Culture
If ‘culture’ is what a society retains and leaves for its future generations, India has a special place in the history of humanity: This subcontinent of South Asia has left a continuous flow of thousands of years of invaluable wealth in the form of knowledge, philosophy, literature, sculpture, architecture, painting, music, dance and sciences of various branches and what not. Greece, about the cultural antiquity of which Europe is all proudly verbose, or even China which has a continuous existence of many millennia in history like India, is no equal to India in this respect. This uniqueness of Indian culture is not limited to its antiquity, but it stands the test of time through today.
“The ancient civilization of India differs from those of Egypt, Mesopotamia and Greece, in that its traditions have been preserved without a break down to the present day. Until the advent of the archaeologist, the peasant of Egypt or Iraq had no knowledge of the culture of his forefathers, and it is doubtful whether his Greek counterpart had any but the vaguest ideas about the glory of Periclean Athens. In each case there had been an almost complete break with the past. On the other hand, the earliest Europeans to visit India found a culture fully conscious of its own antiquity – a culture which indeed exaggerated that antiquity, and claimed not to have fundamentally changed for many thousands of years. To this day legends, known to the humblest Indian, recall the names of shadowy chieftains who lived nearly a thousand years before Christ, and the orthodox Brahmin in his daily worship repeating hymns composed even earlier. India and China have, in fact, the oldest continuous cultural traditions in the world…” So writes A.L. Basham, historian, in his epic work on Indian history and culture, which he called The Wonder That Was India. Basham’s work gives an all-round view of Indian culture, its political life through the ages, its cults and doctrines, its social structures, arts, languages and literature, as The Times, London once reviewed.
There can not be any doubt about the statement that India is a cradle of human civilization. India’s culture is not a closed or closeted one to itself. On the other hand it has been in close contact with several other societies on the development and progress of which it has had its own impressive influence. At the same time India has maintained its original individuality. Historians have underlined the fact that the achievements of ancient and medieval India in science, literature and art over thousands of years have inspired the creative thought of nations far and wide. The great religions like Hinduism and Buddhism, Sikhism, Jainism etc. originated in India and their philosophical teachings had cast tremendous influence not only on many eastern civilizations, but on the literary, artistic and social life of many other parts of the world.
The charm of India is that it is a young nation and an ancient country. But both merge into each other to form one. The Indian Republic is only 62 years old. But its history goes back more than 5000 years to the celebrated Indus Valley Civilization, which is rated as a well-developed urban system. Some historians describe Indian culture and civilization as the “oldest living civilization on earth” putting it as older than 8000 BC. Its recorded history has a continuous thread since the time of the great Vedas which are credited to more than 3000 to 4000 years ago.
The four Vedas – Rig Veda, Yajur Veda, Sama Veda and Atharva Veda – have influenced and penetrated the thinking world across the planet in such a way that these works have been analyzed, discussed and interpreted with deep admiration everywhere. For more than 3000 years there has been an unbroken Sanskrit culture in India. To quote from the introduction to the English translation of the Bhagavad Gita (Penguin Classics), “the great songs of the Vedas, the splendor of the Upanishads, the glory of the Bhagavad Gita, the tenderness and the heroism of Ramayana, the vastness of the Mahabharata, the wisdom of the Fables, the path-breaking Grammar of Panini, the scientific philosophy of Sankhya, the psychological philosophy of Yoga, the poetical philosophy of Vedanta, the poetry and dramas of Kalidasa and Bhasa” and the like spread the unique fragrance of Indian culture through the classical language of Sanskrit. Then we have the medical wonder of the pioneering and masterly works of Charaka and Sushruta, two great medical practitioners, the former on medicine and the other on surgery. Note it that as in the case of Panini’s grammar, these two great works were done in unadulterated verse of superlative quality.
But India’s culture is not of a single language tune. Right from the early days of history of this country, its culture has been woven in numerous fibrils and colors which are based on its original mooring, tinged with influences from its exposure to the world outside. Several of the regional tones give it a special charm and meaning.
India has very rich and highly developed musical forms such as the Carnatic music and Hindustani music, and dance forms like Bharatanatyam, Odissi and Kathakali. They speak volumes for their originality and artistic perfection, and are based on texts which are more than 2000 years old. The Sanskrit drama, Kutiyattam, reflects the Kerala theatre, representing at least 2000 years of performance history. There are brilliant forms of folk dances which are inherited from traditions of thousands of years of rural life, like the Theyyam of Kerala, Yakshagana of Karnataka and Jatra of Bengal, to site a few…
Go to the Ajanta Caves, 29 in number, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, in the Aurangabad district of Maharashtra, where you can see Buddhist murals and sculptures considered to be master pieces of 2nd century BC. Or visit the Ellora Caves of the same district to see rock-cut architecture in Hindu, Buddhist and Jain styles, learn between 5th and 10th centuries. The Elephanta Caves off the Mumbai Harbor will give you another experience with rock cut sculptures of magnificent dimensions, carved by Hindu and Buddhist sculptors between 5th and 8th centuries. Go to Agra, in Uttar Pradesh state of India and enjoy the ethereal sight of the world famous Taj Mahal On your way you can see several Mughal and Rajput monuments in the form of palaces. Go to southern India and visit the great temples of Thanjavur and Madurai and see the structural elegance and beauty of south Indian architecture.
The folk traditions are clearly visible even in today’s Bollywood films with their dance-and-and song style. One recalls the statement of Jawaharlal Nehru about the popular taste and habit of going for dance-and-song experiences. He wrote, “There is no country in the world which is as fond of dancing and singing as India is. Even in building homes in villages, the folk tradition is more than visible. These homes are built with materials that are available locally and suitable to the climatic variations. Look at the handicrafts that come from India’s villages, and you will find the beauty of rural simplicity and artistic purity.”
This is the essence of the culture of India, a unique country where many religions originated, where many cultures mingled into a common stream, where many languages are being spoken in unison. A country which lived through the misfortune of colonial oppression for about two hundred years, has always been able to uphold its traditions of culture; a heritage marked by high-level intellectual value in its ideals of humanism and an inborn love for peace.