefree Goans, held before the season of Lent, featuring songs, dances and masked displays. Diwali, the festival of lights, the gayest of Indian festivals, held to celebrate the return of Lord Rama to Ayodhya after 14 years in exile, is celebrated all over India during October/November each year. The 17th Century Taj Mahal has been much written about. But there are other equally excellent examples of Indian art and archi- tecture which pre-date the Taj by centuries. The caves of Ajanta and Ellora are also one of the wonders of India. The murals of Ajanta, painted on the walls of caves hewn out of the cliff-face, were begun in the 2nd century B.C. by Buddhist monks. The work was completed by 700 A.D. Benjamin Rowland has observed, 'Nowhere els? in Indian art but at Ajanta do we find such a complete statement of indivisible union of....sacred and secular art.... Here is a turn to a sort of religious romanticism of a really lyric quality, a reflection of the view that every aspect of life has an equal value in the spiritual sense and as an aspect of the divine." The cave temples of Ellora constructed in the 8th and 9th centuries are equally breathtaking with the Kailasa Temple dominating. So much for man-made masterpieces. India is full of natural at- tractions. Beautiful beaches abound from Goa to Kerala, Orissa and Madras. There are plenty of hill stations or summer retreats. These were discovered by the British who found the heat of the plains during summer unbearable. Shimla, in Himachal Pradesh, was the summer headquarters of the British Government in India. Ootacamund in the south is known as the Queen of Hill Stations. Darjeeling in the north-east is also a claimant to the title. An important manifestation of religion for India is teerth- yatras or pilgrimages to holy places, journeys of endurance where the devout come to pay homage to the gods and it is often believed that the more difficult the route, the greater the merit earned. A large number of these pilgrimages lead to the mighty Himalayas, believed to be the home of the gods. One such pilgrimage is the journey to the shrine of the mother Goddess Vaishno Devi, in the Himalayan foothills in Kashmir. There is a passage in the Aitareya Brahmana (composed around 700 B.C.) containing the germ of the idea of piligrimage. It says: "There is no happiness for him who does not travel; living in the society of men, the best man often becomes a sinner; Indra is the friend of the traveller. Therefore of the wanderer." For non-pilgrims who want to experience the joys of trekking, the Himalayas afford ample opportunities. There is an ancient