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The Wonders of Indian Culture

C. Nadarajan1

1. Department of History, Annamalai University, Annamalai Nagar, Chidambaram, Tamil Nadu 608 – 002, (Email: [email protected])

Received: 13 July 2019; Revised: 22 September 2019; Accepted: 25 October 2019 Heritage: Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies in Archaeology 7 (2019): 991‐1001

Abstract: India has a long and continuous history of over Five thousand years. It has a way of life and culture which was modified continuously by outside contacts, but remained essentially Indian, that is based on doctrines and ideas developed indigenously. This way of life has found expression in the classical and modern literature, in architecture and art, which display an exuberant creative energy and have had lasting influence on most Asian countries, and in philosophies and religious systems which continue to be vital forces even in today’s world. This vast and varied inheritance of India with some essential elements are represented in its age long heritage.

Keywords: Heritage, , Tolerance, Realization, Spiritualism, Natyam, Meditation

Introduction India has a long and continuous history of over Five thousand years. It has a way of life, culture, though modified continuously by outside contacts, yet essentially Indian, based on doctrines and ideas developed indigenously. This way of life has found expression in classical and modern literature, in architecture and art, which display an exuberant creative energy and have had lasting influence on most Asian countries, in philosophies and religious systems which continue to be vital forces even in today’s world. Some essential elements of this vast and varied inheritance of India are represented in its age long heritage of Indian culture. The stability of Indian life for centuries past, has rested on the firm foundations of Dharma (Prakash 2005). A king was expected to rule justly, protect the people and promote their prosperity. This tradition of tolerance is not merely an attitude of difference to others. It is a fundamental belief of Hindu thought that every way of life has its own contribution to make to human welfare. There are only 15 languages which count for culture and learning. The four Dravidian languages namely, Tamil, Telugu, Kanarese and Malayalam are spoken in . Each of them has great literatures of its own. In the north Indo‐ languages are spoken. The Rig Veda proclaims, ‘Ekam sat vipra bahudha vadanti’, Truth is one but sages call it by different names. This universal Vedantic truth lived and taught by the illustrious Sri , and the realization form the basis for Vivekanandaa’s message of unity of all religions. The spiritual thoughts of Vivekananda have their moorings in the philosophy, which is a systematic exposition of the . However, he gives a modern interpretation of ISSN 2347 – 5463 Heritage: Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies in Archaeology 7: 2019

the ancient ideas to make them practical. The Indian artistic heritage has had a world‐wide significance at all times. Angkor Wat in Kamboja Boro Budur and many Hindu temples in Java show what a great influence had on these monuments. Indian dance, music and theater traditions span back more than 2,000 years, according to Nilima Bhadbhade, author of “Contract Law in India” (Kluwer Law International, 2010; Krangle 1994). The major classical dance traditions — Bharata Natyam, , , Manipuri, Kuchipudi, Mohiniattam and — draw on themes from mythology and literature and have rigid presentation rules. As per , it is actually the nervous system of the body that affects our health. The nervous system gets purified with daily yoga and thus keeps our body healthy and strong. If we study the history of Indian culture, we find in the Rig Veda, the oldest of scriptures, mention of the Indian mind experiencing the intimation of something divine and immortal within itself.

The Concept of Dharma The stability of Indian life for centuries past, has rested on the firm foundations of Dharma (Prakash 2005). A king was expected to rule justly, protect the people and promote their prosperity. Dharma required a man to live in the society as a civilized human being keeping check of his selfish urges in the interest of others. So has the integrated Hindu family wherein a child owes its parents loving obedience, the chaste wife owed her selfless devotion to her husband and family and the husband owed support and protection to his wife and children, and hospitality to whosoever may seek it. The inculcation of the spirit of Dharma, high standards of ethics, clear‐cut codes of behaviour, and a widespread acceptance of non‐material virtues had higher importance than possessions. These have come to be the expressions of ordinary society of true Indian culture.

Tradition of Tolerance Asoka’s XII Rock‐Edict sets forth the principles of religious tolerance in very clear terms. “That neither praising one’s own sect nor blaming the other on improper occasions, or that it should be moderate in every case. But other sects ought to be duly honoured in every case” (Basham 2008).

The same spirit of religious toleration is borne out by some historical events. The Jews driven from the Holy Land, after the destruction of their temple found an asylum in India and still live here as a community hardly touched by the troubles which the Jews elsewhere have been experiencing. Christian communities were flourishing in India in the second century A.D. and their descendants are living today in the same areas where Pantaenus of Alexandria visited them 1800 years ago. The Zoroastrians, driven out from their homeland by the sudden impact of Islam found sanctuary in India and are today among the most honoured sections of Indian society (Basham 1967). Spread over the length and breadth of India eight crore followers of Islam enjoy all fundamental rights enjoyed by any other citizen of India. All these Muslims, but a fraction of them, are Indian by birth. They did not join Pakistan, but have remained in India, keeping their rightful place among other integral groups of the population

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(Doswev 1922) India, which has never accepted the so called two nation theory that forms the basis for the creation of Pakistan, welcomes her Muslim nationals and will not betray their trust. The British, too, though they never made India their home, have left behind the Anglo‐Indian community. This group also occupies a useful position in the national life of the country. Both the Muslims and the British added new languages and scripts to the many already in use in India; such as Urdu and Persian and the Persian script, and English together with the Roman script. Urdu and Persian are India’s cultural inheritance from medieval Iran. English has been the means of contact between India and all the other countries of Asia and the West (Majumdar 1952).

This tradition of tolerance is not merely an attitude of difference to others. It is a fundamental belief of Hindu thought that every way of life has its own contribution to make to human welfare. It is a, wide tolerance, a feeling that others may be equally right in the methods they follow, that is the essence of Hindu teaching. This has coloured the Hindu life to such an extent that it may truly be considered the differentiating mark of Hindu culture. While an Indian is firm in his own faith, he is prepared to approach other faiths with an open mind.

Variety of Languages According to the Linguistic Survey of India there are as many as 179 languages and 544 dialects. Of these 179 languages as many as 116 are the languages of the Tibeto‐Chinese family of speech spoken by less than 1% of the total population of India (Majumdar 1961). Some 24 more languages are hardly Indian languages. Thus, there are only 15 languages which count for culture and learning. The four Dravidian languages namely, Tamil, Telugu, Kanarese and Malayalam are spoken in south India. Each of them has great literature of its own. In the north, Indo‐Aryan languages are spoken. The midland Indo‐ Aryan languages consist of Western Hindi with an inner band comprising of Punjabi, Rajasthani and Gujarati on the west, Pahari on the north and Eastern Hindi in the east and an outer band comprising Kashmir, Lahnda and Kachchi on the west, Marathi on the south‐west and Bihari, Bengali, Assamese and Oriya on the east. Each of these Indo‐Aryan languages has its own literature. The tribal languages belong to Austric and Tibeto‐Chinese families of speech.

India has 29 states and seven union territories. There is no official language in India, according to a Gujarat High court ruling in 2010 (Smith 1958). Many people living in India also write in Devanagari script. In fact, it is a misconception that the majority of people in India speak Hindi. According to The Times of India, though many people speak Hindi in India, 59 percent of Indian residents speak something other than Hindi (Allchin and Allchin 1968). Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, Tamil and Urdu are some other languages spoken in the country.

Spiritualism and Unity of Religions In the undivided Indian sub‐continent, more than 300 million people are the followers of . Hinduism is not a particular creed confined within fixed doctrines and

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set dogmas. It is rather a collection of creeds, representing different schools of Thought and Philosophy. It is not a simple faith with specified articles but a composite structure of cultural complex. It is not at all keen to spread itself by conversion. The worshippers of Visnu or his incarnations and , Siva, Sakthi, Ganesa, and a whole universe of gods call themselves . It is catholic and comprehensive in its outlook. It has a wide range of practices and ceremonies, accommodating the religious needs, tastes and aptitudes of people who differ widely in race, language, cultural and social conditions, traditions and interests. In undivided India there were about 90 million followers of Islam. Then, there are Buddhists numbering over 12 million, Jains over 1 million, Christians over 2 million and a lakh of Parsis. India may be described as a museum of cults and creeds, customs and cultures, faiths and tongues, racial types and social systems (Gardon 1958).

The Rig Veda proclaims, ‘Ekam sat vipra bahudha vadanti’, “Truth is one but sages call it by different names”. This universal Vedantic truth lived and taught by the illustrious Guru Sri Ramakrishna, and this realization forms the basis for Vivekananda’s message of the unity of all religions. In his view, though the different religions of the world differ from one another, their underlying purpose is the same; God realization (Wheeler 1968). He illustrates this point in the following way. Just as the same water can be collected in vessels of different sizes and shapes, Truth can be seen through different religions. In each vessel (of religion), the vision of God comes in the form of the vessel.

Vivekananda draws our attention to the fact of unity in diversity, which is the very plan of the universe. The same thing can be viewed from different standpoint and yet be the same thing. A human being is different from an animal, but as living beings, man, woman, animals and plants are all one; and as pure existence, man is one with the whole universe. Through such illustrations, Swamiji attempts to establish that all the religions, from the lowest fetishism to the highest absolutism, requires so many attempts of the human soul to grasp and realize the infinite [God], each determined by the conditions of its birth and association, and each of them marking stages of progress (Sastri 1964). The existence of differences in races, cultures and temperaments explains the existence of different religions. Recognizing difference as the very sign of life, Swamiji preaches the universality of religion. However, he reminds us that by universal religion, he does not mean an amalgam of the best elements of the different religious systems like Christianity, Buddhism, Islam and Hinduism. Never does he want a Hindu to be converted into a Christian or a Muslim into a Buddhist. The import of his universal religion is that one must stick to one religion and yet feel the underlying bond of unity among all religions. As an assurance of the possibility of universal religion, he holds, it to be true that God is the centre of all religions, and that each of us is moving towards Him along one of these radii, then it is certain that all of us must reach that centre. And at the centre, where all radii meet, all our differences will cease. Friends, if only the Muslims and Christians shared Swamiji’s views the world would be a much better place to live in (Sastri 1966a).

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According to , two essential corollaries of the unity of all religions are tolerance and universal acceptance. In the , we find concretization of these two ideas all throughout. Through centuries, India has sheltered the persecuted and the refugees of all religions and all nations of the earth. At the Chicago Parliament of Religions, Swamiji referred to this glorious chapter of our cultural history. He said, “I am proud to belong to a religion which has taught the world both tolerance and universal acceptance. We believe not only in universal toleration, but we accept all religions as true” (Sastri 1966b). Through his words Swamiji intends to make us aware of our spiritual heritage so that we live up to that standard.

The spiritual thoughts of Vivekananda have their moorings in the Vedanta philosophy, which is a systematic exposition of the Upanishads. However, he gives a modern interpretation of the ancient ideas to make them practical. He says, The Vedanta, therefore, as a religion must be intensely practical. We must be able to carry it out in every part of our lives.

The fundamental and most universal principle of the Vedanta is that the individual soul is identical with the supreme Soul. Vivekananda expresses it thus: Each soul is potentially divine. The goal is to manifest this Divinity within. In his view, purity and goodness are inherent characteristics of the soul, and religion is nothing but the manifestation of this true nature. In order to make religion practical, Swamiji begins with emphasis on the importance of morality and moral behaviour. Religion for him means living in a way that helps us manifest our higher nature, truth, goodness and beauty through our thoughts, words and deeds. All impulses, thoughts and actions that lead one towards this goal are naturally ennobling and harmonizing, and are moral in the truest sense. Hence morality, which is indispensable to being truly religious, is simply a matter of being what one really is, simply radiating the true light of one’s own soul all around, under all circumstances, at all times (Kosambi 1965). Thus by spirituality Swamiji does not mean anything occult or mysterious. It is the spontaneous response of mana, true nature or divine nature.

Hence, a universal religion, which for Swamiji is ideal for mankind, must be one, which will have a place for every human being, from the lowest savage to the highest man. It will recognize diversity in every man and woman, and whose whole scope and force will be created in aiding humanity to realize its own true, divine nature. The recognition of a universal religion, Swamiji hopes, will put an end to worldwide disputes and bloodshed in the name of religion, and generate feelings of love and sympathy in the hearts of men.

Architecture and Arts The Indian artistic heritage has had at all times a world‐wide significance. Angkor Vat in Kamboja Boro Budur and many Hindu temples in Java show what a great influence Indian art had on these monuments. The Chinese sculpture, especially during the Tang period, and the Buddhist paintings notably in the caves of the Thousand Buddhas at

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Tunhuang show that they were all greatly influenced by Indian sculpture and painting. The most well‐known example of Indian architecture is the Taj Mahal, built by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan to honour his third wife, Mumtaz Mahal. It combines elements from Islamic, Persian, Ottoman Turkish and Indian architectural styles. India also has many ancient temples.

Excavated temples exist in central India at Badami, at Mahabalipuram in Tamil Nadu and at Ellora in the Deccan. Distinct styles of temple architecture arose in different parts of the country. Dravidian temples had their beginning in the times of the Chalukays and the Pallavas. Followed by the magnificent huge temples of the Chola kings. Indo‐Aryan (Nagara) type of temples lie thickly strewn from Bengal to Gujarat. The large Orissan temples at Bhubaneswar, Puri and Konark and the Khajuraho temples are fine examples of Nagara style. Apart from their artistic significance temples served as a natural focus of community life whether in a village or a great city (Bryant 2009).

The above characteristics of Indian culture shows that the genius of India has never been exclusive, she has freely accepted from others and incorporated in her national culture what appeared to her to be of value. India does not automatically inherit the traditions of others. Those traditions require conscious selection, acceptance and cultivation. India is well known for its film industry, which is often referred to as . The country’s movie history began in 1896 when the Lumiere brothers demonstrated the art of cinema in Mumbai, according to the Golden Globes. Today, the films are known for their elaborate singing and dancing. Indian dance, music and theatre traditions span back more than 2,000 years, according to Nilima Bhadbhade, author of “Contract Law in India” (Kluwer Law International, 2010; Crangle 1994). 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.

Yoga in Indian Culture Yoga is a way to learn and understand the spiritual India. Also, yoga is associated with the culture and heritage of India. In Sanskrit, yoga means ‘to unite’ and describes a way to live a healthy life. In yoga, the mind is disciplined through meditation and the body is aligned and strengthened. As per yoga, it is actually the nervous system of the body that affects our health. The nervous system gets purified with daily yoga and thus keeps our body healthy and strong.

The origin of yoga is considered to be as old as human civilization. But there is no strong evidence to prove this statement. In spite of extensive research in this field, there are no concrete findings regarding the origin of yoga. It is believed that yoga originated in India about 5,000 years ago. Many Western scholars earlier used to believe that it was not 5,000 years ago but in the period of the Buddha (around 500 B.C.) when yoga came into existence (Dhillon 1988). During the excavation of the

996 Nadarajan 2019: 991‐1001 earliest known civilization of Indus Valley, very astonishing facts came forward. The soapstone seals that existed during that period have been found engraved with figures resembling that of a sitting in a yoga‐like posture. Originally, yoga started for the betterment of a community rather than the self.

As per the , the Vedic Period is the origin of yoga in India. The oldest known yogic teachings are known as Vedic yoga or archaic yoga, and can be found in four Vedas ‐ Rig Veda, Yajur‐Veda, Sama‐Veda and Atharva‐Veda. Rituals and ceremonies associated with Vedic yoga attempt to beat the restrictions of the mind. Hence, Vedic yoga was closely connected with the ritual life of people at that time. Yoga was considered as a way to connect with the invisible world and revolved around a sacrifice ‐ a sacrifice of the self. Sacrificers, for a prolonged period of time, used to focus on just one thing similar to meditation. Thereby, Vedic yoga is considered a root of yoga (De Michelis 2004). A master of Vedic yoga was known as a ‘seer’ ‐ Rishi in Sanskrit.Then was the period of pre‐classical yoga that was marked with the creation of Upanishads. Approximately 2,000 years are covered in this period that lasted until the 2nd Century A.D. There are many forms of pre‐classical yoga, but most of the initial yoga in this period was associated with Vedic yoga. Teachings of Vedas have been explained in Upanishads along with three subjects ‐the final truth (), the transcendental self (atman), and the connection between the two ‐ and so the yoga came with the Upanishads. The Bhagavad‐Gita (“Lord’s Song”), a very significant holy book of Hindus, is one of the outstanding yoga scriptures of this period. Also the and the (that consist of The Bhagavad‐Gita) comprised of yoga. Pre‐classical yoga consists of many techniques of deep meditations to surpass the body and mind and get connected with the divine powers to discover the true self. Yoga of this period is connected both to Hinduism as well as Buddhism as Lord Buddha in the sixth century B.C. had started teaching the importance of meditation.

The ancient Vedic philosophy of India lays special significance on Yoga and Meditation. Considered to be India’s oldest religious philosophy, Yoga states that the human body and mind develop vikaars (abnormalities), which can be removed by leading Yogic lifestyle that is both precautionary and curative. Yoga shows the ways to live with nature and has codes and ethics associated with it. There are several aasanas (positions) proposed in Yoga for physical and mental upkeep. Yogic exercise is quite different from aerobic and anaerobic exercises as it involves breath control, physical positioning, body flexibility and mental ease together (Dumolin 2005). The spiritual part in Yoga is taken care by meditation, through which (or so it is claimed) the atma (soul) of a man can reach param‐atma (the ultimate soul, that is God). A large number of visitors to India come for Yogic treatments only. Though Yoga and Meditation centers can be found everywhere in India, by far the most popular destination is Rishikesh by the Ganges (Eliade 1958).

According to Swami Vivekananda, a great spiritual leader, thinker and reformer of India, spirituality is the very backbone of India. He observes that every nation has a

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particular ideal running through its whole existence, forming its very background. With some it is politics, while with others it is social culture, intellectual culture, and so on. Vivekananda says, our motherland has religion and religion alone for its backbone, for the bedrock upon which the whole building of its life has been based. Since spirituality is the essence of religion, we should mark that Vivekananda has used the term religion in the same sense as spirituality (Feuerstein 1996). For the spiritual development of four main types of personality – the intellectual, the active, the emotional and psychic or introspective – the respective forms of yoga are Janana Yoga, yoga, yoga and . Through hard practice of these , the ancient sages of India realised spiritual truths. Yoga is the science which teaches us how to get these perceptions (Rajaram and 2014).

In , on the basis of the teachings of , Vivekananda elucidates “the divinity of the individual soul, the non‐duality of the infinite Soul, the unity of all existence and the harmony of all religions. Jnana yoga shows the way to realize the oneness of the individual soul with the supreme Soul through the discipline of discrimination between the real and the unreal. shows the way to perfection for the active man of the world. In it, he re‐shapes the cardinal teachings of the Gita, keeping in view the necessity of its application to the ethical needs of contemporary India. Here, he guides us to learn the secret of doing work with non‐ attachment. teaches man how to train his emotions in order to attain his spiritual end. While the first part of it deals with details of concrete worship, the second concerns the practice of higher discipline‐love for love’s sake, devoid of fear of punishment or expectation of reward. Through such love, the devotee realizes the oneness of the lover and the Beloved. Raja yoga is the exposition of the contemplative technique of , the father of yoga sastra (Chopra 2014).

However, Swamiji supplements it with other texts and crowns it with a Vedantic orientation. Apart from the various practices of concentration and meditation for mind control, Swamiji shows that the mind possesses unlimited power, which through proper execution enables man to realize the spirit as separate from the body. Swamiji holds that each of these yogas, if followed to its logical conclusion, will lead to the highest spiritual realization (Bhagat 2017). It is up to the individual to discover the path that suits him most and follow it. In his words, do this either by work, or worship, or psychic control, or philosophy‐by one or more or all of these. A harmonious blending of the teachings of the yogas, in Swamiji’s view, helps to develop a well‐balanced spiritual character. Through these different methods of spiritual realization, Swamiji underlines the scientific nature of religion.

Yoga that standardized the Classical Yoga had been written by Patanjali around second century marks the creation of the classical period of yoga. The word sutra means ‘thread’ and here, it means ‘thread of memory’ in which Patanjali’s students retain the knowledge and wisdom of Patanjali. There are 195 aphorisms or that make the eightfold path of Yoga which consists of yama (ethical values),

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(personal observance of purity), (physical exercises), pratyahara (preparation for Meditation), dharana (concentration), dhyana (meditation) and (ecstasy) (Vivekananda 1982). Patanjali believed that each individual is made up of matter (prakriti) and spirit (purusha). Through yoga, these two can be separated and spirit is restored in its pure form.

Post‐classical period of yoga had a focus on the present. It consists of all the schools of yoga that came into existence after the Patanjali yoga‐sutra. Post‐classical yoga, unlike Classical yoga, focuses on the ultimate unity of everything. Yoga took an interesting turn during this period in which the hidden potential of the body was probed. So, a system of practices was designed by Yoga masters to rejuvenate the body. It led to the creation of hatha‐yoga that is an amateur version of the present‐day yoga (Vivekananda 1990).

Modern yoga is believed to begin with the Parliament of Religions held in Chicago in 1893. There, the young Swami Vivekananda made a lasting impression on the American public. He then attracted the students of yoga and Vedanta. After him, another popular yoga teacher was . Now, Swami Ramdev of Patanjali Yoga Peeth Trust has managed to spread yoga in each and every house of India as well as abroad. Further, Yoga has been given cultural identity in curriculum and public life recently with the inauguration by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Yoga indeed is an integral part of Indian culture and changes in the same has been observed in each period of the history. So be a part of the true India and learn yoga for the betterment of body and soul.

Conclusion If we study the history of Indian culture, we find even in the Rig Veda, the oldest of scriptures, the Indian mind experiencing the intimation of something divine and immortal within itself. The inward search of man gathers volume and power in the Upanishads. The Upanishads seek to realize the transcendental dimension of man‐the dimension of Divinity transcending humanity. In this spiritual direction human awareness goes beyond the body, the sense and the surrounding world: man realizes himself as the immortal Self. Coming in the wake of the Upanishads, the works out a complete philosophy of life, reconciling the sacred and the secular, work and worship. The spirituality that proceeds from the Vedas and the Upanishads, and reinforced by Sri Krishna, Buddha, Shankara and others, is liberated into universality by Swami Vivekananda.

Unlike most of the other countries, India never consigned it’s past to be read in history books alone. “India lives with its history”, with remains both unbroken and progressive. Indians have shown a remarkable ability to adopt to the changing times and adopt people from all over the world. Invaders attracted to this fabled land gave up their wartime practices and settled here forever in search of peace and solitude. It is this traditional practice of “living and let living”, influencing and being influenced,

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which has made India the abode of Dharma, Tolerance, Religious and Linguistic unity, Yoga and Spiritual learning. We shall strive our focus to protect the wonders of our Cultural Heritage.

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