religion and art in india essay

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Understanding south asia’s religious art.

There are many ways to talk about the art of India (here, India is a short­hand for the South Asian subcontinent). From a serene stone sculpture of a meditating Buddha to the dynamic image of Dancing Shiva in bronze, to cosmic symbolism of soaring temples covered in sensuous celes­tial bodies built in stone to the perfect architecture of Taj Mahal, to colorful paintings of heroes and heroines of love stories and myths to intricate carvings on ivory, to stunning hand-woven or embroidered textiles, there is no short­age of wondrous sights to admire when it comes to Indian art. Exploring this kaleidoscopic world can be daunting and overwhelming for any instructor or student unfamiliar with the subcontinent’s culture and history.1 One needs a hook to enter this esoteric world: patronage and religion are perhaps the two most common threads used to tell the story about the art of premodern South Asia. In this essay, we suggest yet another lens through which to present the story of Indian art: that of ritual, which is often neglected in more conventional accounts of India’s rich artistic traditions. Considering artistic outputs through the lens of ritual allows us to see various ways in which art served (and is still serving) Indic religious communities not only by illustrating mythic narratives and doctrinal teachings, but also by manifesting the belief and the worldview of the people who sponsored, engineered, and used it. It is important to recognize that art in South Asia, especially during premodern times, was not made for the sake of beauty or to express an individual artist’s originality or creativity. We have to embrace a completely different working definition of art: art that can be living and functional as auspicious/divine presence and works to be enjoyed and experienced not just through the sight but also through all other senses. In this definition, art is something to be touched, adorned, and performed. Thinking about India’s art through ritual helps us appreciate this performative aspect that may be lost in a museum setting or in a historical narrative focused on patronage, politics, or doctrine.

A stone sculpture of Dancing Ganesha, the hugely popular elephant-head­ed Hindu god, the remover of obstacles, now resides in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. It may be a visual delight to study the pot-bellied, animal-head­ed god who gracefully dances on tiptoe on the back of his vehicle idur (pro­nounced “ee-dur,” a rodent), which is carved expertly on gray-black stone with a polished sheen (Figure 1). If this Ganesha from medieval Bengal, spotless in a climate-controlled gallery environment, may enjoy curious admiration by museum visitors in North America, on any given day, another dancing Ganesha installed in the Meenakshi Temple in Madurai, Tamil Nadu (southern Indian state), enjoys devotees’ daily homage in the form of flower garlands, application of unguents, and other colorful and fragrant substances smeared upon his body while standing outdoors under an auspicious tree. This Ganesh welcomes pilgrims and worshippers to the famed temple dedicated to the Hindu goddess Meenakshi and her husband, Sundareshwar (literally “beautiful lord,” a form of Shiva) (Figure 2). This sculp­ture is no longer just a piece of stone carved into a specific form—in this case, a four-armed, dancing Ganesha—but rather an immediate presence of the Hindu god Ganesha that interacts with the devotees directly in a physical and manifested manner.

This understanding of the tactility and immediacy of the transcendent divine predominates the practices of Indic religious traditions, namely Buddhism, Hinduism, and Jainism, and in a way helps us explore why figurative forms prevail in South Asian artistic traditions, whether in the fantastic images of gods and goddesses with multiple heads or limbs, or in heroes and heroines of love poems and epics. If the sensuous bodily form is the “leitmotif of Indian art,” exploring India through ritual art puts the body of the people who designed, sponsored, and used these images in the very context of its production and use.2 Before moving to explore some salient characteristics of Indian art with this in mind, we need to clear away a number of com­mon misconceptions.

Buddhism and Hinduism in Western Imaginations

Early scholars held that “true Buddhists” followed a rational, atheistic belief system and that most focused on meditation, fervently intent on nirvana realization; “true Hindus,” likewise, were those devoted to yoga and samadhi (trance meditation) in pursuit of moksha (final liberation from re­birth). This elitist Western stereotype also posits that as time went on, both traditions were corrupted by “popular” practices—especially rituals directed to “idols” and countless “superstitious” practices. These ideas have endured, especially in common portrayals of Hinduism and Buddhism in the West, and echoed by modern reformers in India. In fact, this “first draft of history” is wildly incorrect. What the earliest canonical texts and archaeological remains show, instead, is that both traditions had a much broader scope, far beyond the few religious virtuosos. The Buddha taught—as part of his Dharma (“teachings”)—that Buddhist monastics and householders must perform rituals: the former as part of their communal life, the latter by earning merit and securing worldly blessings through rit­uals focusing on shrines and images. Likewise, from its origins in the Vedic hymns, Hindu traditions were centered on rituals that were designed to please the gods, especially through offerings in a homa (sacred fire). In fact, most of the Veda consists of hymns to be chanted and detailed instructions for doing homa and many other rituals. A scholarly survey of both traditions from their origins onward show that in practice Hinduism and Buddhism were—and are—as much concerned with securing worldly blessings through ritual actions as they are with seeking transcendent goals. Both have a broad spectrum of focuses and functions.

Anyone who has visited Hindu communities in South Asia or Buddhist communities across Asia (or been welcomed in Asian immigrant temples in the West) can witness the reality of pragmatic practices dominating these faiths and how art serves this central purpose. It would be extremely rare, in fact, to find the Upanishads or the Bhagavad Gita or a Buddhist philosophical text such as the Dhammapada being read in a temple or monastery! It is important for students to understand the breadth of paths and personal possibilities in being a “good Buddhist” or “good Hindu.”3 With this basic understanding of Indian traditions in mind, let us now turn to the first topic: how to under­stand the many heads and limbs of the deities.

Multiplicity and Unity: Multi-Armed, Multi-Headed Gods and Goddesses

South Asian religious images, especially those in Buddhist meditation halls or ashrams (Hindu mon­asteries), are made to convey the central spiritual ideals of the faith. The body of a Buddha, for ex­ample, should convey physical strength, mental serenity, detachment, and discernment; the ancient tradition specifies thirty-two characteristic bodily features that each have a meaning. Most generally, Buddha images should be beautiful, conveying calm, discernment, detachment, and mastery of this life. Similarly, the multiarmed Hindu deities convey their omnipresence, multiple powers, and readiness to aid devotees. Shiva as Nataraja (“King of the Dance”) can encode an entire theology (see sidebar), as do depic­tions of Krishna (one of the human incarnations of Vishnu) dancing with the Cowherdesses (Gopis). Art can also provide a basis for understand­ing subtle theological conceptions, especially when accompanied by oral teaching.

One of the most common ques­tions that students encountering the art of India for the first time ask is why there are many limbs and heads on a deity.4 For example, a painted image of Avalokiteshvara, a bodhi­sattva (a Buddhist enlightened being postponing the entrance to nirvana or final extinction to aid suffering beings) surviving in a sumptuously painted medieval Buddhist temple (called Sumtsek, literally “three-sto­ried building”) at Alchi in the Indian Himalayas (in today’s Ladakh) can be bewildering at first sight (Figure 3): the standing figure of this benign bodhisattva of compassion shows eleven heads in three differ­ent colors (white, red, and blue) and varying countenances (from peaceful to wrathful) stacked tall (3–3–3–1–1 configuration) and twenty-two arms splayed around like a body-halo holding various objects. Some (like vajra and ghanta , a thunderbolt and a bell held in uppermost hands on either side) are important ritual tools in certain Buddhist circles or symbolic attributes (like a rosary, a manuscript, a noose, and the gesture of giving), while others are weapons (like bow and arrow). How to comprehend such an abundant multiplicity in bodily forms? Two key terms can help: abstraction through figuration and unity in multiplicity.

First, it is important to recognize that these images manifest the abstract, whether the divine or the transcendent, in the most graspable, immediate form, of a human body. (The body here is not the anatomically correct, physical body of a human that is valorized in Renaissance art but rather the idealized body that can be reduced to a grid or a symbolic system in abstraction.) Every aspect of a deity’s power is made immediately visible through multiple limbs and the attributes they hold, like all the marvelous weapons that, for example, the goddess Durga wields in her eight arms in slaying the buffalo demon, Mahishasura (Figure 4). To borrow today’s superhero comics analogy, the light­ning on Flash’s suit along with red and yellow trim signal his superpower, that of lightning speed. Buddhist and Hindu deities are mighty powerful in ways that make the whole cast of the Avengers pale in comparison. Their extraordinary bodily features—like the twenty-two arms and eleven heads of the Buddhist bodhisattva of compassion, Avalokiteshvara—represent, quite literally, his manifold ability to listen to and see the sufferings of all sentient beings, relieve their distress, and lead them on the path to enlightenment. The strength and ability of Indian deities to intervene in devotees’ lives are clearly articulated in their fantastic forms with the various tools they hold at once. Consider, for example, the goddess Durga in a twelfth-century metal sculpture from the Himalayan foothills in Figure 4: she holds a sword and a shield, a skull cup and a bell, a bow and an arrow, a trident and the demon she subdued. Historical studies have shown that these tools changed and developed over time. To continue the superhero comics analogy, just as new suits of armor or new versions of super­heroes appear in different circumstances or universes, the iconographic forms of Indian deities have changed in response to the different social, political, and environmental needs of the communities that revered them. For this reason, one encounters many different forms of the same deity, and a de­ity can be called in many different names or epithets: the more popular a deity, the more names and forms are used to refer to the god or goddess.

Second, the multiple limbs (and heads) on a single body ingeniously capture multiple moments of interventions in one frame. Avalokiteshvara’s ability to see all around and intervene whenever and wherever is encapsulated in one frame, as if multiple rescue scenes are overlapped in one image. (This is particularly true in a form known as the thousand-armed Avalokiteśvara.) What would require multiple panels in a comic strip or a manipulated time lapse in a film is conveniently packaged in one body: a still image that is intended to be seen as constantly mov­ing, transcending time. While delivering the message of awesome power immediately, such complex iconographies also can incite the onlooker to start recounting the stories that are compressed within them or to search for a teacher who can explain the code. The eight arms of the goddess Durga, seen in the twelfth-century metal image from the Chamba Valley (Himachal Pradesh, India), would immediately convey her magnificent power (see Figure 4). Once that recognition sets in, those in the know can start telling the story of how the male gods who could not deal with one monstrous buffalo demon had come together to ask the goddess to help and then give each of their signature weapons to her. This moment is not depicted here but can be pulled out from the details included in the im­age. Durga heroically steps on the buffalo while striking it with a trident, a weapon of Shiva, while her vehicle, the faithful lion, bites the animal in the behind. In one version of the story, the goddess chops the head of the buffalo off, and the demon who has taken the animal’s form escapes from the severed neck. Here, the unnamed artist depicts the buffalo’s head intact but indicates that the lifeforce of the buffalo has left by depicting his tongue rolling on the ground. The goddess grabs the helpless demon who emerged out of the buffalo by the top of his hair: in his last resistance, the demon holds up his tiny sword against the mighty goddess, but his diminutive size and compromised position make his futile attempt appear almost comical.

These stories, whether Hindu, Buddhist, or Jain, have been essential to the growth and maintenance of religious communities. Until very recent human history, the main ideas that constituted the bases of all religions were conveyed through narratives told in spoken word and through visual images in art. Painting and sculpture in the temples and monasteries of South Asia have been made for centuries to educate followers. As is true of all societies, religious traditions have had to be continuously explained and illustrated for the young.

Shiva as Lord of Dance (Nataraja), Chola period, ca. eleventh century, Tamil Nadu, copper alloy (68.3 cm x 56.5 cm). Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art 1987.80.1. The Dance of Shiva by Todd Lewis O ne of the most lyrical and evoc­ative symbols of Hinduism, especially in the sweeping de­sign of South Indian artisans, is that of Nataraja, Shiva as Lord of the Dance. The upper right hand holds the twin-sided drum, from which sacred sound emerges, counting time and originating sound’s creative resonance. The opposite hand shows on it a flame so that in Shiva’s hold­ing a fire, he points to his being a refuge in the fires of samsara. Fire also alludes to this deity’s role as destroyer at the end of a great world era. Both hands move to­gether in Shiva’s great dance, ceaselessly integrating cosmic creation and destruc­tion, including all the gods. Another hand shows the “fear-not” gesture, and the fourth points to his upraised foot, the place Hindu devotees touch most often in ritual. Shiva dances while treading on a demon who symbolizes heedlessness. Thus, to enter into the Dance of Shiva means to brave the circle of rebirth, tran­scend the limitations of time and appar­ent opposites, and join with the divine powers of the great deity whose grace and eternal energy can remove spiritual obstacles. Because the cosmos has be­come a manifestation of Shiva’s power, a dance done simply for the purpose of his own entertainment, wherever individuals can cultivate artistic pleasure, they can find union with Shiva.

Storytelling and Narratives: Educational and Community-Building Power of Art

Extensive narrative art traditions developed to serve Buddhist, Hindu, and Jain communities include sculpture and paintings that skillfully illustrate important tales about the lives of the Buddha or the Jina Mahavira (for Jains) or the glorious acts of the Hindu gods, such as Shiva, Vishnu, Durga, etc. The world-famous fifth-century murals at Ajanta Caves (in Maharash­tra, India) show how Buddhists may have experienced the Buddha and his teaching, especially through the visual narratives that illustrate details of the Buddha’s life and jataka (his previous lives), along with more devo­tional offerings and auspicious symbols and images of the Buddhas and bodhisattvas. Walls in Buddhist monasteries in Sri Lanka are also routine­ly covered with paintings illustrating details of the Buddha’s life and the jataka tales.

As the world’s first missionary religion, Buddhism spread from its land of origins in northeast India to all of South and Southeast Asia, then to China and East Asia. Monks and nuns were instructed by the Buddha to use vernacular dialects, matching the level of teaching with the capacity of the audience to follow. In this tradition, a wealth of art was created and designed to explain the Dharma, the Buddha’s teaching. Most famous and well-employed would be the “Wheel of Life,” which shows the six major rebirth venues for living beings in samsara , our world characterized by suffering, impermanence, and ignorance; according to one Buddhist mo­nastic code, the Buddha instructs the monastics to place these paintings at the entrance of a monastery to educate visitors. It is still found at the en­trance to most living Himalayan Buddhist monasteries like the Lamayuru monastery in Ladakh, India (Figure 5).

The story of the great goddess Durga, which informs the brass sculp­ture discussed above, is told in the Devimahatmya (literally The Hymn to the Great Goddess ), an important Sanskrit text that extols the goddess un­der whose feet were subdued many powerful demons. The episode of her killing the buffalo demon narrated in the text became popular all over the subcontinent from the seventh century onward; many temples, especially royally sponsored temples, carry the narrative on their walls, as seen on the impressive panel on the wall of a cave shrine (known as the Mahisha­sura Cave) at Mamallapuram in today’s Tamil Nadu (Figure 6). Carved out of granite, one of the hardest stones to sculpt, this tableau vivant tells the story of the goddess’s victory against the buffalo demon by choosing the moment before the goddess slays the buffalo. With more space and with more actors, the drama unfolds: the goddess strides over her mighty lion facing the buffalo demon, shown here in an anthropomorphic form with a buffalo head. Although here she is petite in size in comparison to the demon, there is no mistaking her victory: the buffalo demon retreats with his army, some of whom is already fallen to ground, while the goddess sits tall on her mount, charging with her bow and other weapons against the enemy. Her many ganas (dwarf-like figures around her) also come to her aid, and a female warrior strikes a vic­tim with a sword in front of the goddess just as another victim falls headfirst from above this warrior.

The fate of the world hangs in balance: the artist(s) took pain to indicate the extreme danger posed by the buffalo demon, also marked by an umbrella over his head, a sign of respect and importance in the Indic con­text. His size here that is larger than the goddess con­veys his power as a woeful foe, although the individual stances and the composition suggest that the goddess will ultimately prevail. Clever details and variations sup­plied by the unnamed artists add wit and humor, which incites telling of a story that can be further embellished and expanded by the knowledge experts such as a priest or elder in the community. Such images are often central to teaching religious and moral values, but at the same time, we should remember that performing these sto­ries, which were conducted often with images—whether it is a street performance of the Hindu epic Ramayana or a singing about a local hero like Pabuji in Rajasthani villages or a storytelling session by a Buddhist priest in Nepal or singing of the hymns to the goddess during the Durga festival in West Bengal—provided (and still provides) entertainment and spectacles, bringing each community together.

Stories about Krishna, Vishnu’s incarnation, became a major impetus inspiring artistic creations from the sixteenth century onward as the devotional communi­ties centered around the mischievous yet charming and youthful god grew exponentially across northern India. Painters serving courtly patrons were skilled at bring­ing out the subtle humor and delight from well-known Krishna stories (recorded in texts like the Bhagavata Purana ). So in an early nineteenth-century painting from the Himalayan foothills (Mandi, today’s Himachal Pradesh, India), the artist portrays Krishna holding up the Mount Govardhan with a single pinky to protect the townspeople of the town Vrindavan, while angry Indra riding his white elephant brings about a torrential storm with lightning (Figure 7). The sky is dark with swirling gold, and one can almost hear the thunder. The townspeople look up gratefully while Krishna stands with his hip swayed to one side and one leg bent in a relaxed posture, gazing gently toward a lady who is adoringly touching his arm. The painter added delightful details of little pods under which families gather hiding from the rain (one of the men dearly holds a calf) and small children running about around women’s and Krish­na’s feet, further animating the scene.

While such a courtly production, especially in the form of miniature, may have had a limited audience, certain artistic strategies developed in these circles did trickle down to inform artists serving communities with lesser means. Today, pilgrims visiting the town of Nathdwara, an import­ant Krishna pilgrimage site in Rajasthan, can pick up pilgrims’ souvenirs in various mass-produced media, like printed and framed images of Shri­nathji, the special form of Krishna enshrined in the main temple, while painted images produced by the local artist workshops who serve the tem­ple are also available. Miniature wooden dolls of Jagannath (a local form of Vishnu) with his brother and sister, and including many sets of dresses to change them, are popular souvenir items that pilgrims acquire from an­other important Vaishnava pilgrimage site of Puri in Odisha, often brought home to make their own Jagannath shrine ritually enlivened (Figure 8).

Living Arts and the Museum

A Buddhist or Hindu deity in a living shrine, whether at home or in a major temple, is treated as a living presence. In addition to the offerings of prayers, lamplight, incense, flowers, and food, the deities get special outfits, ornaments, jewelries, and furnishings. Sometimes these furnishings can become quite elaborate, which can include a bed, a sofa, and even a swing. In an early nineteenth-cen­tury painting from a Rajasthani court at Kota, the king (identified as Maharao Kishor Singh II of Kota, 1781– 1828) offers his evening prayer while holding his puja tray with a burning lamp and flowers in front of an elaborate miniature silver shrine (Figure 9). The shrine is dedicated to miniature images of Krishna, and two consorts dressed in finery. In the lower terrace of the multitiered shrine structure is a chess set with mini cushions on either side, as if set up to be played by the god. Hanging glass lanterns in multiple colors and a chandelier, all with a heavy dose of gold trimming everywhere (most likely painted in real gold), suggest the opulence of the patron devotee. It also shows the intimate physical environment in which many of these images were interacted with and venerated. These enshrined images were meant to be touched and cared for, just as the dancing Ganesha welcoming devotees to a ma­jor Hindu temple like the Meenakshi Temple mentioned at the beginning of this essay.

The goddess Durga, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (introduced earlier, see Figure 4), was most likely an enshrined image like the Krishna image in the paint­ing. The goddess stands in front of an extravagant back­ground, which was cast separately to support the image from behind as a frame. Topped by a tiered roof with a lobed discus called amalaka , typical of the architectural finial of a Hindu temple, the design of the backdrop inti­mates that the goddess is installed inside a shrine. That the image must have been ritually activated and used is also indicated by the pedestal with a protruding sprout, which is designed to channel the water from ablutions offered to the deity. Another important physical trace of its function as a focal point of a ritual is the abrasion noticeable on the surface of the goddess’s head. The shine on the forehead that nearly obliterates her eyebrows, parts of the hair, and the diadem is due to repeated touching.

Touching the deity (or the living presence of the de­ity in an image) with sandalwood powder or vermilion powder is one of the most common devotional actions performed in South Asia. Unlike in a museum (or even a Christian church), touching is, in fact, the most natural devotional activity in the Indic context.5 The divine is present in a living image for immediate, tactile access. Many images that we see today in a museum setting were most of­ten living presences to the communities in South Asia, and rarely seen in this denuded form with­out ornaments and garments when they were ritually active (Figure 10). If the image has been empowered with the divine presence through consecration and proper ritual maintenance by priests, and it has a proven record of channel­ing the divine presence and blessings to devoted petitioners, its aesthetic appearance is, in a way, secondary to the purpose of the image.

It has in recent years become a source of debate as to whether to introduce the original ritual context to an object in a museum or not, and how much ritual reactivation is appropriate. In the Newark Museum of Art in Newark, New Jersey, a metal image of the goddess Parvati that entered its collection was reactivated through a consecration ritual performed by a local priest with donations from the South Asian diaspora community (Figure 11). The goddess is installed with garments and jewelry as she would be in­stalled in a living shrine, while the other sculp­tures from south India in the same display case remain bare as museum objects with miniature crowns installed in between them along with a photograph showing enshrined images from a living temple in south India, a way of acknowl­edging their original ritual context. According to Katherine Paul, the curator behind this ex­periment, this image receives special reverence from visitors from the diaspora community. 6

In South Asia, Brahmins and Buddhist ritu­al masters perform dozens of rituals that de­fine being a Hindu or Buddhist. One essential practice that ritualists of both traditions do for devotees is to draw down the presence of the focal divinity so it can be worshipped by them with songs, chants, food offerings, incense, etc. The image along with a kalasha (special vase) is essential for the successful performance of the puja (ceremony). For this purpose, devotees can use whatever image of the deity they have; it can be an exquisite work of art, a simple clay statue, or an inexpensive lithograph print. The sanctity of the art is not contingent on its beauty since the success of the ritual depends on the performance of the priest. An inexpensive lithograph that is sold across India for the popular Vishnu Satya Narayan Vrata conveniently shows the entire ritual context (Figure 12). The Brahmin priest on the right conducts the ritual using a text in folio for a husband and wife sitting opposite him. Lamps and food offerings separate them (note the kalasha vase on the tray), as these have been laid out before a four-armed Vishnu standing behind holding his character­istic objects (conch, lotus, mace, discus) flanked by two Brahmin assistants.

Most Hindu or Buddhist householders of limited wealth cannot afford exquisite images like those now coveted by art collectors. For this reason, there are artists across South Asia who produce a great variety of images and paintings for use throughout the festival year that cost little and are typically sold in the market as festivals for the various deities approach. Although these may lack the refined qualities, these images bring the presence of the divine into the minds and hearts of practitioners. Even lithographs and their knockoff copies sold on the streets can be venerated as artworks chan­neling the living divine presence after a ritual. Ultimately, the degree of sanctity in an image largely depends on the actions of its users, not only the correct performance of an appropriate ritual(s) but also the repeated devotional acts that leave physical traces.

This article is dedicated to the memory of Dina Bangdel.

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• There are a number of introductory essays and online teaching tools available for educators to engage with this material. A number of resources on the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s website are useful. For a general introduction to the art of South Asia, see https://tinyurl.com/y5s5xepr; for educational resources relating to Indian art assembled under the Timeline of Art, see the essay and related resources under https://tinyurl.com/y5fcnyjt; a sample lesson plan for teaching with the Indian art material, like dancing Shiva image, see https://tinyurl.com/yyaobc3b. Many more lesson plans are available under: https://tinyurl.com/yyql6rda .
• Vidya Dehejia, The Body Adorned: Dissolving Boundaries between Sacred and Profane in India’s Art (New York: Columbia University Press, 2009).
• We must obviously use blanket terms to label “Hinduism” and “Buddhism” as singularities here, a simplification that instructors will necessarily challenge. In addition, the study of all religions must recognize a “bell curve” that maps the range of how individuals engage with their religion. This was explained in an earlier article: Todd Lewis, “Getting the Foundations Right When Teaching Asian Religions,” Education About Asia 15, no. 3 (2010): 5–13.
• Fascination or bewilderment with such images is an age-old response to Indian images in the West, as Partha Mitter observes, “the problem of accommodating multiple limbed Indian gods in the European aesthetic tradition became the leading intellectual pre-occupation as early as the sixteenth century. Partha Mitter , Much Maligned Monsters: History of European Reactions to Indian Art (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1977), vii.
• Ritual practices in South Asia vary by region and deity, regarding exactly who can touch the image. In the south, brahmins only are permitted to touch the deity on behalf of devotees.
• I thank Katherine Paul for sharing her story during my visit in 2016.
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Indian Art – Discover the History and Influence of Ancient Indian Art

From ancient Indian artworks to thriving modern art from India, the country’s vivid visual tradition is the product of a diverse range of cultural influences. The bright, diverse, and captivating designs that depict many different civilizations demonstrate the range of Indian art styles from this region. Because several of the world’s main religions, including Hinduism, Islam, and Buddhism, originated or blossomed in India, most traditional Indian art is political or religious in nature. Indian artwork covered in this article includes Indian paintings and Indian sculptures.

Table of Contents

• 1.1 Traditional Indian Art History
• 2.1.1 Madhubani Paintings
• 2.1.2 Miniature Paintings
• 2.1.3 Pattachitra Paintings
• 2.1.4 Warli Paintings
• 2.2 Indian Sculpture
• 3.1.1 Shakuntala (1898)
• 3.2.1 Bharat Mata (1905)
• 3.3.1 Self Portrait (1931)
• 4.1 What Are the Various Indian Art Styles?
• 4.2 What Are Madhubani Indian Paintings?

Traditional Indian History

Indian art has a great sense of design that can be seen in both modern and ancient Indian art. These ancient Indian artworks can be traced back to ancient communities around the third millennium BC. Traditional Indian art includes various creative forms such as sculptures, ceramics, textile arts, and paintings by Indian artists.

Traditional Indian Art History

Archaeologists uncovered prehistoric rock artworks which can be traced back at least 290,000 years in this location. The Bhimbetka petroglyphs in central India are the earliest specimens. This was the dominant kind of cave painting from the Paleolithic to Neolithic eras, frequently showing human and animal figures.

The Indus Valley Civilization produced the first known Indian sculptures between 2,500 and 1,800 BC. They made miniature terracotta and bronze figurines of animals and humans such as cattle and primates.

The development of Buddhism in the sixth century BC cleared the door for religious artwork, generally in the shape of bronze and stone statues. During this period, religious painters also experimented with constructing massive stone temples adorned with Greek-style columns. Traditional Indian Sculpture was popular among Hindus and Buddhists. Hinduism remained a major emphasis of Indian art for generations, with statues of deities such as Shiva being popular.

By the 16th century, Islam had grown in prominence under the Mughal Empire, and Indian artwork creation had increased under Islamic monarchs. The arts flourished during this period, and the building of the Taj Mahal began in 1631. British engagement in India started in the 18th century when art schools were founded to promote European forms.

As a result, indigenous art styles mixed with external cultures, and ancient art forms were sometimes glorified or exaggerated in order to attract European customers.

India won sovereignty from the British empire in 1947, prompting indigenous painters to seek a new style. Traditional components and inspirations from the country’s rich past are incorporated into modern Indian artwork.

Traditional Indian Art Styles

Each area of India had its particular art style. Religious motifs are among the most popular, with legendary animal and human figures as well as rich decoration. Sculpture and paintings by Indian artists have been the most prominent art forms throughout India’s history, as well as their magnificent architecture.

Indian Paintings

Each painting style that arose in India symbolized traditions, practices, and ideas that had been passed down from past generations. Though early Indian paintings were created on walls, the art form was later adapted to more contemporary materials such as paper, fabric, canvas, and other materials.

A few of the most prominent Indian folk-art styles are listed here.

Madhubani Paintings

Madhubani paintings are among the most well-known in India. This style started as a kind of wall painting in the Mithila area of Bihar, but it wasn’t generally recognized in the Western world until British government servant and art historian W.G. Archer discovered it in 1934 while surveying damage from an earthquake on the border between Nepal and India.

The Madhubani style is distinguished by a straightforward and vivid depiction of tradition and culture, generally representing mythical subjects.

In this style, artists combine colorful images with simple patterns, which frequently feature flower, animal, or bird designs. The art form is practiced in a variety of genres such as Katchni, Bharni, Tantric, and Godna.

Miniature Paintings

First found on palm leaves, created for merchants who transported them throughout the country in the 10th and 12th centuries, these little works were mainly crafted as images for manuscripts. Throughout the Mughal and Rajput courts, the art form grew in importance.

Miniature paintings were elaborate and detailed, relying on Persian methods. The themes varied from historical and religious situations to ordinary ones.

Pattachitra Paintings

This style, which goes back to the 12th century BC in Orissa, is another early type of painting. This kind of painting is still produced in the area’s tiny settlements today. Pattachitra literally means “cloth picture,” which accurately describes this classic, cloth-based kind of scroll painting.

The paintings, known for their detailed intricacies and legendary themes, use angular, aggressive lines and are heavily influenced by Mughal-era influences.

Warli Paintings

Warli folk paintings, a kind of traditional Indian artwork, have been around for 2,500 years. The style developed in Maharashtra, a state in western-Central India, and is still commonly performed today. Warli paintings, which are often painted on the walls of huts, use linear and monochrome colors and a basic manner of execution that mimics cave painting.

In contrast to other styles of tribal art, which use a plethora of colors, this style uses earth tones and neutral shades to show the everyday routines of indigenous people like hunting, farming, and dancing.

Though Pattachitra, Warli, Madhubani, and miniature paintings are some of the most well-known forms, numerous additional varieties of Indian folk art come from various times and places of the subcontinent, including:

• Thanjavur paintings : Between the 16th and 18th centuries, this South Indian painting style thrived. These paintings are brightly colored panel artworks created on a wooden plank, with a god as the predominant subject matter.
• Kalamkari paintings : These paintings are block-printed cotton cloth made in the Indian regions of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. It has a strong relationship to Persian themes and was originally employed for crafting narrative scrolls and panels.
• Gond paintings : This style of art glorifies nature, representing anything from lush foliage to animals. The artworks are made up of finely organized dots and dashes.

Indian Sculpture

Indian sculpture is still a popular form of creative expression, particularly as a kind of religious art. Buildings were lavishly decorated, and the subject matter was mostly abstracted human shapes meant to express Buddhist, Hindu, and Jain concepts. In Indian sculpture, female goddesses such as Kali, Shakti, and Brahma were frequently represented.

Indian sculptures date back to the Indus Valley when terracotta figures were among the earliest to be manufactured.

Large stone pillars emerged at crossroads and key places during the Mauryan Dynasty, which lasted from the 4th to the 2nd centuries BC. They frequently had lotus-shaped tops and lion motifs, which were imperial insignia. During this time, several massive stone images of deities were created, followed by smaller copies that were put on Buddhist monuments. Stupas were encircled by ornately carved gates adorned with a variety of religious emblems.

In the second and first centuries BC, more developed Indian figurative sculptures started to appear. Over the decades that followed, a diverse range of styles and customs developed in various places.

The Elephanta Caves, a series of cave temples mostly devoted to the Hindu deity Shiva and built during the mid-5th and 6th century AD, is one of the most notable buildings. By the 9th and 10th centuries, Indian sculpture had evolved into a form that differed little from what it is now and was mostly utilized as building adornment.

In the early years of the 20th century, Indian sculpture followed western academic art practices, and styles were significantly influenced by realism artists working on secular subjects in British art colleges. The old and customary forms displaying tales and deities were significantly altered. Ramkinkar Bai, worked in the 1940s and 1950s to combine Western art with traditional Indian art, exploring unusual materials such as gravel, concrete, and cement.

This innovation continues in modern Indian sculpture, which draws on traditional methods and subject matter while experimenting with new approaches.

Important Indian Artists and Their Famous Works

Now that we have taken a look at the history of art from India, as well as the various Indian art styles, we can move on to look at some of the most well-known sculptures and paintings by Indian artists. We will start with an introduction to each artist and then explore their Indian paintings and other artworks.

Raja Ravi Varma (1848 – 1906)

Ravi Varma, who was born in the Kerala town of Kilimanoor in 1848, was of royal descent. According to legend, his uncle discovered him sketching images on the walls of his residence. The uncle took him to the royal palace in Thiruvananthapuram, where he was taught in painting.

He was exposed to numerous Western and Indian styles of the time at the palace. Oil as a medium was only being introduced, and there were few who were familiar with the technique.

Ravi Varma learned the medium by seeing Theodor Janson, a Dutch artist who was visiting the palace. He rose to fame as Raja Ravi Varma, revered as the founder of contemporary Indian painting for two main reasons. He was the first to combine European academic methodologies with Indian tastes. Ravi Varma emphasized realism in his paintings, focusing on details, the play of light and shadows, and giving depth by employing perspective. The folds of a saree fluttered, the hair curled, and the eyes glowed with need.

The gems that lavishly ornamented his figures glistened in a perceived slant of light with heavier strokes. His paintings are brimming with life, with trees laden with fruits and flowers, waterways glistening with their various colors, and individuals seemingly ready to blink their eyes and resume their activity. This was a significant departure from the sort of artwork that was created at the time.

Ravi Varma’s extensive collection of work reflects his journeys across the country’s ever-changing geography. Few people traveled at that age, but his search was aided by the country’s railways, which were being built at the time.

His brother Raja Raja Varma, a superb artist in his own right, was often by his side, assisting Ravi Varma in his painting and managing his enterprises. Ravi Varma was cognizant of his customers – the princes and dewans he painted – an ambitious blend that made him among the most sought-after painters, according to Rupika Chawla. Raja Ravi Varma, widely regarded as the creator of Indian calendar painting, brilliantly brought Hindu legendary characters to life.

Until then, most of the painted figures were flat, and the gods were only recognizable by their personal accouterments. His painting output was crucial in the formation of national consciousness. It was also during a period in Indian history when national sensitivities were developing. His Veda-reflective work caught on quickly, earning popularity while also nourishing the conscience. This might be one of the reasons why his equally accomplished brother, landscape artist Raja Raja Varma, did not receive the same acclaim as his brother.

For decades following his death, his works adorned the walls of middle-class houses; nevertheless, new schools of painting eventually emerged. The Bengal School of Art responded angrily to Raja Ravi Varma’s European academic artistic approach.

Along the same lines, a few art historians criticized his works for much the same factors that made him famous in the first place – combining Western academic approaches with Indian topics.

Shakuntala (1898)

Ravi Varma portrays Shakuntala, a prominent figure in the Mahabharata, claiming to pick a thorn from her heel while actually searching for her lover, Dushyantha, as her companions mock her. This mere motion – the bend and turn of the head and torso – invites the viewer into the story, encouraging them to place this moment inside an imagined series of pictures and occurrences.

The picture stands alone as a frozen scene (like a frame from a film), taken from an ongoing series of incidents.

These works also highlight the importance of the “male gaze” in establishing the feminine image. Despite being missing from the frame, the male lover serves as a vital reference point; his glance transfixes Shakuntala, as well as Damayanti, into “desired” pictures, presenting them as poetic and sensuous ideals.

Abanindranath Tagore (1871 – 1951)

Abanindranath Tagore was born in the Bengal town of Jorasanko and was exposed to art from a young age. He was one of the most important artists, our nation was blessed with, as the Tagore family has a history of culture and literature. As a proponent of Swadeshi principles, he founded the Bengal School of Art. His history is sufficient to inform you about his extraordinary work, which paved the way for the creation of contemporary Indian art.

This concept, however, did not emerge overnight. He grew conscious of the English domination over the art scene in India when he enrolled in the Calcutta School of Art in 1890. He was profoundly disturbed by it since he was a big believer in ancient Indian ways. As a real artist, he founded the ‘Indian Society of Oriental Art’ with his brother Gaganendranath Tagore. He combined Indian style into his paintings, resulting in a fundamental transformation in the teachings. He didn’t even hesitate to condemn Western “materialistic” art.

Truly a versatile individual, several of his works reflected India and earned widespread acclaim. When his work was finally acknowledged and marketed as a national Indian style inside British art organizations under the moniker Indian Society of Oriental Art, he made history.

Nevertheless, one of his most notable works was the Arabian Nights series, which he completed in 1930. He employed the Arabian Nights tales as a metaphor in these works to depict colonial Calcutta’s emerging cosmopolitanism.

Bharat Mata (1905)

The painting was created during the Swadeshi movement. The movement emerged as a reaction to Lord Curzon’s Partition of Bengal (1905), which divided Bengal’s mostly Muslim eastern portions from its largely Hindu western areas. Indian nationalists involved in the Swadeshi movement responded by rejecting British products and organizations, organizing rallies and parades, creating committees, and exerting political pressure.

The center person in the artwork carries a book, sheaves of rice, a strip of white fabric, and a wreath, all of which are connected with Indian tradition and the economics of India in the early 20th century.

Furthermore, the primary figure in the artwork has four hands, evoking Hindu iconography that associates many hands with enormous strength. The picture is historically significant since it is one of the first depictions of Mother India. Many variations of the Bharat Mata have been created in paintings and other kinds of art since 1905.

The value of Tagore’s original artwork, nevertheless, is still acknowledged. From start to finish, the image is a plea to the Indian heart in the Indian language. It is the first outstanding work in a new style.

If it were possible, it would be mass-produced in the thousands and spread across the region until there wasn’t a farmer’s hut or a craftsman’s cottage between Cape Comorin and Kedar Nath that didn’t have this Bharat-Mata exposition on one of its walls. As one examines its attributes, one is struck time and again by the clarity and subtlety of the represented personality.

Amrita Sher-Gil (1913 – 1941)

Amrita Sher-Gil, a contemporary Indian art trailblazer, utilized her paintbrush to reflect the daily life of Indian women in the 1930s, frequently expressing a sense of loneliness and desolation. She painted individuals while traveling to the marketplace, at home, and a wedding. She occasionally portrayed women connecting with other women.

The pieces appeared to convey a feeling of calm resolution at moments. It was a unique representation of women from India in an era when images tended to portray them as cheerful and docile.

For example, the melancholy picture Three Girls depicts ladies with passive looks, their gloomy brown features contrasting with the brilliant reds, greens, and amber of their clothes. The tone is dismal as if they are waiting on someone or something they suspect will never arrive. Sher-Gil became recognized as the “Indian Frida Kahlo ” because of her style and attention to women. Her subjects’ loneliness was easily understood because their feelings mirrored her own. She lived between worlds as a result of her upbringing, frequently yearning for a feeling of belonging.

Sher-Gil was similarly torn about her sexuality. “Partly as a result of her greater perspective of a woman as a powerful individual, emancipated from the artifice of tradition,” Dalmia said, she was captivated by the concept of a lesbian affair. She had a close relationship with the painter Marie Louise Chassany, and several art experts, including her nephew, thought her painting Two Women portrayed their desire for one another.

Sher-Gil traveled extensively during her life, visiting Turkey, France, and India, drawing substantially from pre-colonial Indian art forms and modern Indian culture. She is considered a notable 20th-century Indian artist, with a legacy comparable to the Bengal Renaissance innovators.

She was also a talented musician and an avid reader. Despite the fact that she was poorly recognized when she was living, her works are among the most expensive among Indian women artists currently.

Self Portrait (1931)

This is the creator’s first artwork to be placed at auction in London, and one of just eight paintings by Sher-Gil to be auctioned internationally. The artist’s paintings are designated as ‘National Art Gems’ by the Indian government, and are regarded as of such national value to Indian heritage that they are not sellable if sourced in India, and must stay in the country if purchased in India. As a result, major Sher-Gil artworks are rarely offered for sale outside of India.

This 1931 artwork is one of her unseen and unexhibited works.

It has stayed in France since its creation and will make its first transatlantic travel this summer, first shown in New York, where it is set to be displayed at Christie’s, and then to London for its sale previewing and bidding. Sher-Gil was temporarily engaged to Yusuf Ali Khan in 1931, and rumors circulated that she was also committing adultery with her cousin Victor Egan. In 1931, Sher-Gil painted pictures of these two men, each staring inwards into the distance, maybe pondering their own life in the hands of this seductress.

Sher-Gil’s picture was also completed the same year. These paintings construct a triangle between three people, placing them in dialogue — each averting the viewer’s gaze, keeping a secret that only the three appear to be aware of. Among her 19 previously reported self-portraits, this is the only one known in profile. The artist is in full profile here, avoiding direct engagement with the observer. The composition, on the other hand, cuts diagonally across the canvas, with the body practically springing out of the canvas onto the observer.

The empty golden bowl between her and the spectator depicts the emotional vacuum she may have experienced as an 18-year-old divided between her different loves.

Amrita is reported to have had a life as intriguing and unconventional as her work. Her narrative is intriguing — her father, a photographer, documented her early years for posterity — and provided insights into both Amrita and Indian and European high society in the 1920s.

That wraps up our look at artists and art from India. The vestiges of Indian art that can be traced back to the third millennium BC have been found. Every age has its own character, customs, history, and revolutions that define it. India’s art forms, too, have developed over the centuries. Paintings, architecture, and sculpture first appeared in ancient India.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the various indian art styles.

Every region of India had its own distinct art style. Religious themes, with mythical animal and human characters and ornate embellishment, are among the most popular. Sculpture and paintings by Indian painters, as well as their exquisite architecture, have been the most renowned art forms throughout India’s history.

What Are Madhubani Indian Paintings?

Madhubani paintings are some of India’s most well-known. This style began as a type of wall painting in the Mithila region of Bihar, but it wasn’t widely recognized until W.G. Archer found it in 1934 while evaluating the damage caused by an earthquake on the Nepal-India border. The Madhubani style is characterized by a direct and vivid portrayal of tradition and culture, which typically depicts legendary topics.

Isabella studied at the University of Cape Town in South Africa and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts majoring in English Literature & Language and Psychology. Throughout her undergraduate years, she took Art History as an additional subject and absolutely loved it. Building on from her art history knowledge that began in high school, art has always been a particular area of fascination for her. From learning about artworks previously unknown to her, or sharpening her existing understanding of specific works, the ability to continue learning within this interesting sphere excites her greatly.

Her focal points of interest in art history encompass profiling specific artists and art movements, as it is these areas where she is able to really dig deep into the rich narrative of the art world. Additionally, she particularly enjoys exploring the different artistic styles of the 20 th century, as well as the important impact that female artists have had on the development of art history.

Learn more about Isabella Meyer and the Art in Context Team .

Cite this Article

Isabella, Meyer, “Indian Art – Discover the History and Influence of Ancient Indian Art.” Art in Context. June 19, 2022. URL: https://artincontext.org/indian-art/

Meyer, I. (2022, 19 June). Indian Art – Discover the History and Influence of Ancient Indian Art. Art in Context. https://artincontext.org/indian-art/

Meyer, Isabella. “Indian Art – Discover the History and Influence of Ancient Indian Art.” Art in Context , June 19, 2022. https://artincontext.org/indian-art/ .

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very helpful websites for images “Exploring the rich tapestry of Indian art and culture is a journey through history, tradition, and innovation. From the timeless elegance of classical dance forms to the bold expressions of modern Indian art, the cultural heritage of India is as diverse as it is profound.

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The Most Famous Artists and Artworks

Discover the most famous artists, paintings, sculptors…in all of history! 

MOST FAMOUS ARTISTS AND ARTWORKS

Discover the most famous artists, paintings, sculptors!

Essay on Indian Culture for Students and Children

500+ words essay on indian culture.

India is a country that boasts of a rich culture. The culture of India refers to a collection of minor unique cultures. The culture of India comprises of clothing, festivals, languages, religions, music, dance, architecture, food, and art in India. Most noteworthy, Indian culture has been influenced by several foreign cultures throughout its history. Also, the history of India’s culture is several millennia old.

Components of Indian Culture

First of all, Indian origin religions are Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism . All of these religions are based on karma and dharma. Furthermore, these four are called as Indian religions. Indian religions are a major category of world religions along with Abrahamic religions.

Also, many foreign religions are present in India as well. These foreign religions include Abrahamic religions. The Abrahamic religions in India certainly are Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Besides Abrahamic religions, Zoroastrianism and Bahá’í Faith are the other foreign religions which exist in India. Consequently, the presence of so many diverse religions has given rise to tolerance and secularism in Indian culture.

The Joint family system is the prevailing system of Indian culture . Most noteworthy, the family members consist of parents, children, children’s spouses, and offspring. All of these family members live together. Furthermore, the eldest male member is the head of the family.

Arranged marriages are the norm in Indian culture. Probably most Indians have their marriages planned by their parents. In almost all Indian marriages, the bride’s family gives dowry to bridegroom. Weddings are certainly festive occasions in Indian culture. There is involvement of striking decorations, clothing, music, dance, rituals in Indian weddings. Most noteworthy, the divorce rates in India are very low.

India celebrates a huge number of festivals. These festivals are very diverse due to multi-religious and multi-cultural Indian society. Indians greatly value festive occasions. Above all, the whole country joins in the celebrations irrespective of the differences.

Traditional Indian food, arts, music, sports, clothing, and architecture vary significantly across different regions. These components are influenced by various factors. Above all, these factors are geography, climate, culture, and rural/urban setting.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Perceptions of Indian Culture

Indian culture has been an inspiration to many writers. India is certainly a symbol of unity around the world. Indian culture is certainly very complex. Furthermore, the conception of Indian identity poses certain difficulties. However, despite this, a typical Indian culture does exist. The creation of this typical Indian culture results from some internal forces. Above all, these forces are a robust Constitution, universal adult franchise, secular policy , flexible federal structure, etc.

Indian culture is characterized by a strict social hierarchy. Furthermore, Indian children are taught their roles and place in society from an early age. Probably, many Indians believe that gods and spirits have a role in determining their life. Earlier, traditional Hindus were divided into polluting and non-polluting occupations. Now, this difference is declining.

Indian culture is certainly very diverse. Also, Indian children learn and assimilate in the differences. In recent decades, huge changes have taken place in Indian culture. Above all, these changes are female empowerment , westernization, a decline of superstition, higher literacy , improved education, etc.

To sum it up, the culture of India is one of the oldest cultures in the World. Above all, many Indians till stick to the traditional Indian culture in spite of rapid westernization. Indians have demonstrated strong unity irrespective of the diversity among them. Unity in Diversity is the ultimate mantra of Indian culture.

FAQs on Indian Culture

Q1 What are the Indian religions?

A1 Indian religions refer to a major category of religion. Most noteworthy, these religions have their origin in India. Furthermore, the major Indian religions are Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism.

Q2 What are changes that have taken place in Indian culture in recent decades?

A2 Certainly, many changes have taken place in Indian culture in recent decades. Above all, these changes are female empowerment, westernization, a decline of superstition, higher literacy, improved education, etc.

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• Indian Culture and Tradition Essay

Essay on Indian Culture and Tradition

As students grow older, it is important for them to improve their understanding and hold over the language. This can be done only through consistent reading and writing. Writing an essay is a task that involves cooperation and coordination of both the mind and body. Students must be able to think as well reproduce their thoughts effectively without any confusion. This is important when it comes to writing answers and other important documents as ones go to higher classes. The art of writing effectively and efficiently can be improved by students through writing essays. To help students in this domain, Vedantu provides students with numerous essays. Students can go through the same and learn the correct manner of writing the essay. 

Indian Culture and Tradition

India enjoys a wide variety of cultural and traditional presence amongst the 28 states. Indian origin religions Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism are all based on dharma and karma. Even, India is a blessed holy place which is also a native place for most of the religions. Recently, Muslim and Christianity also practised working amongst the whole India population. The pledge also added the line, ‘India is my country, and I am proud of its rich and varied heritage.’  

Indians are great with cooking; their spices are special for medicinal purposes, so visitors are difficult to adjust to with such heavy spices. The cricketers touring Indian pitches are out due to such food. Frequently, it's been observed that the sportsperson arrived in India either with cooking skills or with a cook. Spices such as cumin, turmeric and cardamom have been used for a long period, to make the dishes more delicious and nutritional. Wheat, rice and pulses help to complete the meal. The majority of the population is a vegetarian one due to their religious aspects.

Talking about the language, India is blessed with a wide range of languages used. Each state has its own language. A major part of the state is unable to speak other languages than the native one. Gujrathi, Malayalam, Marathi, Tamil, Punjabi, Telugu and many more are the representative languages of the respective state. It's easy to recognize the person with the language he spoke. There are 15 regional languages but almost all of them Hindi is the national language of the country. Sanskrit is considered an ancient and respected language. And most of the legendary holy texts are found in Sanskrit only. Along with these, most of the people are aware of plenty of foreign languages. 

Indian clothing is adorable to most of the foreigners. Woman wearing a sari is the pride of a nation. These create a pleasant effect and she looks so beautiful that a majority of foreign country’s female want to be like her. The origin of the sari is from the temple dancers in ancient times. Sari allows them to maintain modesty and freedom of movement. On the other hand, men traditionally wear a dhoti and kurta. Actually, Dhoti is a type of cloth without any further attached work done on it. The great Mahatma Gandhi was very fond of it and in their dignity, most of the people used to wear the same. 

Apart from all the above facts, Indians are legends with arts and studious material. Shah-rukh Khan, Sachin Tendulkar, Dhirubhai Ambani, Amitabh Bachchan Rajnikant, Sundar Pichai are many more faces of India who are shining and representing India on a global scale. There are 20-30 grand festivals celebrated every year in which every festival pops up with history and respect to the respective religion. Even in terms of business, India is not behind. Agriculture is the best occupation of 70% of people in India. It’s our duty to protect the wonderful culture that we have. 

Indian culture is one of the oldest and most unique cultures known across the globe. It has various kinds of traditional values, religion, dance, festivals, music, and cloth, which varies from each state or town even. Indian art, cuisine, religion, Literature, Education, Heritage, Clothes etc has a huge impact on the whole world where everyone admires and follows it. It is known as the land of cultural diversity.  India thrives on a variety of languages, religions, and cultures due to the diverse race of people living in the country. It can be referred to as one of the world’s most culturally enriched countries. When one thinks of India, they picture colors, smiling faces of children running in the streets, bangle vendors, street food, music, religious festivals etc. 

Religion 

India is a land where different religious beliefs are followed. It is the land of many religions such as Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Sikhism, Jainism and Buddhism.  Four Indian religions namely Hinduism, Sikhism, Jainism, and Buddhism were born in India while others are not of Indian origin but have people following those faiths. The people of India keep a solid belief in religion as they believe that following a faith adds meaning and purpose to their lives as it is the way of life. The religions here are not only confined to beliefs but also include ethics, rituals, ceremonies, life philosophies and many more.

Families 

Family plays a vital role in every Indian household. Indians are known to live together as a joint family with their grandparents, uncles and aunts, and the next generation of offspring as well. The house gets passed down from family to family throughout the generations. But with the new modern age, nuclear families are starting to become more common as children go out of town into cities for work or studies and get settled there, also everyone now prefers to have their own private life without any interference. But still, the concept of family get together and family gatherings are not lost as everyone does come together frequently. 

Indian Festivals

India is well known for its traditional festivals all over the world. As it is a secular country with diversity in religions, every month some festival celebration happens. These festivals can be religious, seasonal or are of national importance. Every festival is celebrated uniquely in different ways according to their ritual as each of them has its unique importance. National festivals such as Gandhi Jayanti, Independence Day and Republic Day are celebrated by the people of India across the entire nation. Religious festivals include Diwali, Dussehra, Eid-ul-Fitr, Eid-ul-Zuha, Christmas, Ganesh Chaturthi, etc. All the seasonal festivals such as Baisakhi, Onam, Pongal, Bihu etc are celebrated to mark the season of harvest during two harvesting seasons, Rabi and Kharif. 

Festivals bring love, bond, cross-cultural exchange and moments of happiness among people.

Indian cuisine is known for a variety of spicy dishes, curry, rice items, sweets etc. Each cuisine includes a wide range of dishes and cooking techniques as it varies from region to region. Each region of India cooks different types of dishes using different ingredients, also food varies from every festival and culture as well. Hindus eat mostly vegetarian food items such as pulao, vegetables, daal, rajma etc whereas people from Islamic cultural backgrounds eat meat, kebabs, haleem etc. In the southernmost part of India, you will find people use a lot of coconut oil for cooking purposes, they eat a lot of rice items such as Dosa, Idli, Appam etc with Coconut chutney, sambhar.

Indian Clothing is considered to be the epitome of modesty and every style is very different in each region and state. But the two pieces of clothing that represent Indian culture are dhoti for men and saree for women. Women adorn themselves with a lot of bangles and Payal that goes around their ankles. Even clothing styles varied from different religions to regions to cultures. Muslim women preferred to wear salwar kameez whereas Christian women preferred gowns. Men mostly stuck to dhoti, lungi, shalwar and kurta.In modern days, people have changed their sense of style, men and women now wear more modern western clothes. Indian clothes are still valued but are now in more trendy and fashionable styles. 

There is no single language that is spoken all over India; however , Hindi is one common language most Indians know and can speak or understand. Every region has a different language or dialect. As per the official language act, Hindi and English are the official languages in India. Other regions or state wise languages include- Gujarati, Marathi, Bangla, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Kashmiri, Punjabi etc. 

FAQs on Indian Culture and Tradition Essay

1. What are the Popular Spices in India?

Popular spices in India include - Haldi(Turmeric), Chakri Phool(Star Anise), Til (Sesame seeds/ Gingili seeds), Saunf(Fennel Seeds), Kesar(Saffron), Laal Mirch(Red chilli), Khas(Poppy seeds), Jayphal(Nutmeg), Kalonji(Nigella Seeds), Rai/Sarson(Mustard Seeds), Pudina(Mint), Javitri(Mace), Patthar ke Phool​(Kalpasi), Kala Namak/ Sanchal/ Sanchar powder(Black salt/ Himalayan rock salt/ Pink salt), Sonth(Dry ginger powder), Methi dana(Fenugreek seeds), Suva Bhaji/ Sua Saag(Dill)

Kadi Patta(Curry Leaves), Sukha dhania(Coriander seeds), Laung(Cloves), Dalchini(Cinnamon), Sabza(Chia seeds), Chironji(Charoli), Ajwain(Carom seeds, thymol or celery seeds), Elaichi(Cardamom), Kali Mirch(Black Pepper (or White Pepper), Tej Patta(Bay Leaf), Hing(Asafoetida), Anardana(Pomegranate seeds), Amchoor(Dry mango powder)

2. What is the Language Diversity Available in India?

The Indian constitution has 22 officially recognized languages. Apart from it, there are around 60 languages that are recognized as smother tongue with more than one million speakers. India also has around 28 minor languages spoken by over one hundred thousand and one million people. Apart from these, there are numerous dialects spoken by a various sect of people based on their region of origin. 

3. Who are Some of the Most Famous Indian Celebrities Popular Across the Globe? 

India has people excelling in all aspects of art and activities. Few prominent celebrities to garner global fame include - Sudha Murthy, Amitabh Bacchan, Virat Kohli, Saina Nehwal, Sania Mirza, Priyanka Chopra, MS Dhoni, Sachin Tendulkar, Mohanlal, A R Rehman, Mukesh Ambani, Ratan Tata, Narayana Murthy, Kiran Majumdar Shah, Narendra Modi, Amith Shah. all these people have received great accolades in their respective area of expertise globally and getting recognition to India on a global level. 

4. How to Improve Writing and Reading Skills for Producing Good Essays?

Writing an essay becomes a tedious task when the mind and hand do not coordinate. It is important for you to be able to harness your mental ability to think clearly and reproduce the same on paper for a good essay. Always remember the first few thoughts that you get as soon as you see an essay topic is your best and purest thoughts. Ensure to note them down. Later you can develop your essay around these points. Make sure your essay has an introduction, body and the final conclusion. This will make the reader understand the topic clearly along with your ability to convey the any information without any hesitation or mistake. 

5. How many religions are there in India? 

As of now, there are a total of 9 major religions in India with Hinduism being the majority. The remaining religion includes- Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Sikhism, Jainism, Zoroastrianism, Judaism and the Baha'i Faith. 

6. Which is the oldest language in India? 

Indian classical oldest language is Sanskrit, it belongs to the Indo- Aryan branch of Indo- European languages. 

7. What are the few famous folk dances of India? 

Folk dances are the representation of a particular culture from where they are known to originate. Eight famous classical dances are- Bharatnatyam from Tamil Nadu, Kathakali from Kerala, Kathak from North, West and Central India, Mohiniyattam from Kerala, Kuchipudi from Andhra Pradesh, Odissi from Odisha, Manipuri from Manipur, Sattriya from Assam. 

8. How many languages are spoken in India? 

Other than Hindi and English there are 22 languages recognised by the constitution of India. However, more than 400 languages and dialects in India are still not known as they change after every town. Over the years, about 190 languages have become endangered due to very few surviving speakers. 

9. Describe the Indian Culture. 

Indian culture is very diverse and the people of India are very warm and welcoming. They have a strong sense of family and firmly believe in unity in diversity. In India, there's a saying saying 'Atithi Devo Bhava'  means 'the guest is equivalent to god'. So if one visits India, they will never feel unwanted.

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Religion has such a deep imprint on Indian art, that often entire Indian art is dismissed as religious only; however, there is no dearth of secular art. Elaborate.

Topic : Indian culture will cover the salient aspects of Art Forms, literature and Architecture from ancient to modern times.

1. Religion has such a deep imprint on Indian art, that often entire Indian art is dismissed as religious only; however, there is no dearth of secular art. Elaborate. (250 words)

Reference: Indian art and culture by Nitin Singhania

Why the question: The question is based on the Art and culture of the country and in what way it is secular and not just religious. Key Demand of the question: One has to discuss influence of religion on Indian art and substantiate that however it is not the only driving factor and Indian art is equally secular. Directive: Elaborate – Give a detailed account as to how and why it occurred, or what is the particular context. You must be defining key terms where ever appropriate, and substantiate with relevant associated facts. Structure of the answer: Introduction: Briefly present some key facts reporting the influence of religion over the Indian Art. Body: In the answer body move on to dismiss the fact that Indian culture is purely religious by presenting the facts related to Secular art. On its way to modern times, Indian art has had cultural influences (Indus valley and Hellenistic) as well as religious influences such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Islam. Present examples to justify your answer such as – The rock cut architecture and art in India mainly focused on natural elements. The paintings in these sites like barabar caves, Bhimbetka commonly depicted scenes of human life alongside animals, and hunts with stone implements. During Indus valley civilization there were animal depictions, religious depictions like Pasupathi etc. Conclusion: Conclude with importance of Indian secular Art and how often it is misunderstood as only religious.

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Indian Culture and Tradition Essay | Essay on Indian Culture and Tradition for Students and Children in English

February 14, 2024 by Prasanna

Indian Culture and Tradition Essay:  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.

You can read more  Essay Writing  about articles, events, people, sports, technology many more.

Long and Short Essays on Indian Culture and Tradition for Students and Kids in English

Indian culture is famous across the world due to its diversity in music, art, dance, language, cuisine, costume, philosophy, and literature. The important characteristics of Indian Culture are civilized communication, beliefs, values, etiquette, and rituals. India is well known for its ‘Unity in Diversity’ across the world. That means India is a diverse nation where many religious people live together peacefully having their own different cultures. So, we can see people of different languages, dresses, food habits, and rituals living with unity in India.

Long Essay on Indian Culture and Tradition 500 Words in English

A Long Essay on Indian Culture and Tradition Essay will be helpful for students in classes 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12.

Indian Culture and Religion

Indian Religion has a great impact on shaping the culture and traditions of India. India has several religions that originated five thousand years ago. Hinduism originated from Vedas, so all Hindu scriptures have been scripted in the Sanskrit language. People believe that Jainism has an ancient origin and exists in the Indus valley. Whereas another religion, Buddhism originated through the teachings of Gautam Buddha in the country. There are various eras that came and gone but have not changed the influence of real culture. That is why the younger generations still follow the older generation’s culture.

However, Indian ethnic culture teaches people to care for the helpless, help poor people, and respect elders. The traditional aspect of India to greet anybody is by saying ‘Namaste’ and touching the elder’s feet. The traditional family structure in India is a joint family, where many generations stay together in one house. People in India still follow the traditional marriage concept of ‘Arranged Marriage’ where the life partner of a child will be chosen by their parents.

Art is also one of the special cultures of India. Each state of India has its own form of dancing and singing such as Kathakali, Bharatnatyam, Kathak, Mohiniyattam, Odissi, and so forth. Moreover, Indian people welcome their guests like God by following the great Indian culture. People believe in the popular saying that ‘Atithi Devo Bhava’. Therefore, humanity and spiritual practices are the roots of Indian culture.

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.

Short Essay on Indian Culture and Tradition 300 Words in English

A Short Essay on Indian Culture and Tradition will be helpful for students in classes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6.

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.

Conclusion on Indian Culture and Tradition Essay

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.

FAQ’s on Indian Culture and Tradition Essay

Question 1. What are Tradition and Culture?

Answer: Tradition is the customs and beliefs which are followed by people of one generation to another. Whereas culture is the customs, values, and social behavior within a group or society.

Question 2. What is the importance of Indian culture?

Answer:  Indian Culture is unique across the world. India is well known for its ‘Unity in Diversity’ across the world. That means India is a diverse nation where many religious people live together peacefully having their own different cultures. So, we can see people of different languages, dresses, food habits, and rituals living with unity in India. Indian culture is famous across the world due to its diversity in music, art, dance, language, cuisine, costume, philosophy, and literature.

Question 3. What is Indian Tradition?

Answer:  The traditional aspect of India is to greet anybody by saying ‘Namaste’ and touching the elder’s feet. The traditional family structure in India is a joint family, where many generations stay together in one house. People in India still follow the traditional marriage concept of ‘Arranged Marriage’ where the life partner of a child will be chosen by their parents.

Question 4. What is the food culture of India?

Answer: Indian food culture differs from place to place as each state has its own particular food and eating habits. Indian foods include so many ingredients and are more influential across the world. 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.

Question 5. What are the important characteristics of Indian Culture?

Answer:  The important characteristics of Indian Culture are civilized communication, beliefs, values, etiquette, and rituals.

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Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History Essays

Buddhism and buddhist art.

Portrait of Shun'oku Myōha

Unidentified artist Japanese

Fasting Buddha Shakyamuni

Reliquary in the Shape of a Stupa

Standing Buddha Offering Protection

Buddha Maitreya (Mile)

Buddha Maitreya (Mile) Altarpiece

Buddha Offering Protection

Head of Buddha

Buddha, probably Amitabha

Pensive bodhisattva

Avalokiteshvara, the Bodhisattva of Infinite Compassion

Buddha Shakyamuni or Akshobhya, the Buddha of the East

Enthroned Buddha Attended by the Bodhisattvas Avalokiteshvara and Vajrapani

The Bodhisattva Padmapani Lokeshvara

Buddha Vairocana (Dari)

Buddha Amoghasiddhi with Eight Bodhisattvas

Death of the Historical Buddha (Nehan-zu)

Cup Stand with the Eight Buddhist Treasures

Seated Buddha

Vidya Dehejia Department of Art History and Archaeology, Columbia University

February 2007

The fifth and fourth centuries B.C. were a time of worldwide intellectual ferment. It was an age of great thinkers, such as Socrates and Plato, Confucius and Laozi. In India , it was the age of the Buddha, after whose death a religion developed that eventually spread far beyond its homeland.

Siddhartha, the prince who was to become the Buddha, was born into the royal family of Kapilavastu, a small kingdom in the Himalayan foothills. His was a divine conception and miraculous birth, at which sages predicted that he would become a universal conqueror, either of the physical world or of men’s minds. It was the latter conquest that came to pass. Giving up the pleasures of the palace to seek the true purpose of life, Siddhartha first tried the path of severe asceticism, only to abandon it after six years as a futile exercise. He then sat down in yogic meditation beneath a bodhi tree until he achieved enlightenment. He was known henceforth as the Buddha , or “Enlightened One.”

His is the Middle Path, rejecting both luxury and asceticism. Buddhism proposes a life of good thoughts, good intentions, and straight living, all with the ultimate aim of achieving nirvana, release from earthly existence. For most beings, nirvana lies in the distant future, because Buddhism, like other faiths of India, believes in a cycle of rebirth. Humans are born many times on earth, each time with the opportunity to perfect themselves further. And it is their own karma—the sum total of deeds, good and bad—that determines the circumstances of a future birth. The Buddha spent the remaining forty years of his life preaching his faith and making vast numbers of converts. When he died, his body was cremated, as was customary in India.

The cremated relics of the Buddha were divided into several portions and placed in relic caskets that were interred within large hemispherical mounds known as stupas. Such stupas constitute the central monument of Buddhist monastic complexes. They attract pilgrims from far and wide who come to experience the unseen presence of the Buddha. Stupas are enclosed by a railing that provides a path for ritual circumambulation. The sacred area is entered through gateways at the four cardinal points.

In the first century B.C., India’s artists, who had worked in the perishable media of brick, wood, thatch, and bamboo, adopted stone on a very wide scale. Stone railings and gateways, covered with relief sculptures, were added to stupas. Favorite themes were events from the historic life of the Buddha, as well as from his previous lives, which were believed to number 550. The latter tales are called jatakas and often include popular legends adapted to Buddhist teachings.

In the earliest Buddhist art of India, the Buddha was not represented in human form. His presence was indicated instead by a sign, such as a pair of footprints, an empty seat, or an empty space beneath a parasol.

In the first century A.D., the human image of one Buddha came to dominate the artistic scene, and one of the first sites at which this occurred was along India’s northwestern frontier. In the area known as Gandhara , artistic elements from the Hellenistic world combined with the symbolism needed to express Indian Buddhism to create a unique style. Youthful Buddhas with hair arranged in wavy curls resemble Roman statues of Apollo; the monastic robe covering both shoulders and arranged in heavy classical folds is reminiscent of a Roman toga. There are also many representations of Siddhartha as a princely bejeweled figure prior to his renunciation of palace life. Buddhism evolved the concept of a Buddha of the Future, Maitreya, depicted in art both as a Buddha clad in a monastic robe and as a princely bodhisattva before enlightenment. Gandharan artists made use of both stone and stucco to produce such images, which were placed in nichelike shrines around the stupa of a monastery. Contemporaneously, the Kushan-period artists in Mathura, India, produced a different image of the Buddha. His body was expanded by sacred breath ( prana ), and his clinging monastic robe was draped to leave the right shoulder bare.

A third influential Buddha type evolved in Andhra Pradesh, in southern India, where images of substantial proportions, with serious, unsmiling faces, were clad in robes that created a heavy swag at the hem and revealed the left shoulder. These southern sites provided artistic inspiration for the Buddhist land of Sri Lanka, off the southern tip of India, and Sri Lankan monks regularly visited the area. A number of statues in this style have been found as well throughout Southeast Asia.

The succeeding Gupta period, from the fourth to the sixth century A.D., in northern India, sometimes referred to as a Golden Age, witnessed the creation of an “ideal image” of the Buddha. This was achieved by combining selected traits from the Gandharan region with the sensuous form created by Mathura artists. Gupta Buddhas have their hair arranged in tiny individual curls, and the robes have a network of strings to suggest drapery folds (as at Mathura) or are transparent sheaths (as at Sarnath). With their downward glance and spiritual aura, Gupta Buddhas became the model for future generations of artists, whether in post-Gupta and Pala India or in Nepal , Thailand , and Indonesia. Gupta metal images of the Buddha were also taken by pilgrims along the Silk Road to China .

Over the following centuries there emerged a new form of Buddhism that involved an expanding pantheon and more elaborate rituals. This later Buddhism introduced the concept of heavenly bodhisattvas as well as goddesses, of whom the most popular was Tara. In Nepal and Tibet , where exquisite metal images and paintings were produced, new divinities were created and portrayed in both sculpture and painted scrolls. Ferocious deities were introduced in the role of protectors of Buddhism and its believers. Images of a more esoteric nature , depicting god and goddess in embrace, were produced to demonstrate the metaphysical concept that salvation resulted from the union of wisdom (female) and compassion (male). Buddhism had traveled a long way from its simple beginnings.

Dehejia, Vidya. “Buddhism and Buddhist Art.” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History . New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/budd/hd_budd.htm (February 2007)

Further Reading

Dehejia, Vidya. Indian Art . London: Phaidon, 1997.

Mitter, Partha. Indian Art . Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.

Additional Essays by Vidya Dehejia

• Dehejia, Vidya. “ Hinduism and Hindu Art .” (February 2007)
• Dehejia, Vidya. “ Recognizing the Gods .” (February 2007)
• Dehejia, Vidya. “ South Asian Art and Culture .” (February 2007)

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Indian Culture Essay

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Introduction, indian culture essay (100 words), indian culture essay (150 words), indian culture essay (200 words), indian culture essay (250 words), indian culture essay (300 words), indian culture essay (500+ words), religious diversity, linguistic diversity, art and architecture, cuisine and attire, preservation and evolution.

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Introduction

Art is the expression of one’s views and feelings, which may take many forms like dance, music, painting , literature or theatre. By seeing the art of a particular country, we can easily understand its inherent culture. Thus, it is right to say that art and culture play a great role in the growth of a country. When people share common beliefs, attitudes and values, it becomes the culture of that nation, which artists try to capture and manifest through their art.

India is a country that is rich in diverse culture and art. With many communities coexisting with each other, one can witness the diversity in languages and beliefs of the country. The essay on Indian art and culture will be useful for students to familiarise themselves with the distinct features of India’s unique culture and art.

India’s Art and Culture

Just like there are many beautiful flowers in different shapes and colours in a garden , India also has such variety in art and culture. Although people in India follow different cultures, all of them live together in harmony, and this is what sets India apart from other countries. Each state in the country has a distinct culture or tradition, which is passed down to them by their ancestors. We will go through the diversity of India in this art and culture essay.

Interestingly, the language also varies from state to state. Despite these differences, the people of India live in unity and peace as they respect and love each other.

Indian clothing is another important factor that defines the country’s culture. The style of clothing differs according to the geographical place they live in, and yet, they contribute to the culture of the country.

Art is closely related to the culture of a country as they speak about the rich heritage of the nation. Indian art has many forms to which many notable personalities have contributed. If we are familiar with the works of Raja Ravi Varma or Rabindranath Tagore, it reveals that they have been successful in portraying Indian culture through their art. Being one of the oldest cultures, India’s culture reminds us of the virtues of unity and integrity in this essay on Indian art and culture. Let us also teach our children more about our nation through these interesting sets of GK questions .

Importance of Art and Culture

Art and culture are the identity of a nation, which helps us to understand the world around us better. As it brings people together, it offers us the opportunity to learn from each other and understand how there is unity even in diversity. Moreover, art and culture help in building the country as they preserve our heritage and creativity. Indian art and culture are what keep us binding together, and we are proud of it.

You can find more essays similar to the art essay on BYJU’S website. Also, you can explore a range of kid-friendly learning resources, such as short stories, poems, worksheets, etc., for little learners on the website.

Frequently Asked Questions

How is india rich in art and culture.

India is a multicultural country that practises different art forms like dance, music, theatre, sculpting, painting, etc. Many notable names are associated with Indian art as they have contributed immensely to their fields. In addition, India’s culture is ingrained in its different religious practices and festivals celebrated by all.

What are the different languages spoken in India?

Since India is a diverse country, many languages are spoken in the country. Some languages spoken in India include Bengali, Hindi, Assamese, Gujarati, Marathi, Telugu, Urdu and Konkani, among many others.

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Essay on Cultural Diversity in India

Students are often asked to write an essay on Cultural Diversity in India in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Cultural Diversity in India

Introduction to cultural diversity.

India is famously known for its rich cultural diversity. It is a land where people of different religions, castes, and ethnic groups live together, each contributing to the country’s unique cultural fabric.

Religious Diversity

India is home to many religions, including Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Sikhism, Buddhism, and Jainism. Each religion has its own set of rituals, festivals, and traditions, which adds to the cultural richness.

Language Diversity

India is a linguistically diverse country with over 1600 spoken languages. Every state has its own language, and people take pride in their linguistic heritage.

Art and Cuisine

Indian art and cuisine vary greatly from region to region. The music, dance, and food of each area are influenced by its history, geography, and local traditions. This diversity in art and cuisine is a testament to India’s cultural richness.

250 Words Essay on Cultural Diversity in India

Introduction.

India, often referred to as a ‘melting pot’ of cultures, stands as a testament to the confluence of diverse traditions, religions, and languages. Its cultural diversity is a rich tapestry woven with threads of myriad hues, each representing a unique cultural facet.

India is the birthplace of religions like Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism, which coexist with Islam, Christianity, Zoroastism, Judaism, and others. Each religion has contributed to the cultural mosaic of India, leaving indelible imprints on its art, architecture, literature, music, and dance.

Linguistic Diversity

The linguistic diversity in India is astonishing, with the constitution officially recognizing 22 languages. Each language has its literature, folklore, and scripts, contributing to the cultural richness of the nation.

Social and Cultural Practices

The social and cultural practices in India vary significantly across its length and breadth. Festivals like Diwali, Eid, Christmas, Pongal, Baisakhi, and many others are celebrated with great fervor, each having its unique customs and traditions.

Indian art, ranging from classical dance forms to folk arts like Madhubani and Warli, showcases the cultural diversity. Indian cuisine, with its wide range of regional dishes, reflects the diversity in its culinary practices.

500 Words Essay on Cultural Diversity in India

Introduction to cultural diversity in india.

India, often hailed as the epitome of cultural diversity, is a country where myriad cultures, religions, languages, and traditions coexist in harmony. This cultural diversity is the cornerstone of India’s pluralistic society and has shaped its history, politics, and social fabric.

Cultural Mosaic: Languages and Religions

India is home to over 2,000 distinct ethnic groups and more than 1,600 spoken languages. This linguistic diversity is a testament to the country’s cultural richness. Each language carries its unique folklore, literature, and art forms, contributing to the cultural mosaic of the nation.

Art, Music, and Dance

Indian art, music, and dance forms are as diverse as its languages and religions. Each region boasts its distinct classical and folk music and dance styles. For instance, Kathakali from Kerala, Bharatanatyam from Tamil Nadu, and Kathak from North India are renowned dance forms, each with its unique storytelling method.

Similarly, Indian music ranges from the classical Carnatic and Hindustani styles to various folk traditions. Indian art, too, displays a wide range from Madhubani paintings of Bihar to Warli art of Maharashtra, each narrating a tale of its people and history.

Cuisine and Clothing

Clothing in India also varies regionally, reflecting local climatic conditions, traditions, and influences. From the ‘sarees’ and ‘dhotis’ of the south to the ‘pherans’ and ‘pathanis’ of the north, Indian attire is a vibrant display of its cultural diversity.

Challenges and Opportunities

While cultural diversity is India’s strength, it also poses challenges. Communal tensions, regional disparities, and language conflicts are some issues that stem from this diversity. However, these challenges also provide opportunities for dialogue, mutual understanding, and unity in diversity.

Cultural diversity in India is an enriching and complex tapestry of traditions, beliefs, and practices. It is a testament to the country’s historical openness to different cultures, its adaptability, and its inherent pluralism. This diversity, while posing challenges, also provides a framework for mutual respect and coexistence, making India a fascinating study in cultural diversity.

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Essay on religions in india.

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In this essay we will learn about the various religions of India. After reading this essay you will learn about: 1. Introductory Remarks, Distributional Patterns of Religions in India 2. Vedism and Early Hinduism 3. Buddhism 4. Jainism 5. Sikhism 6. Christianity 7. Islam.

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Essay # 1. Introductory Remarks, Distributional Patterns of Religions in India :

If the term ‘religion’ may be used to refer to particular aspects of India’s cultural traditions, the country can be said to have long been the home of all religions that today have a worldwide presence.

Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism—the so-called Indie religions—were born here. Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, and the Bahai faith arrived here from abroad at different points of time during the last two millennia.

The plurality of religions in India is often obscured by the fact that Hinduism is generally regarded as both the demographically dominant and the culturally characteristic—even hegemonic—religion of the country not only in popular imagination but also by official reckoning—four out of five Indians are Hindus, and they inhabit the length and breadth of the land.

From the cultural perspective, anthropologists and sociologists have provided details of the many components of culture and aspects of social structure of the so-called non-Hindu communities that have either been borrowed from the Hindus, or are survivals from their pre- conversion Hindu past, with or without significant alterations.

The foregoing popular view of the cultural scene in India, buttressed by official statistics, needs to be qualified in several respects. Unlike the other religions of India, Hinduism is a federation of faiths which has a horizontal as well as vertical distribution, rather than a single homogeneous religion.

Not only do the religious beliefs and practices of Hindus vary from one cultural region of the country to another (say, between Bengal and Maharashtra), Hindu castes in each area are also characterized by similar differences. We will go into the details of such internal plurality among the Hindus in section ii below.

Suffice it to note here, first, that Hinduism has a long and eventful history which has resulted in much internal diversity, and second, that there are communities today which are considered Hindu by others but which themselves no longer concur in this judgement.

Most notably, the Scheduled Castes of official literature, including the Constitution of the Republic, who have traditionally comprised the bottom rungs of the caste hierarchy, and were called Harijan (‘the Children of God’) by Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948), are today by self-description the Dalit (‘the Oppressed’).

If their claim that they are not Hindu is accepted, the proportion of Hindus in the total population will come down significantly, from four-fifths to two-thirds.

Whether we have the Indie faiths in mind, or the major religions of non-Indian origin, notably Islam, religion in India is not a discrete element of everyday life that stands wholly apart from the economic or political concerns of the people. To assume so would amount to yielding to the temptation of words.

The point is not that the religious domain is not distinguished from the secular, but rather that the secular is regarded as being encompassed by the religious, even when the former is apparently inimical to the latter.

The relationship is hierarchical. In other words, religion in the Indian cultural setting traditionally permeates virtually all aspects of life, not through mechanical diffusion but in an integrated, holistic perspective.

A second clarification concerns the conception of divinity.

The monotheism characteristic of the Abrahamic religions (much more uncompromisingly in Judaism and Islam than in Christianity) is either absent in the Indie religions (as in the case of Buddhism and Jainism), or we find in its place other conceptions, notably an abstract notion of ‘Essence’ or ‘Being’ as the source of all that truly exists (the Brahman of Vedantic Hinduism), or polytheism (as in Puranic Hinduism), or the exuberant ‘spiritism’ of folk Hinduism.

The non-theism of Buddhism and Jainism, which was a major scandal in the eyes of the Vedic metaphysicians two thousand years ago, persuaded a modern European scholar of comparative religion, Emile Durkheim (1858-1917), himself born into the Jewish faith, to abandon belief in the divinity as an essential element in the constitution (or recognition) of religion anywhere.

Instead he focused on the conception of ‘sacred things’, that is, ‘things set apart or forbidden’ that contribute significantly to the constitution of society as a ‘moral community’. The notion of sacredness is itself problematic in several respects however, but we will not go into this issue here.

Finally, it may be noted here by way of clarification, that the notion and word most widely used in India as a synonym for religion, namely, the Sanskrit dharma (from the root dhr) or its Pali equivalent dharma, denotes the ideas of maintenance, sustenance or upholding, steadfastness and moral virtue, rather than the dependent bonding of the human being with supernatural powers conveyed by the term religion, which is of Latin derivation (religion, obligation, bond).

While a conception of self-sustaining cosmomoral order is found in all Indie religions—subtle differences of nuance notwithstanding—Islam literally stands for submission to the Will of God, conveyed through his Word as recorded in the Quran, which is to be read repeatedly as an essential act of piety. Incidentally, religion also denotes reverence.

Keeping the foregoing observations in mind.Let us begin with the demographic picture (on the basis of the 1991 census figures).

The Hindus (including most of the Scheduled Castes, who account for 16.48 per cent of the total population) number 688 million, constituting 82 per cent of the total population of about 839 million. (The population in India has crossed 1 billion, but the religion-wise proportions are believed to be the same as in 1991.)

Next to the Hindus are the 102 million Muslims (12 per cent), and they are followed by the Christians (20 million, 2.32 per cent) and the Sikhs (16 million, 1.99 per cent). Buddhists (0.77 per cent), Jains (0.41 per cent) and others account for the remaining nearly 2 per cent of the population.

Among the ‘others’ mention may be made of those tribal peoples who adhere to their own traditional faiths—which used to be grouped together arbitrarily as animism under colonial rule—and of the Zoroastrians and the Jews. The total population of the Scheduled Tribes is about 68 million, or 8 per cent of the total population.

Although their religion-wise distribution is not available, it is generally known that most of them either follow Hinduism of the folk type or are Christians; only a minority adhere to their ancestral faiths. As for the Zoroastrians and the Jews, they are counted in mere thousands; both are threatened by declining birth rates and assimilation among other religious communities through intermarriage.

State-wise distribution of the religious communities provides a picture of regional dispersal and variation. The Hindus, spread over virtually the entire country, outnumber all the others in the states of Himachal Pradesh (96 per cent), Orissa (95 per cent), Madhya Pradesh (93 per cent), Andhra Pradesh (89 per cent), Gujarat (89 per cent), Haryana (89 per cent), Rajasthan (89 per cent), Tamil Nadu (89 per cent), Pondicherry (86 per cent), Tripura (86 per cent), Karnataka (85 per cent), Delhi (84 per cent), Bihar (82 per cent), Uttar Pradesh (82 per cent), Maharashtra (81 per cent). West Bengal (75 per cent), Sikkim (68 per cent), Assam (67 per cent), Goa, Daman & Diu (65 per cent), Manipur (58 percentage.), and Kerala (57 per cent).

Similarly, Hindus outnumber all the others in the union territories of Dadra & Nagar Haveli (95 per cent) Chandigarh (76 per cent), and the Andaman & Nicobar Islands (68 per cent). They are the principal minority community in the states of Arunachal Pradesh (37 per cent), Punjab (34 per cent), Meghalaya (15 per cent), Nagaland (10 per cent), and Mizoram (5 per cent), and in the Union Territory of Lakshadweep (5 per cent).

The only other religious community with a perceptible countrywide distribution are the Muslims. They are the majority community in the state of Jammu & Kashmir (64 per cent according to 1981 census) in the extreme north and in the Union Territory of Lakshadweep (94 per cent) in the south.

They are the principal minority in the states of Assam (28 per cent) in the north-east. West Bengal (23 per cent) and Bihar (15 per cent) in the east, Uttar Pradesh (17 per cent), Delhi (9 per cent), Rajasthan (8 per cent), and Haryana (5 per cent) in the north, Maharashtra (10 per cent) and Gujarat (9 per cent) in the west, and Kerala (23 per cent), Karnataka (12 per cent), and Andhra Pradesh (9 per cent) in the south.

Christians are the majority community in three north-eastern states, namely, Nagaland (88 per cent), Mizoram (86 per cent) and Meghalaya (65 per cent). They are the principal minority in the states of Manipur (34 per cent), also in the north-east, and Goa, Daman &C Diu (30 per cent) in the west, and in the Union Territory of the Andaman & Nicobar Islands (24 per cent) in the south.

Sikhs account for 63 per cent of the population in Punjab and are the principal minority in the adjacent state of Haryana (6 per cent) and the Union Territory of Chandigarh (20 per cent).

The state of Arunachal Pradesh in the north-east presents an interesting variation of the general pattern as the followers of traditional (tribal) religions at 36 per cent are about as numerous as Hindus (37 per cent) while Buddhists who account for 13 per cent; Christians (10 per cent) are in the fourth position.

The only other places in the country where the Buddhists are a presence in demographic terms are the district of Ladakh (in Jammu & Kashmir), where they account for four-fifths of the population, and the states of Sikkim and Mizoram where their share in the population is 27 per cent and 8 per cent respectively.

Jains are concentrated in Rajasthan, Delhi, and the west coast states. Zoroastrians, more generally known as Parsees, four-fifths of whose estimated world population of 120,000 lives in India, are concentrated in the urban areas of Gujarat and Maharashtra.

Far fewer than the Parsees are the Jews, who are, however, divided into three distinct groups, namely, the Baghdadi Jews of Calcutta, the Cochin Jews, and the Bene Israeli of Bombay Only the last named group may be called a community; the other two are really clusters of families.

Before turning to the next topic, we may briefly observe here that, among the countries of South Asia, Sri Lanka shares with India the contemporary plurality of religions more than the Other countries do. Although predominantly Buddhist, it harbours sizeable religious minorities, including Hindus, Christians and Muslims.

Nepal is more predominantly Hindu, but Buddhists and Muslims also are present, the latter in very small numbers. Bangladesh is predominantly Muslim (85 per cent), with Hindus and Buddhists as notable religious minorities. Pakistan and the Maldives are almost exclusively Muslim and Bhutan is primarily Buddhist.

Essay # 2. Vedism and Early Hinduism:

The beginnings of religious diversity in India go back to the country’s proto-historic past. There is ample material evidence of the existence of elaborate religious activity in the urban centres associated with the Indus Valley or Harappan civilization five thousand years ago, spread over vast areas in north-western, northern, and western parts of the Indo-Pakistan subcontinent.

It is reasonable to infer that religious beliefs and rituals of a somewhat different kind must have been present in the rural hinterlands.

The city cultures, it is generally believed, were overridden by nomadic Aryan-speaking peoples of central Asian origin, around 1500 bc. They brought in their own religious beliefs and practices, and these focused on the creative and destructive powers of nature.

According to this generally accepted view, the Aryans owed little in their religious life to the presumably Dravidian-speaking people they drove out of their homelands.

Scholars who do not accept the general view, but consider the Harappan culture as an unfolding rather than a major break whether wholly internal or aided by a limited migration, maintain that the old and the new cultures coexisted, and that the latter absorbed elements, both religious and linguistic, from the former.

Vedic religion and Sanskrit took several centuries to acquire the forms in which they have been handed down to us.

The resultant religion was characterized by internal diversities reflecting social, theological and scholastic divisions. Scholars have written about a state religion, centred in temples, comprising ritual bathing, worship of gods and goddesses, and perhaps animal sacrifice. Apart from the public (state) and private (domestic) rituals, differences reflecting clan-based cleavages also seem to have existed.

The major source of our knowledge about the religious life of the Aryans, besides the numerous archaeological sites, is the body of sacred literature called the Veda (‘knowledge’, ‘wisdom’), which is believed to be ever-existent (sanatana) and therefore lacking any human author (apaurusheya), and stretches over almost a thousand years.

The earliest of the Vedic texts is the Rig, which has been dated no later than 1200 bc (but is perhaps much older). Its ten books of hymns in praise of divinities presumably represent ten family traditions among the Brahmans (rituals specialists) and took several centuries to compose.

The Sama and Yajur Vedas extend the scope of the Rig into music and ritual respectively Finally, the Atharva Veda is believed to represent the absorption of folk religions into the Vedic corpus, resulting in significant changes in it.

These religions were encountered by the Aryans as they moved east into the Gangetic valley and adopted more settled ways. Indeed, the valley came to be called the home of the Aryas, Aryavrata. Thus, divinities become devalued and magical spells and rites become ascendant.

Further, the Vedas became the basis for an immense textual efflorescence, comprising manuals of ritual performances (Brahmanas, Aranyakas), and discursive speculative treatises (Upanishads, also called Vedanta, the culmination of the Veda), all of which bring us close to 300 bc. Schools of Vedic learning and ritual, called ‘branches’ (shakha), flourished, producing a cultural ambience of, at times, bewildering plurality within the Vedic framework.

But that is not all; Vedism gradually made way for the emergence of what is generally called Hinduism on a sub-continental scale, which brought more texts on more varied subjects into existence, notably the Grihya Sutras, which are guides to the performance of domestic rituals, and the Dharma Sutras, which have social ethics and law as their subject matter.

Besides, there are the Shrauta Sutras which are technical treatises on the correct procedures for the performance of Vedic rituals of public significance.

The Grihya Sutras have a regional character: a text followed in one part of the country may be unknown in another. The Vedic corpus, considered revealed, is said to be based on shruti and constitutes the first source of dharma understood as righteous conduct. With the Sutras we come to the second source, namely, smriti (that which is remembered), and these texts are credited to human authors.

Later still than the Sutras are the Dharma Shastras which continue with the same themes but in much greater detail. The best known of these texts today is the Manav Dharma Shastra, attributed to a seer called Manu, and therefore also known as the Manu Smriti.

It is believed to have been composed between 200 b.c and ad 300, which rules out single authorship. What stands out in this and other similar texts is the institutional framework for the conduct of both domestic life and public affairs.

In domestic life the key principles of varna (social class) and ashrama (stage of life) are adumbrated for the definition of appropriate rituals and worldly affairs. While universal norms (sarva sadharna dharma) are not wholly eliminated, but retained as the foundation of all righteous conduct, it is the varna- and ashrama-specific rules that emerge as preponderant.

It is thus that Hinduism has been defined as varna-ashrama-dharma. Not only the householder, but the kings too, are bound by their respective duties defined in terms of varna and ashrama (see Lingat 1973).

As for those who repudiated such divisions, notably the renouncers (sannyasis), even they have been grouped into sects (sampradayas) since at least the time of the composition of the Mahabharata (400 bc-ad 400).

It is obvious that variant regional, varna (including occupation), and ashrama identities defined the appropriateness of behaviour in particular situations. In view of this Hinduism could only have been a family of faiths and the behaviours that went with them, and the Hindu society, a confederation of communities.

The speculative or philosophical concerns of the Brahmanical tradition, were formulated as different systems of orthodox thought (jnan) and termed ‘visions’ (darshana) of life based on the Vedas. Each of these visions, six in number, has its own authoritative texts.

The thought or reflection that follows from each position is not exclusive in the manner of the various guides to ritual performance and social behaviour. The ‘root’ text of each darshana is concerned with extra-referential (paramarthika) knowledge, and transactive (vyavaharika) knowledge is built upon or grafted into it. Together they constitute what can only be called a complex totality

The six schools are:

(i) Samkhya (‘enumeration’) which asserts the ontological duality of matter (prakrti) and the ‘self (purusha)-,

(ii) Yoga (‘joining’, ‘mixing’) which constitutes a pair with Samkhya in terms of its metaphysics;

(iii) Mimamsa (Vedic exegesis) which takes a pluralist view of reality;

(iv) Vedanta (‘culmination of Veda’), grouped with Mimamsa, which denies the reality of the many;

(v) Nyaya (logic) and

(vi) Vaisesika (dialectics), considered a pair, which deal with logical, ontological, and dialectical issues within an empiricist, pluralist (more precisely atomist) framework.

The primacy which the monism of Vedanta has enjoyed in contemporary literature on India does little justice to the internal diversities of Brahmanical thought even when dealing with the same issues, or with its method of dealing with them to preclude mutual incomprehensibility.

The foregoing pluralities of scripture, metaphysics, and social organization that are the background of Hinduism and indeed partly constitute it, are characteristic of Brahmanical orthodoxy. This orthodoxy has not remained unchallenged. Indeed, the challenges came from within long before any major external threat materialized.

The followers of public Vedic ritual, called the Shrautas (shruti, ‘revelation’), first yielded space to those who gave precedence to domestic rituals, whether the Smartas (followers of the Smritis or Dharma Shastras) or the Pauranikas (those who organize their religious life on the basis of the Puranas, which are legendary accounts of the doings of gods, goddesses and other supernatural beings as well as human beings like kings and ascetics).

The latter two categories of Hinduism are not, however, non-Vedic.

It is the Tantras, texts that are claimed by their followers the Tantrikas to be revealed, that are non-Vedic. Tantric rituals reveal considerable variety, but are generally characterized by secret rituals performed often at special sites such as cremation grounds, and frequently at night.

Thus, Tantric rituals that invoke the power of the Supreme Goddess are performed at night in the famous temple of Puri (Orissa), where worship of the Pauranika god Jagannatha (an incarnation of Vishnu, the patron deity of Vaishnavas) and his divine consort is performed publicly during the day. The celebrated yearly ‘car festival’ (ratha yatra) is dedicated to him.

While the worship of Vishnu is combined in the Smartha-Pauranika traditions with that of Devi (the goddess) and Shiva, in some parts of the country, particularly the south, mutually exclusive and often hostile sects have emerged centred on the cults of the two gods.

From as early as the fifth century, the Vaishnavas were divided into the sects of Pancharatras and Vaikhanasas. Similarly, the Pashupata, Kapalika, and Kalamukha sects were prominent among the Shaivas.

Starting in the seventh century, the Vaishnavas and the Shaivas began to generate distinctive liturgical texts called the samhitas and agamas respectively. Each sect claimed the supremacy of its own deity on the latter’s own authority

In the development of these theistic traditions, from around the closing centuries of the last millennium bc, a number of elements from various sources, including the high Sanskritic and folk religious traditions, fused.

Personal devotion to one’s chosen deity (bhakti), whether Vishnu in his various incarnations including most notably those of Rama and Krishna-Vasudeva, or Shiva, is a striking characteristic of these cults, and originated in the south and then spread to the north.

This devotionalism found expression in emotionally charged poetry particularly among the Vaishnavas from the sixth century onward, and later also among the Shaivites, though the latter’s devotion tended to be more austere.

Expectedly, the relationship of the devotee to the deity, whether expressed in human (anthropomorphic) terms or through abstract formulations, constitutes the core of the specu­lative thought of these religious traditions, ranging from absolute monism (advaita), associated with the name Sankara, to qualified non-dualism (vishishtadvaita) of Ramanuja and dualism (dvaita) elucidated by Madhva in the thirteenth century.

The teach­ings of the latter two saints combine the metaphysics of the Upanishads with the theism of Vaishnava and Shaiva cults.

Associated with both of these is a third tradition, namely, the worship of the great goddess. Devi, which emerged virtually independently as the Shakta (from shakti, ‘power’) tradition. Here also the roots go far back in time, perhaps to the Harappan culture, and later developments entail the amalgamation of Puranic, Tantric and folk goddesses and ideas.

As Lakshmi, the divine consort of Vishnu, the great goddess is presented as a benign bearer of auspiciousness; as Uma-Parvati, she is the divine consort of Shiva, mother of the universe; and as Durga or Kali, the highest manifestation of divine power, she is the fearsome destroyer of evil and greater than all the male gods through the pooling of whose powers she comes into being.

At the village level she appears as the goddess who brings and removes illness and misfortune, such as Shitala, the goddess whose visitations were held responsible for small-pox.

The Hindu religious tradition, we have seen, is characterized by strong pluralistic tendencies emanating from various sources and inspirations. It has tended to absorb non-Hindu religious ideas and practices and has dealt with internal dissent through accommodation carried to the furthest extremes.

Occasionally, this strategy has failed and resulted in breakaway sects which in the course of time grew into independent religions such as Buddhism and Jainism, adding a new dimension to the religious plurality of India.

Essay # 3. Buddhism :

The most widely spread religion in Asia today, namely. Buddhism, has adherents in the West also, but it is a minority religion in India, the country of its origin. Named after the title buddha (‘the enlightened one’) of its founder, Gautama, Buddhism began as a revolt against the Vedic preoccupation with the supernatural, rejecting the beliefs as well as the rituals that went with them.

The rejection entailed repudiation of the authority of the Brahmans. Gautama himself belonged to the Kshatriya (warrior) caste and indeed, he was the heir to a kingdom in the Bihar-Nepal area. Following his own awakening to knowledge and wisdom— his enlightenment—the Buddha attracted disciples whom he taught ‘the four noble truths’ which constitute the fundamentals of all schools of Buddhism (see Harvey 1990).

The first truth of life, the Buddha said, is sorrow (suffering); the second, that the source of sorrow is ignorance and desire; the third, that sorrow can be ended if desire is overcome; and the fourth, that the way to the ‘blowing out’ (nibanna) of both desire and sorrow lies through ‘the noble eightfold path’.

This path, which is the path of righteousness (dharma, dhamma) consists of the right views, resolve, speech, conduct, livelihood, effort, mindfulness, and concentration.

The Buddha adopted a stance of silence on the issue of the existence of the divinity but denied the Vedic gods any significance in human affairs, and concentrated on human agency He did, however, retain the root paradigm of karma understood as the doctrine of agency and retribution.

It is doubtful that the Buddha thought of himself as anything more than a reformer within the tradition and his teachings as ‘a new expansion, not against, but within Brahmanism’. Nevertheless, his teachings were said to be negatory (nastika), repudiating Vedic revelation and the notion of divinity by the establishment and attacked as unforgivably heterodox.

The Buddha originated the idea of the monastic community of monks and nuns (sangha), subject to a rigorous regime (vinaya), as the ideal arrangement for the pursuit of true knowledge. An easier way of life was envisaged for the lay community, with the sangha as their exemplar and refuge.

Such was his confidence in this institution that the Buddha did not name a successor nor codify his teachings. He advised resolution of doubts on matters of common concern through discussion and consensus; in the event of failure to reach a consensus the majority view was to be respected. It was thus that the seeds of a plurality of belief and practice among the Buddhists were sown by Gautama himself.

The first great split is believed to have occurred a century after the Buddha’s passing at a council of sanghas convened at Vaishali (Bihar) to settle contentious issues concerning monastic discipline and the character of the Buddha’s personality.

The opposing factions, namely, the orthodox Sthaviras (Elders) and the Mahasanghikas (upholders of the ‘Great Community’), reached a temporary truce, but split formally four decades later. While the former held the Buddha to have been an enlightened human preceptor, the latter claimed for him the status of a transcendent being.

The foregoing and other issues continued to cause disagreements. In the process as many as eighteen viewpoints were formalized and collectively referred to as the Hinayana, or the little (or lesser) vehicles (or approaches).

One of them, the school of Sthaviras emerged as Theravada (the Way of the Elders) in the second century bc in Sri Lanka, where it is now the state religion. It is the only Hinayana school to have escaped extinction. As for the Mahasanghikas, they were the progenitors of the adherents of Mahayana (great vehicle or approach) Buddhism that is today a major religion in East Asia (China, Japan) and elsewhere.

Mention may also be made of a later development (seventh century) in north India where a convergence of Buddhism and Tantrism occurred, resulting in what came to be called the Vajrayana (thunderbolt vehicle).

This in turn spread north into Ladakh (Jammu and Kashmir) and the kingdom of Bhutan (three-fourths of the people there are Buddhists) and Tibet where it absorbed further extraneous elements from Shamanism. In the north-eastern states of Tripura, Mizoram, and Arunachal Pradesh in India there are close to 200,000 Buddhists of the Theravada school.

The presence of the Dalai Lama and settlements of refugees in India since their exile from Tibet in 1959, has enhanced general awareness about Buddhism in its different expressions of doctrine and practice in India.

The conversion of large numbers of low-caste Hindus, who call themselves Dalits (the Oppressed) and are generally referred to as Neo-Buddhists, under the charismatic leadership of B.R. Ambedkar (1891-1956), has contributed significantly to the same process. It has, however, explicitly politicized Buddhist identity

Essay # 4. Jainism :

Jainism too arose around the same time as Buddhism in the same area (Bihar), for broadly the same reasons, and in a similar manner. But there are significant differences between the Buddhist and Jain visions of life. The terms Jainism and Jain [Jaina, follower of the religion) are derived from/ma, ‘the conqueror’ (of one’s physical self and thus of karmic action).

This title was bestowed on prince Vardhamana (599-527 bc)—also called the Mahavira, ‘the great hero’—to whom the basic teachings of the faith in their final form are attributed. Actually, he is regarded as the last of a line of teachers called tirthankara (‘ford maker’), who recovered time and again the perennial ‘three jewels’ of right faith, right knowledge, and right action.

They also founded the Jain community comprising ascetics (monks and nuns) and the laity (householders). It is their community that is considered by the Jains as a spiritual ford (tirtha) to help all seekers wash off karma and terminate the cycle of birth-death-rebirth.

Sentiments such as desire, anger, greed, and attachment are the human failings that generate karma (fruit-bearing action). Karma is visualized as material: it contaminates the inner self and is the cause of suffering in one’s own life and of injury to other living beings.

The Jain ideal therefore is to be forever engaged in self-purification (through the suppression of all bodily appetites) and to assiduously refrain from injury to others (this is the ideal of ahimsa, ‘non-injury’).

Renunciation is highly valued and the final worldly goal for the ascetic is to end one’s life through abstinence from food and drink. For laymen, the householder’s life, guarded by numerous rules and regulations, is the ideal.

Paradoxical as it may seem, the Jains in actual practice are also very successful merchants, visible in urban centres. Although there are fewer Jains than Buddhists in India, it is they rather than the latter who are the more visible religious community.

They share many religious practices including fasts and festivals with the upper-caste Hindus, and are often regarded by the latter as a sect of Hindu society, rather than a separate religious community. Their original atheism and repudiation of Vedic revelation had of course earned them, alongside of the Buddhists, the opprobrium of being heterodox in the judgement of the Brahmans.

Among the Jains themselves heresies and sectarian schisms began to make their appearance even while the Mahavira was alive. According to the mainstream Jain tradition, eight such deviations (nihnava, ‘concealment’ of the true teaching) occurred over a period of six centuries.

The last of these resulted in the emergence of a heretical sect. Accounts of this schism are shrouded in rival legends of the so-called mainstream and the breakaway groups, the Shvetambaras (clad in white cloth) and the Digambaras (‘clothed by the sky’, naked).

The mode of clothing refers to the practices of the ascetics rather than the lay householders, but Digambara nuns do wear clothes; only men remain naked. The Shvetambaras use a bowl to receive food given to them, which they also eat from.

Food is important because even those monks who have attained full omniscience (kevalin) must eat to survive. The Digambaras do not use a bowl but their cupped hands to receive alms, and it is from the hands so held together that they eat.

They insist on absolute non-possession: no clothes and no alms bowls. In their judgement true omniscience means, among other things, that one does not need to eat food anymore. Women are deemed unequal to the demands of total conquest of the passions leading to omniscience and deliverance from the fruits of karma.

The two sects are also separated by the scriptures that each acknowledges. On the fundamentals of Jain faith and knowledge, however, there is no serious difference. Sectarian differences seem to have taken very long to acquire their present rigidity and regional distribution—Shvetambaras in the north and the west and Digambaras in the south—seems to have contributed to it.

The differences notwithstanding, the high value that all Jams place upon non-violence has prevented the two sects from adopting aggressive measures to settle scores. Currently, sectarian conflict among the Jains seems to focus on the issues of ownership of and access to places of worship rather than on matters of doctrine and practice. Regrettably the same cannot be said about other communities.

Essay # 5. Sikhism :

The beginnings of Sikhism (Sikh, disciple) early in the sixteenth century followed a major development in the history of religions in India over the previous 800 years, namely, the arrival and growth of Islam. This development is described in the next section, but is mentioned here because it contributed significantly to the making of the new faith.

Like Vardhamana and Gautama before him, Nanak Dev (1469-1539), the founder of Sikhism, was an upper-caste Hindu (of the Khatri caste of traders, originally Kshatriyas). From his experience and reflections he developed an acute dissatisfaction with the ritualism, idol worship, magic, and miracles of the faith into which he was born, and with the stranglehold of the Brahmans over it.

Nanak also took a positive view of worldly existence, and of the householder’s life and productive labour. He rejected caste distinctions and the traditional ideal of renunciation. Above all he extolled the virtue of a life of religious obedience and devotion focused on an abstract conception of the divinity, and affirming the same through ‘name remembrance’ (nam simrarn), that is, recitation and singing of hymns.

Declaring that there were no true Hindus or Muslims to be found anywhere, he called for a third path comprising moral duty (dharma), human effort (karma), spiritual knowledge, truth, and divine benevolence.

In all this Nanak was carrying forward the medieval Sant tradition of syncretic religious devotionalism, which had given rise to many ‘paths’ (panth) or sects. The disciples who gathered around him and carried forward his teachings after his death came to be called the Nanak Panthis or, later, Sikhs.

Some of his followers did not follow all of his core teachings and, like his son who became a renouncer, founded other sects. Other changes and dilutions of dogma and practice, particularly the latter, occurred over the next two centuries, blurring the distinction between Sikhism and caste Hinduism, and rendering the Sikh identity rather ‘misty’.

Simultaneously, changing historical circumstances—which brought the Jats into the Sikh fold in large numbers, and also created suspicions in the minds of the Muslim rulers about the loyalty of the Sikhs—radically altered the pacifist character of the Sikh community.

The tenth guru of the Sikhs, Gobind Rai (1666-1708), intervened effectively on all fronts— theological, practical, social and political—and created a sharpened sense of identity among the Sikhs by instituting (in 1699) a ritual of initiation (called pahul), and laying down norms of conduct including, most visibly, the injunction to retain bodily hair unshorn.

He also asked all Sikh men to uniformly substitute Singh (‘lion’, the caste name of Rajputs) for their various last names; the women were to call themselves ‘Kaur’ (‘lioness’).

The institution of these requirements also created unintended divisions among the Sikhs between:

(i) Those who went through pahul and came to be called Amritdhari (‘bearers of nectar’, the baptismal water);

(ii) Those who kept their hair and beard and were called Keshdhari (bearers of hair); and

(iii) Those who affirmed Sikh identity but did not immediately follow the new injunctions, called the Sahajdhari (bearers of the spontaneous, inner light). The first category also called themselves the Khalsa, or the ‘pure’ and ‘the chosen of God’, and were to play a hegemonistic role in the second half of the nineteenth century in defining Sikh identity

A hundred years after Guru Gobind established the Khalsa, a Jat Sikh chieftain, Ranjit Singh (1780-1839) established the Kingdom of Lahore, which did not, however, last long after his death. In the aftermath of the defeat of the Sikhs at the hands of the British in 1846, several reformist movements emerged among the Sikhs.

Of these, the most notable were the Nirankari and Namdhari (or Kuka) movements. Both were sectarian in character and acknowl­edged gurus subsequent to Gobind Singh, who had proclaimed closure of the line of personal gurus. The beliefs of these sects were therefore considered violative of the true Khalsa faith by orthodox Sikhs.

The Nirankaris called for a return to the teachings of Guru Nanak who had characterized the divinity as ‘formless’ (nirankar). The Namdharis focused their attention on regenerating the Khalsa as instituted by Guru Gobind. A modernist version of the same effort (namely, Khalsa rejuvenation) was the agenda of the so-called Singh Sabhas which also had a considerable agenda of secular goals.

Currently, the Namdharis are not very much in the news, but conflicts between the Nirankaris and the orthodox Akalis have resulted in violence and loss of life. The fundamentalist preacher Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, who later came into conflict with the government on the issue of Sikh grievances, originally appeared in public (in 1978) as a fierce opponent of the Nirankaris.

From the foregoing account of developments in the long history of Indie religions, it is clear that pluralistic tendencies characterize them all, particularly Hinduism, which lacks a founder or a set of fundamentals of belief and practice or a ‘church’.

And yet they share a concern with unity in diversity, or the Absolute transcending its myriad expressions. The notions of dharma and karma are key ideas in the metaphysical foundations of each.

Essay # 6. Christianity :

Of the religions that originated outside India but found a home here, Christianity is the oldest. If tradition is to be believed, it was brought to Kerala by the Apostle St Thomas under the auspices of the Nestorian Church.

Written records testify to the presence of Christians in India from the sixth century onwards. The Thomas Christians are also known as Syrian Christians for, originally, their liturgy was in Syriac and they acknowledged the jurisdiction of the Syrian Patriarch of the East in Damascus (Syria).

Conversions seem to have been made locally among upper-caste Hindus only. The community has remained confined to Kerala. It subscribes to the various fundamentals of Christian faith—such as Immaculate Conception, the divinity of Jesus, and the status of the Bible as revealed scripture—and practice (for example, celebration of the Eucharist).

In the middle of the sixteenth century Jesuit missionaries made Goa their base after it became a part of the Portuguese colonial empire, and spread out to other parts of south India and Sri Lanka and even ventured north.

Inevitably, they encountered the Thomas Christians who were asked to sever ties with the Nestorian Church and come under the jurisdiction of Rome. This led to a split among them: while about one-half of the community complied, the rest resisted, and reaffirmed their loyalty to the Syrian Patriarch of Antioch.

A long-lasting issue causing dissension among the Thomas Christians as well as the Jesuits was whether missionary activity was to be confined among the upper castes, and whether caste was to be deemed a religious institution and abolished, or only a secular social arrangement and therefore tolerated.

The arrival of the British in India in the mid-eighteenth century had at first no impact on the spread of Christianity as the East India Company in deference to the wishes of the home government did not allow missionary activity. It was only in the early nineteenth century that the British Parliament removed the restriction and chaplains of the Company began to make converts.

The Anglican diocese of Calcutta was founded in 1814. To begin with, Anglican chaplains administered to the spiritual needs of the British in India, but an Indian Church had also come into existence by the end of the nineteenth century.

A close association of the Church with the State (the colonial dispensation) was a liability and came to be loosened by the 1930s (see Gibbs 1972). Meanwhile, Anglicans, Protestants, and Non-conformist societies had sent out missions, producing a plurality of churches and an interflow between congregations.

Thus, some Thomas Christians became Protestants and established the Mar Thomas (Syriac for St Thomas) Church. The majority, however, remained loyal to the Syrian Patriarch, nominally acknowledging his spiritual authority, but otherwise independent. They are known as the members of the Jacobite or Orthodox Church.

In 1947, the year of India’s independence, the Anglican, Methodist and other Protestant churches came together to establish the Church of South India. Similar efforts in the north resulted in the establishment of a united Protestant Church in 1970.

The predominance of Roman Catholics (nearly 60 per cent) is a noteworthy feature of the Christian community in India. Also noteworthy has been the search for Indian idioms of expression.

Christians of all denominations have retained many of their pre-conversion beliefs, attitudes, and ceremonies, incorporating them into Christianity. Evangelicalism has also remained alive, however, and is indeed a cherished goal. The fundamental right to propagate one’s religion, and not merely to profess and practice it, was written into the Indian Constitution to accommodate Christian sentiment on the subject.

Essay # 7. Islam :

The third and the youngest member of the family of Abrahamic religions, Islam (‘submission to the will of God’) is dated back to ad 622 when its promulgator, the Prophet Muhammad (ad 571-632) migrated from his native city of Makkah (in Arabia), where he did not receive the support he desired, to Madinah.

In the latter city he established the first ever Islamic state. He accommodated resident Jews and Christians in it, since they too were judged to be in possession of books of divinely revealed knowledge and, therefore, entitled to protection.

The fundamentals of religious faith and practice among Muslims (‘the submitters’) are explicit and universally binding. They must affirm the oneness of God and the status of the Quran (‘the text to be read and recited’) as the word of God.

Besides, they must believe in God’s angels and messengers (of whom Muhammad was the most perfect and therefore the last); and in the Last Day, when God will judge the actions of one and all, and despatch the pious to heaven and the sinners to hell.

Moreover, every true Muslim must recite the creed (kalimah, ‘the word’), which affirms the oneness of God and the finality of Muhammad’s prophethood; say daily prayers (namaz) at the appointed times; observe the yearly month of fasting by day (rozah) to burn away sins; give alms (zakat); and, if circumstances allow it, go in pilgrimage to Makkah (hajj) so as to be there on Idu’l-Azha.

(This day, it is generally believed, commemorates the willingness of Ibrahim [Abraham] to sacrifice his son Ismail [Ishmael] on God’s command.) It is noteworthy that Indian Muslims do not include the waging of war (jihad) for the extermination of unbelief and the propagation of Islam among the obligations of a Muslim, as is done in many Muslim countries.

Islam is, however, more than the foregoing and similar other fundamentals. Everywhere it incorporates much that is local and pre-Islamic, whether this be in the Arab heartlands or in distant places such as India.

Students of Islam have commented on this internal tension owing to its character as a world religion that admits of no variation (for instance, the daily prayers are everywhere said in Arabic) and with its regional, country or national characteristics, for example, the worship of saints and relics which is common in India.

It is widely believed among South Asian Muslims that the Prophet Muhammad had himself wanted to bring the people of India into the universal Islamic community (umma).

Since Arab traders already had contact with the western seaboard of India from pre-Islamic days (the Mapillas of Kerala were born of mixed marriages of Arab men and Malayali women), they must have been the first carriers of the new faith to the subcontinent.

Islam arrived here as a political force in ad 712, when Sind was conquered on behalf of the Umayyad caliphate and incorporated in it. With the new rulers came their advisers on matters concerning Muslim holy law, the shariah.

The numbers of the immigrants were naturally not large, and they were strangers who knew neither the culture, languages and religions (Buddhism and Hinduism both were present) of Sind, nor the prevailing system of governance.

In the circumstances, native support was necessary, but this in turn entailed a conciliatory attitude towards Indians, which included the assurance that, by and large, there would be few restrictions on non-Islamic religions. In terms of strict Islamic orthodoxy, however, these religions could only be called ignorance (jahalat, incorrect belief).

The long-term consequence of this initial compromise made for reasons of the State was twofold: first, it laid the foundations of multi-religious polities in which Islam and the Indie religions would coexist, much to the chagrin of the guardians of orthodoxy; second, it sowed the seeds of an Indian Islam, accommodating Indian cultural traits and forms of social organization (notably caste).

From the time of major incursions of political Islam into India, beginning with the invasions of Mahmud, king of Ghazni, in the early years of the eleventh century, two kinds of religious specialists became prominent. These were the ulama (doctors of shariah or the holy law) and the Sufis, (mystics in search of direct religious experience).

The ulama urged the kings to uphold shariah and be vigilant on behalf of their own religion rather than being tolerant of other misguided faiths.

One such outstanding medieval scholar, Zia ud-din Barani , was of the opinion that the Muslim kings could not be the refuge of Islam unless they completely destroyed unbelief, polytheism, and idolatory. If the kings cannot actually exterminate the unbelievers (because they are so many), they surely should deny them authority and honour, he advised.

SSuch extremist opinions, however, never became general among the ulama or ascendant in the ruling circles. The ulama actually split into two categories: while some of them confined themselves to their specialized duties and kept aloof from statecraft, others opted for a close relationship with the kings.

The latter supported the actions of the rulers even when these were grounded in statecraft rather than true faith as interpreted by the ulama.

Islam spread throughout the length and breadth of India, less by the episodic coercion and violence of the kings, and more by the generally peaceful efforts of the ulama and the Sufis. In areas of mass conversion, notably East Bengal (or what is today Bangladesh) and the Kashmir valley, other factors also contributed (directly or indirectly) to the phenomenon.

It is noteworthy, however, that at the time of partition in 1947, after 800 years of Muslim rule, no more than a quarter of all the people of India (400 million) were Muslims. In the Gangetic valley, where Muslims provided enormous support to the demand for Pakistan, fewer than two out of every ten Indians professed Islam.

When Islam reached India, it was already marked by divisions of various kinds. According to Muslim tradition, Muhammad himself had prophesized that there would be more sects (firqah) in Islam than among the children of Israel, but that they would all be sent to hell by God. Only those who followed his words and deeds and of his closest companions would be the ones to be saved (najiyah).

They came to be called the Sunni (from sunnah, customary way of life) or traditionalists, and account for the great majority of Indian Muslims. Their opponents are the Shiahs (‘followers’), who came into being following Muhammad’s death as the partisans of Ali, the Prophet’s cousin and son-in-law, whom they considered the legitimate successor (khalifah) and leader (imam).

It was not Ali, however, bur Muhammad’s father-in- law, Abu Bakr, who was chosen, resulting in the Sunni-Shiah split which even today leads to violence in both India and Pakistan.

Besides the Shiahs it is the Sufis who are excoriated by the traditionalists. A connection has been sought to be established between the two heterodoxies by claiming Ali as one of the founders of Sufism (tasawwuf).

According to another view, the Arabian philosophy derived from the teaching of al-Ghazzli was absorbed into Islam in the form of a mystical theology, but this locates Sufism late in the fifth century of Islam.

Some scholars including the renowned early medieval historian al-Biruni (ad 973-1048), found similarities between some key ideas of Sufism and the Brahmanical philosophy of Yoga or the magical Tantra.

Indeed, it has been suggested that Abu Yazid Tayfur of Iran, a key figure in the development of Sufism, may have learned the principles of Brahmanical and Buddhist mysticism from Abu Ali of Sind who himself may have been a convert to Islam.

Be that as it may, two general observations can be made. First, a considerable number of Indie elements are recognizable in Sufism in India, but only some of these are pure borrowals, the others being adaptations of classical Islamic Sufi ideas in the Indian cultural environment.

Second, Sunni orthodoxy has always frowned upon both Shiahs and Sufis. Four major worldwide Sufi orders—namely, Chishti, Naqshbandi, Qadiri, and Suhrawardi—are present in India. Besides, there are numerous local orders of Faqirs and Darveshs- while some of them are seriously devout; the devotion to higher spiritual goals among others who are often given to excesses of various kinds including drug abuse, is highly suspect.

Among the former, mention may be made of the Rishi order of the Kashmir valley.

Islam was brought to Kashmir, it is generally believed, by the Kubrawi Sufi Sayyid Ali Hamadani late in the fourteenth century, but his efforts seem to have been confined to a small group of neo-converts in the city of Srinagar including the sultan. It was Shaikh Nuruddin (ad 1379-1442), the founder of the Rishi order, who carried the new faith to the masses.

His success owed much to not only his amiable disposition and peaceful methods of preaching, but also to his familiarity with and adaptation of prevailing Brahmanical religious ideas and practices (Kashmir Shaivism). His choice of the name Rishi (a Sanskrit word meaning ‘seer’) for his order is itself revelatory.

He adopted vegetarianism for himself and his followers out of his compassion for animals, and thus abjured the universal Muslim practice of animal sacrifice.

While some historians have written of two types of Sufism in Kashmir, the immigrant and the native, or the classical and the folk, others have denied the existence of this dichotomy, pointing out that Sufis of the Suhrawardi order and even the Kubrawis, befriended and eulogized the Rishis.

According to the latter, the Rishis’ very rootedness in Kashmir’s old religious traditions, combined with their exposure to the ideas of classical Sufism made them the ideal agents of the Islamization of Kashmiri masses. It is noteworthy that Nuruddin claimed the Prophet of Islam himself as the real founder of his order, locating himself at least notionally in shariah, the ‘highway’ of Islam.

It is not the Sufis alone who have contributed to the culture of religious diversity in Indian Islam. The reputedly more stringent ulama have also done so. Thus, in the late nineteenth century three groups of these doctors of the holy law of Islam led sectarian movements, differentiated from one another by big issues (such as matters of belief and law) as well as small (including minutia of everyday life).

The most influential of these were the ulama of a famous seminary called the Darul Uloom at Deoband in north India (founded in 1867). Their educational programme too was grounded in the traditional curriculum and thus opposed to the innovations and accommodations of western science that characterized the efforts of the modernists at the Mohammadan Anglo-Oriental College in Aligarh (founded in 1874).

Besides the Deobandis, the two other prominent reformist groups were the Ahl-i Hadis (‘people of the tradition’) and the ulama of Bareilly popularly known as the Barelwis, who were opposed to both the other groups. In their disputations one or the other of the four recognized schools of Islamic law (Hanafi, Maliki, Shafii, Hanbali) were invoked, but the Hanafi school has always been the dominant one in India.

Finally, mention must be made of the Ahmadiyah sect which was formally proclaimed to be heretical and therefore a non-Muslim minority in Pakistan in 1974. Its founder, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (1839-1908) was born in Qadiyan, a village in north Punjab.

Not trained as a Sufi, he was a law clerk by occupation. He also claimed to be the recipient of divine revelation and therefore the messiah (mahdi) promised to the Muslims. Although Ahmad did not dispute the Islamic belief in the closure of prophecy with Muhammad, he asserted that he belonged to a line of secondary prophets.

Provoked and influenced by the work of Christian missionaries and the activities of the Hindu revivalist Arya Samaj movement, he organized his response on similar lines, and gathered a considerable following. The sect called Ahmadiyah, or Qadiyani, continues to be recognized as Muslim in India, but it really survives on sufferance.

Related Articles:

• People Belonging to Different Religions in India
• Classification of Religious Groups in India: Indigenous and Extra-Indic

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Article contents

Religion, culture, and communication.

• Stephen M. Croucher , Stephen M. Croucher School of Communication, Journalism, and Marketing, Massey Business School, Massey University
• Cheng Zeng , Cheng Zeng Department of Communication, University of Jyväskylä
• Diyako Rahmani Diyako Rahmani Department of Communication, University of Jyväskylä
• , and  Mélodine Sommier Mélodine Sommier School of History, Culture, and Communication, Eramus University
• https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228613.013.166
• Published online: 25 January 2017

Religion is an essential element of the human condition. Hundreds of studies have examined how religious beliefs mold an individual’s sociology and psychology. In particular, research has explored how an individual’s religion (religious beliefs, religious denomination, strength of religious devotion, etc.) is linked to their cultural beliefs and background. While some researchers have asserted that religion is an essential part of an individual’s culture, other researchers have focused more on how religion is a culture in itself. The key difference is how researchers conceptualize and operationalize both of these terms. Moreover, the influence of communication in how individuals and communities understand, conceptualize, and pass on religious and cultural beliefs and practices is integral to understanding exactly what religion and culture are.

It is through exploring the relationships among religion, culture, and communication that we can best understand how they shape the world in which we live and have shaped the communication discipline itself. Furthermore, as we grapple with these relationships and terms, we can look to the future and realize that the study of religion, culture, and communication is vast and open to expansion. Researchers are beginning to explore the influence of mediation on religion and culture, how our globalized world affects the communication of religions and cultures, and how interreligious communication is misunderstood; and researchers are recognizing the need to extend studies into non-Christian religious cultures.

• communication
• intercultural communication

Intricate Relationships among Religion, Communication, and Culture

Compiling an entry on the relationships among religion, culture, and communication is not an easy task. There is not one accepted definition for any of these three terms, and research suggests that the connections among these concepts are complex, to say the least. Thus, this article attempts to synthesize the various approaches to these three terms and integrate them. In such an endeavor, it is impossible to discuss all philosophical and paradigmatic debates or include all disciplines.

It is difficult to define religion from one perspective and with one encompassing definition. “Religion” is often defined as the belief in or the worship of a god or gods. Geertz ( 1973 ) defined a religion as

(1) a system which acts to (2) establish powerful, pervasive, and long-lasting moods and motivations in men by (3) formulating conceptions of a general order of existence and (4) clothing these conceptions with such an aura of factuality that (5) the moods and motivations seem uniquely realistic. (p. 90)

It is essential to recognize that religion cannot be understood apart from the world in which it takes place (Marx & Engels, 1975 ). To better understand how religion relates to and affects culture and communication, we should first explore key definitions, philosophies, and perspectives that have informed how we currently look at religion. In particular, the influences of Karl Marx, Max Weber, Emile Durkheim, and Georg Simmel are discussed to further understand the complexity of religion.

Karl Marx ( 1818–1883 ) saw religion as descriptive and evaluative. First, from a descriptive point of view, Marx believed that social and economic situations shape how we form and regard religions and what is religious. For Marx, the fact that people tend to turn to religion more when they are facing economic hardships or that the same religious denomination is practiced differently in different communities would seem perfectly logical. Second, Marx saw religion as a form of alienation (Marx & Engels, 1975 ). For Marx, the notion that the Catholic Church, for example, had the ability or right to excommunicate an individual, and thus essentially exclude them from the spiritual community, was a classic example of exploitation and domination. Such alienation and exploitation was later echoed in the works of Friedrich Nietzsche ( 1844–1900 ), who viewed organized religion as society and culture controlling man (Nietzsche, 1996 ).

Building on Marxist thinking, Weber ( 1864–1920 ) stressed the multicausality of religion. Weber ( 1963 ) emphasized three arguments regarding religion and society: (1) how a religion relates to a society is contingent (it varies); (2) the relationship between religion and society can only be examined in its cultural and historical context; and (3) the relationship between society and religion is slowly eroding. Weber’s arguments can be applied to Catholicism in Europe. Until the Protestant Reformation of the 15th and 16th centuries, Catholicism was the dominant religious ideology on the European continent. However, since the Reformation, Europe has increasingly become more Protestant and less Catholic. To fully grasp why many Europeans gravitate toward Protestantism and not Catholicism, we must consider the historical and cultural reasons: the Reformation, economics, immigration, politics, etc., that have all led to the majority of Europeans identifying as Protestant (Davie, 2008 ). Finally, even though the majority of Europeans identify as Protestant, secularism (separation of church and state) is becoming more prominent in Europe. In nations like France, laws are in place that officially separate the church and state, while in Northern Europe, church attendance is low, and many Europeans who identify as Protestant have very low religiosity (strength of religious devotion), focusing instead on being secularly religious individuals. From a Weberian point of view, the links among religion, history, and culture in Europe explain the decline of Catholicism, the rise of Protestantism, and now the rise of secularism.

Emile Durkheim ( 1858–1917 ) focused more on how religion performs a necessary function; it brings people and society together. Durkheim ( 1976 ) thus defined a religion as

a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say, things which are set apart and forbidden—beliefs and practices which unite into one single moral community called a Church, all those who adhere to them. (p. 47)

From this perspective, religion and culture are inseparable, as beliefs and practices are uniquely cultural. For example, religious rituals (one type of practice) unite believers in a religion and separate nonbelievers. The act of communion, or the sharing of the Eucharist by partaking in consecrated bread and wine, is practiced by most Christian denominations. However, the frequency of communion differs extensively, and the ritual is practiced differently based on historical and theological differences among denominations.

Georg Simmel ( 1858–1918 ) focused more on the fluidity and permanence of religion and religious life. Simmel ( 1950 ) believed that religious and cultural beliefs develop from one another. Moreover, he asserted that religiosity is an essential element to understand when examining religious institutions and religion. While individuals may claim to be part of a religious group, Simmel asserted that it was important to consider just how religious the individuals were. In much of Europe, religiosity is low: Germany 34%, Sweden 19%, Denmark 42%, the United Kingdom 30%, the Czech Republic 23%, and The Netherlands 26%, while religiosity is relatively higher in the United States (56%), which is now considered the most religious industrialized nation in the world ( Telegraph Online , 2015 ). The decline of religiosity in parts of Europe and its rise in the U.S. is linked to various cultural, historical, and communicative developments that will be further discussed.

Combining Simmel’s ( 1950 ) notion of religion with Geertz’s ( 1973 ) concept of religion and a more basic definition (belief in or the worship of a god or gods through rituals), it is clear that the relationship between religion and culture is integral and symbiotic. As Clark and Hoover ( 1997 ) noted, “culture and religion are inseparable” and “religion is an important consideration in theories of culture and society” (p. 17).

Outside of the Western/Christian perception of religion, Buddhist scholars such as Nagarajuna present a relativist framework to understand concepts like time and causality. This framework is distinct from the more Western way of thinking, in that notions of present, past, and future are perceived to be chronologically distorted, and the relationship between cause and effect is paradoxical (Wimal, 2007 ). Nagarajuna’s philosophy provides Buddhism with a relativist, non-solid dependent, and non-static understanding of reality (Kohl, 2007 ). Mulla Sadra’s philosophy explored the metaphysical relationship between the created universe and its singular creator. In his philosophy, existence takes precedence over essence, and any existing object reflects a part of the creator. Therefore, every devoted person is obliged to know themselves as the first step to knowing the creator, which is the ultimate reason for existence. This Eastern perception of religion is similar to that of Nagarajuna and Buddhism, as they both include the paradoxical elements that are not easily explained by the rationality of Western philosophy. For example, the god, as Mulla Sadra defines it, is beyond definition, description, and delamination, yet it is absolutely simple and unique (Burrell, 2013 ).

How researchers define and study culture varies extensively. For example, Hall ( 1989 ) defined culture as “a series of situational models for behavior and thought” (p. 13). Geertz ( 1973 ), building on the work of Kluckhohn ( 1949 ), defined culture in terms of 11 different aspects:

(1) the total way of life of a people; (2) the social legacy the individual acquires from his group; (3) a way of thinking, feeling, and believing; (4) an abstraction from behavior; (5) a theory on the part of the anthropologist about the way in which a group of people in fact behave; (6) a storehouse of pooled learning; (7) a set of standardized orientations to recurrent problems; (8) learned behavior; (9) a mechanism for the normative regulation of behavior; (10) a set of techniques for adjusting both to the external environment and to other men; (11) a precipitate of history. (Geertz, 1973 , p. 5)

Research on culture is divided between an essentialist camp and a constructivist camp. The essentialist view regards culture as a concrete and fixed system of symbols and meanings (Holiday, 1999 ). An essentialist approach is most prevalent in linguistic studies, in which national culture is closely linked to national language. Regarding culture as a fluid concept, constructionist views of culture focus on how it is performed and negotiated by individuals (Piller, 2011 ). In this sense, “culture” is a verb rather than a noun. In principle, a non-essentialist approach rejects predefined national cultures and uses culture as a tool to interpret social behavior in certain contexts.

Different approaches to culture influence significantly how it is incorporated into communication studies. Cultural communication views communication as a resource for individuals to produce and regulate culture (Philipsen, 2002 ). Constructivists tend to perceive culture as a part of the communication process (Applegate & Sypher, 1988 ). Cross-cultural communication typically uses culture as a national boundary. Hofstede ( 1991 ) is probably the most popular scholar in this line of research. Culture is thus treated as a theoretical construct to explain communication variations across cultures. This is also evident in intercultural communication studies, which focus on misunderstandings between individuals from different cultures.

Religion, Community, and Culture

There is an interplay among religion, community, and culture. Community is essentially formed by a group of people who share common activities or beliefs based on their mutual affect, loyalty, and personal concerns. Participation in religious institutions is one of the most dominant community engagements worldwide. Religious institutions are widely known for creating a sense of community by offering various material and social supports for individual followers. In addition, the role that religious organizations play in communal conflicts is also crucial. As religion deals with the ultimate matters of life, the differences among different religious beliefs are virtually impossible to settle. Although a direct causal relationship between religion and violence is not well supported, religion is, nevertheless, commonly accepted as a potential escalating factor in conflicts. Currently, religious conflicts are on the rise, and they are typically more violent, long-lasting, and difficult to resolve. In such cases, local religious organizations, places facilitating collective actions in the community, are extremely vital, as they can either preach peace or stir up hatred and violence. The peace impact of local religious institutions has been largely witnessed in India and Indonesia where conflicts are solved at the local level before developing into communal violence (De Juan, Pierskalla, & Vüllers, 2015 ).

While religion affects cultures (Beckford & Demerath, 2007 ), it itself is also affected by culture, as religion is an essential layer of culture. For example, the growth of individualism in the latter half of the 20th century has been coincident with the decline in the authority of Judeo-Christian institutions and the emergence of “parachurches” and more personal forms of prayer (Hoover & Lundby, 1997 ). However, this decline in the authority of the religious institutions in modernized society has not reduced the important role of religion and spirituality as one of the main sources of calm when facing painful experiences such as death, suffering, and loss.

When cultural specifications, such as individualism and collectivism, have been attributed to religion, the proposed definitions and functions of religion overlap with definitions of culture. For example, researchers often combine religious identification (Jewish, Christian, Muslim, etc.) with cultural dimensions (Hofstede, 1991 ) like individualism/collectivism to understand and compare cultural differences. Such combinations for comparison and analytical purposes demonstrate how religion and religious identification in particular are often relegated to a micro-level variable, when in fact the true relationship between an individual’s religion and culture is inseparable.

Religion as Part of Culture in Communication Studies

Religion as a part of culture has been linked to numerous communication traits and behaviors. Specifically, religion has been linked with media use and preferences (e.g., Stout & Buddenbaum, 1996 ), health/medical decisions and communication about health-related issues (Croucher & Harris, 2012 ), interpersonal communication (e.g., Croucher, Faulkner, Oommen, & Long, 2012b ), organizational behaviors (e.g., Garner & Wargo, 2009 ), and intercultural communication traits and behaviors (e.g., Croucher, Braziunaite, & Oommen, 2012a ). In media and religion scholarship, researchers have shown how religion as a cultural variable has powerful effects on media use, preferences, and gratifications. The research linking media and religion is vast (Stout & Buddenbaum, 1996 ). This body of research has shown how “religious worldviews are created and sustained in ongoing social processes in which information is shared” (Stout & Buddenbaum, 1996 , pp. 7–8). For example, religious Christians are more likely to read newspapers, while religious individuals are less likely to have a favorable opinion of the internet (Croucher & Harris, 2012 ), and religious individuals (who typically attend religious services and are thus integrated into a religious community) are more likely to read media produced by the religious community (Davie, 2008 ).

Research into health/medical decisions and communication about health-related issues is also robust. Research shows how religion, specifically religiosity, promotes healthier living and better decision-making regarding health and wellbeing (Harris & Worley, 2012 ). For example, a religious (or spiritual) approach to cancer treatment can be more effective than a secular approach (Croucher & Harris, 2012 ), religious attendance promotes healthier living, and people with HIV/AIDS often turn to religion for comfort as well. These studies suggest the significance of religion in health communication and in our health.

Research specifically examining the links between religion and interpersonal communication is not as vast as the research into media, health, and religion. However, this slowly growing body of research has explored areas such as rituals, self-disclosure (Croucher et al., 2012b ), and family dynamics (Davie, 2008 ), to name a few.

The role of religion in organizations is well studied. Overall, researchers have shown how religious identification and religiosity influence an individual’s organizational behavior. For example, research has shown that an individual’s religious identification affects levels of organizational dissent (Croucher et al., 2012a ). Garner and Wargo ( 2009 ) further showed that organizational dissent functions differently in churches than in nonreligious organizations. Kennedy and Lawton ( 1998 ) explored the relationships between religious beliefs and perceptions about business/corporate ethics and found that individuals with stronger religious beliefs have stricter ethical beliefs.

Researchers are increasingly looking at the relationships between religion and intercultural communication. Researchers have explored how religion affects numerous communication traits and behaviors and have shown how religious communities perceive and enact religious beliefs. Antony ( 2010 ), for example, analyzed the bindi in India and how the interplay between religion and culture affects people’s acceptance of it. Karniel and Lavie-Dinur ( 2011 ) showed how religion and culture influence how Palestinian Arabs are represented on Israeli television. Collectively, the intercultural work examining religion demonstrates the increasing importance of the intersection between religion and culture in communication studies.

Collectively, communication studies discourse about religion has focused on how religion is an integral part of an individual’s culture. Croucher et al. ( 2016 ), in a content analysis of communication journal coverage of religion and spirituality from 2002 to 2012 , argued that the discourse largely focuses on religion as a cultural variable by identifying religious groups as variables for comparative analysis, exploring “religious” or “spiritual” as adjectives to describe entities (religious organizations), and analyzing the relationships between religious groups in different contexts. Croucher and Harris ( 2012 ) asserted that the discourse about religion, culture, and communication is still in its infancy, though it continues to grow at a steady pace.

Future Lines of Inquiry

Research into the links among religion, culture, and communication has shown the vast complexities of these terms. With this in mind, there are various directions for future research/exploration that researchers could take to expand and benefit our practical understanding of these concepts and how they relate to one another. Work should continue to define these terms with a particular emphasis on mediation, closely consider these terms in a global context, focus on how intergroup dynamics influence this relationship, and expand research into non-Christian religious cultures.

Additional definitional work still needs to be done to clarify exactly what is meant by “religion,” “culture,” and “communication.” Our understanding of these terms and relationships can be further enhanced by analyzing how forms of mass communication mediate each other. Martin-Barbero ( 1993 ) asserted that there should be a shift from media to mediations as multiple opposing forces meet in communication. He defined mediation as “the articulations between communication practices and social movements and the articulation of different tempos of development with the plurality of cultural matrices” (p. 187). Religions have relied on mediations through various media to communicate their messages (oral stories, print media, radio, television, internet, etc.). These media share religious messages, shape the messages and religious communities, and are constantly changing. What we find is that, as media sophistication develops, a culture’s understandings of mediated messages changes (Martin-Barbero, 1993 ). Thus, the very meanings of religion, culture, and communication are transitioning as societies morph into more digitally mediated societies. Research should continue to explore the effects of digital mediation on our conceptualizations of religion, culture, and communication.

Closely linked to mediation is the need to continue extending our focus on the influence of globalization on religion, culture, and communication. It is essential to study the relationships among culture, religion, and communication in the context of globalization. In addition to trading goods and services, people are increasingly sharing ideas, values, and beliefs in the modern world. Thus, globalization not only leads to technological and socioeconomic changes, but also shapes individuals’ ways of communicating and their perceptions and beliefs about religion and culture. While religion represents an old way of life, globalization challenges traditional meaning systems and is often perceived as a threat to religion. For instance, Marx and Weber both asserted that modernization was incompatible with tradition. But, in contrast, globalization could facilitate religious freedom by spreading the idea of freedom worldwide. Thus, future work needs to consider the influence of globalization to fully grasp the interrelationships among religion, culture, and communication in the world.

A review of the present definitions of religion in communication research reveals that communication scholars approach religion as a holistic, total, and unique institution or notion, studied from the viewpoint of different communication fields such as health, intercultural, interpersonal, organizational communication, and so on. However, this approach to communication undermines the function of a religion as a culture and also does not consider the possible differences between religious cultures. For example, religious cultures differ in their levels of individualism and collectivism. There are also differences in how religious cultures interact to compete for more followers and territory (Klock, Novoa, & Mogaddam, 2010 ). Thus, localization is one area of further research for religion communication studies. This line of study best fits in the domain of intergroup communication. Such an approach will provide researchers with the opportunity to think about the roles that interreligious communication can play in areas such as peacemaking processes (Klock et al., 2010 ).

Academic discourse about religion has focused largely on Christian denominations. In a content analysis of communication journal discourse on religion and spirituality, Croucher et al. ( 2016 ) found that the terms “Christian” or “Christianity” appeared in 9.56% of all articles, and combined with other Christian denominations (Catholicism, Evangelism, Baptist, Protestantism, and Mormonism, for example), appeared in 18.41% of all articles. Other religious cultures (denominations) made up a relatively small part of the overall academic discourse: Islam appeared in 6.8%, Judaism in 4.27%, and Hinduism in only 0.96%. Despite the presence of various faiths in the data, the dominance of Christianity and its various denominations is incontestable. Having religions unevenly represented in the academic discourse is problematic. This highly unbalanced representation presents a biased picture of religious practices. It also represents one faith as being the dominant faith and others as being minority religions in all contexts.

Ultimately, the present overview, with its focus on religion, culture, and communication points to the undeniable connections among these concepts. Religion and culture are essential elements of humanity, and it is through communication, that these elements of humanity are mediated. Whether exploring these terms in health, interpersonal, intercultural, intergroup, mass, or other communication contexts, it is evident that understanding the intersection(s) among religion, culture, and communication offers vast opportunities for researchers and practitioners.

Further Reading

The references to this article provide various examples of scholarship on religion, culture, and communication. The following list includes some critical pieces of literature that one should consider reading if interested in studying the relationships among religion, culture, and communication.

• Allport, G. W. (1950). Individual and his religion: A psychological interpretation . New York: Macmillan.
• Campbell, H. A. (2010). When religion meets new media . New York: Routledge.
• Cheong, P. H. , Fischer-Nielson, P. , Gelfgren, S. , & Ess, C. (Eds.). (2012). Digital religion, social media and culture: Perspectives, practices and futures . New York: Peter Lang.
• Cohen, A. B. , & Hill, P. C. (2007). Religion as culture: Religious individualism and collectivism among American Catholics, Jews, and Protestants . Journal of Personality , 75 , 709–742.
• Coomaraswamy, A. K. (2015). Hinduism and buddhism . New Delhi: Munshiram Monoharlal Publishers.
• Coomaraswamy, A. K. (2015). A new approach to the Vedas: Essays in translation and exegesis . Philadelphia: Coronet Books.
• Harris, T. M. , Parrott, R. , & Dorgan, K. A. (2004). Talking about human genetics within religious frameworks . Health Communication , 16 , 105–116.
• Hitchens, C. (2007). God is not great . New York: Hachette.
• Hoover, S. M. (2006). Religion in the media age (media, religion and culture) . New York: Routledge.
• Lundby, K. , & Hoover, S. M. (1997). Summary remarks: Mediated religion. In S. M. Hoover & K. Lundby (Eds.), Rethinking media, religion, and culture (pp. 298–309). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
• Mahan, J. H. (2014). Media, religion and culture: An introduction . New York: Routledge.
• Parrott, R. (2004). “Collective amnesia”: The absence of religious faith and spirituality in health communication research and practice . Journal of Health Communication , 16 , 1–5.
• Russell, B. (1957). Why I am not a Christian . New York: Touchstone.
• Sarwar, G. (2001). Islam: Beliefs and teachings (5th ed.). Tigard, OR: Muslim Educational Trust.
• Stout, D. A. (2011). Media and religion: Foundations of an emerging field . New York: Routledge.
• Antony, M. G. (2010). On the spot: Seeking acceptance and expressing resistance through the Bindi . Journal of International and Intercultural Communication , 3 , 346–368.
• Beckford, J. A. , & Demerath, N. J. (Eds.). (2007). The SAGE handbook of the sociology of religion . Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
• Burrell, D. B. (2013). The triumph of mercy: Philosophy and scripture in Mulla Sadra—By Mohammed Rustom . Modern Theology , 29 , 413–416.
• Clark, A. S. , & Hoover, S. M. (1997). At the intersection of media, culture, and religion. In S. M. Hoover , & K. Lundby (Eds.), Rethinking media, religion, and culture (pp. 15–36). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
• Croucher, S. M. , Braziunaite, R. , & Oommen, D. (2012a). The effects of religiousness and religious identification on organizational dissent. In S. M. Croucher , & T. M. Harris (Eds.), Religion and communication: An anthology of extensions in theory, research, and method (pp. 69–79). New York: Peter Lang.
• Croucher, S. M. , Faulkner , Oommen, D. , & Long, B. (2012b). Demographic and religious differences in the dimensions of self-disclosure among Hindus and Muslims in India . Journal of Intercultural Communication Research , 39 , 29–48.
• Croucher, S. M. , & Harris, T. M. (Eds.). (2012). Religion and communication: An anthology of extensions in theory, research, & method . New York: Peter Lang.
• Croucher, S. M. , Sommier, M. , Kuchma, A. , & Melnychenko, V. (2016). A content analysis of the discourses of “religion” and “spirituality” in communication journals: 2002–2012. Journal of Communication and Religion , 38 , 42–79.
• Davie, G. (2008). The sociology of religion . Los Angeles: SAGE.
• De Juan, A. , Pierskalla, J. H. , & Vüllers, J. (2015). The pacifying effects of local religious institutions: An analysis of communal violence in Indonesia . Political Research Quarterly , 68 , 211–224.
• Durkheim, E. (1976). The elementary forms of religious life . London: Harper Collins.
• Garner, J. T. , & Wargo, M. (2009). Feedback from the pew: A dual-perspective exploration of organizational dissent in churches. Journal of Communication & Religion , 32 , 375–400.
• Geertz, C. (1973). The interpretation of cultures: Selected essays by Clifford Geertz . New York: Basic Books.
• Hall, E. T. (1989). Beyond culture . New York: Anchor Books.
• Harris, T. M. , & Worley, T. R. (2012). Deconstructing lay epistemologies of religion within health communication research. In S. M. Croucher , & T. M. Harris (Eds.), Religion & communication: An anthology of extensions in theory, research, and method (pp. 119–136). New York: Peter Lang.
• Hofstede, G. (1991). Cultures and organizations: Software of the mind . London: McGraw-Hill.
• Holiday, A. (1999). Small culture . Applied Linguistics , 20 , 237–264.
• Hoover, S. M. , & Lundby, K. (1997). Introduction. In S. M. Hoover & K. Lundby (Eds.), Rethinking media, religion, and culture (pp. 3–14). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
• Karniel, Y. , & Lavie-Dinur, A. (2011). Entertainment and stereotype: Representation of the Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel in reality shows on Israeli television . Journal of Intercultural Communication Research , 40 , 65–88.
• Kennedy, E. J. , & Lawton, L. (1998). Religiousness and business ethics. Journal of Business Ethics , 17 , 175–180.
• Klock, J. , Novoa, C. , & Mogaddam, F. M. (2010). Communication across religions. In H. Giles , S. Reid , & J. Harwood (Eds.), The dynamics of intergroup communication (pp. 77–88). New York: Peter Lang
• Kluckhohn, C. (1949). Mirror for man: The relation of anthropology to modern life . Tucson: University of Arizona Press.
• Kohl, C. T. (2007). Buddhism and quantum physics . Contemporary Buddhism , 8 , 69–82.
• Mapped: These are the world’s most religious countries . (April 13, 2015). Telegraph Online .
• Martin-Barbero, J. (1993). Communication, culture and hegemony: From the media to the mediations . London: SAGE.
• Marx, K. , & Engels, F. (1975). Collected works . London: Lawrence and Wishart.
• Nietzsche, F. (1996). Human, all too human: A book for free spirits . R. J. Hollingdale (Trans.). Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press.
• Piller, I. (2011). Intercultural communication: A critical introduction . Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
• Philipsen, G. (2002). Cultural communication. In W. B. Gudykunst (Ed.), Cross-cultural and intercultural communication (pp. 35–51). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
• Simmel, G. (1950). The sociology of Georg Simmel . K. Wolff (Trans.). Glencoe, IL: Free Press.
• Stout, D. A. , & Buddenbaum, J. M. (Eds.). (1996). Religion and mass media: Audiences and adaptations . Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
• Weber, M. (1963). The sociology of religion . London: Methuen.
• Wimal, D. (2007). Nagarjuna and modern communication theory. China Media Research , 3 , 34–41.
• Applegate, J. , & Sypher, H. (1988). A constructivist theory of communication and culture. In Y. Y. Kim & W. B. Gudykunst (Eds.), Theories of intercultural communication (pp. 41-65). Newbury Park, CA: SAGE.

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A pioneer of performance art in India reflects on her decades-long journey

For years, ratnabali kant responded to political, economic and social transformations by synthesising performance and installation. now she looks back..

Today, every major Indian art event, be it a biennial or a fair, features performance artworks in its programme. But despite the form’s contemporary boom, its history in India is still inchoate. As art historian Rakhee Balaram says in a 2022 essay , “The genesis of performance art in India, including the histories of the 1980s, has yet to be written…”

One person who is all too familiar with this history is Ratnabali Kant, a pioneer of performance art and, as art historian Partha Mitter points out , the first Indian artist to synthesise performance and installation.

Kant’s contra-proscenium practice emerged in the 1980s at the same time as Sushil Kumar’s groundbreaking Veil (1985), an undocumented performance at New Delhi’s Tilak Bridge Railway station, confronted the 1984 anti-Sikh pogroms. While very different from each other, these works together marked the full-fledged appearance of a form which, as Balaram points out, had long been gestured towards in India – for example, by Jeram Patel’s blowtorched “action paintings” of the 1960s and Bhupen Khakhar’s photo-performance series of 1972.

Between 1985 and 2005, Kant developed a series of “performance installations” that were among the first such manifestations of the genre in India and part of a foundational archive of contemporary Indian performance art. Trained as a sculptor at Santiniketan, Maharaja Sayajirao University and Athens University, Kant’s experimental works straddled modernist art, theatre (both classical and folk), as well as then-emerging media technologies such as video. She continued this practice till the mid-2000s, responding to various political, economic and social transformations.

At the same time, Kant continued her sculptural projects, including public ones: at New Delhi’s Garden of Five Senses, she installed Children Reading (1996), which was made with Kristine Michael, and the bronze series Senses through Seasons (2002). In February 2024, a retrospective of her five-decades-long career was mounted at the Bihar Museum, Patna.

In a 2018 Asia Art Archive interview , researcher Samudra Kajal Saikia traced modalities of performance art in India from 1990 to 2010, in the shadow of Jan Natya Manch founder-director Safdar Hashmi’s assassination and the demolition of the Babri Masjid. Reflecting on the practices of Indian artists who had started to use the body as a public medium to critique the establishment and patriarchy, he said that Kant “borrowed elements from her everyday life to create performances”.

Challenging the commonplace attribution of performance art to Euro-American influence, Balaram too connects its articulation in India to the subcontinent’s multifarious heritage of theatre and dance. Summarising her analysis of feminist themes in Kant’s practice, Balaram writes that her “highly emotive performances…use the body as a vehicle to draw upon rasa aesthetics…to engage with contemporary politics…[She] strengthens the effect through her…crossing of genres and cultures…as an expression of defiance towards repressive hegemonic/ hierarchical power structures.”

It has been almost 20 years since Kant produced a performance work, the very length of time she practised the form. In a series of exchanges over email and text, the 68-year-old Kolkata-based artist drew on her book Ephemeral Steps, Enduring Imprints (Raza Foundation, 2006) and her unpublished autobiography to lead Scroll through an overview of her artistry and its biographical, historical and critical facets. Edited excerpts:

You trained as a sculptor at both Santiniketan and Maharaja Sayajirao University, Baroda, in the 1970s, under some of India’s most significant modern artists like Ramkinkar Baij, Somnath Hore and KG Subramanyan. How has their work impacted your practice? As children live with their parents, their habits, their talents and experiences are automatically passed on to their children.

I learned relief sculpture from Ramkinkar Baij and I have continued that learning in my creative work.

Whilst still on my National Cultural Scholarship after my MFA examination, I worked with Meera Mukherjee, whom I met when she was visiting faculty at Baroda in 1978. When I first called on her at her studio-cum-home at Paddapukur, Meera di was a little hesitant to open the door. But within minutes, she started talking to me like a friend, bringing out tea and delicious mosla-muri (spicy puffed rice) from her studio kitchen. She said, “You must come to me from time to time, we will talk, sing, dance, I’ll do my own things and you’ll observe them.” So, I visited her often and attended bronze casting sessions at her workshop in Narendrapur.

In 1983, you went to the University of Athens for your doctoral studies. It was an unusual place for a young Indian artist, when most went to the United Kingdom and France. Why did you decide to go to Greece? I was trying for foreign scholarships and went for a couple of interviews at Shastri Bhavan in Delhi. At one of them, a jury member told me that they were impressed but ultimately girls have to enter the kitchen so why would they waste a seat? To this I replied, “Why do you think that sculpture and cooking can’t be done together? Meera Mukherjee cooked on the same stove she used to work with wax for her sculptures.” [Mukherjee famously used an adivasi lost wax technique of bronze sculpture known as Bastar dhokra ].

At the time my batchmate and friend Awani Kant had already been in Greece on scholarship for three years. He suggested I apply for the Greek government’s doctoral research scholarship because the exchange programme from the Indian government was for only for nine months. I think you learn more if you stay for a longer period of time in a country and observe things. I applied for the IKY Greek Government Scholarship for doctoral research. With the support of a recommendation letter by my teacher Somnath Hore, I received it for the duration of four years, from 1983 to 1987.

What was your experience of Athens like? My dissertation topic was “Dynamic Elements in Ancient Greek Sculpture”. For my research, I visited various Greek archaeological sites – temples, museums, ancient theatres – and various islands. At the Minoan Palace of Knossos in Crete, I was fascinated to see relief frescoes of a priest-king and a bull at the Heraklion Museum, and was inspired to create artworks.

After Awani and I married, we first lived in a small two-room flat in Athens’ Pangrati neighbourhood. There wasn’t enough space for me to make sculptures so a friend arranged for us to stay in a huge old house at Kypseli in downtown Athens – it was a bit like an archaeological piece. A year later we shifted to 12, Beles Street in the Koukaki neighbourhood, where my work speed tripled.

Besides my doctoral research and sculpture practice, I strove hard to promote Indian dance and art, giving a number of dance performances. Whenever I visited the Odeon of Herodes Atticus, Athens’ ancient amphitheater, I would want to perform there. In 1985, I was invited to do so during the Greek Summer Festival. I trained Greek actors and dancers to produce a dance-drama called The Princess and Hermit .

On that note, in Greece you trained with the choreographer Dora Stratou, renowned for her revivalist work with Greek folk dance. How did your engagement with Stratou influence your performance practice?

While still at school in Kolkata, I learnt various Indian classical dances – Bharatanatyam, Kathak, Manipuri and Kathakali. I then specialised in Kathakali at Santiniketan’s Sangeet Bhavan during my graduation years. I also learned [modernist choreographer] Uday Shankar’s dance style.

I did indeed have the opportunity to work with Dora Stratou. Seeing my interest in diverse dance forms, she invited me to learn various Greek dances during rehearsals of her dance company at Plaka, Athens. I don’t think Greek folk dance has had any influence on my creative sculpture or performance art directly. However, Stratou also revived some extinct Greek folk dance forms whose motifs were taken from Greek vase paintings and that vision inspired me a lot. Many people think that revival means going backwards, but in fact many new avenues are discovered through it.

Let’s talk about your earliest artworks which used your body as the medium – Rainbow of Desire (1985) and Voices from Within (1986). Can you tell us how those first performances came about and what they entailed? Among the many Greek artists I met was the well-known sculptor Natalia Mela, granddaughter of the revolutionary Pavlos Melas. On weekends she used to invite artists to her studio.

On one such occasion I got the opportunity to perform my first performance artwork, Rainbow of Desire , in front of many celebrated artists of Greece at her studio in September 1985. I painted my face and my body like the rainbow, symbolising joy and hope against darkness and tribulations. It was an idea inspired by Kathakali, in which make-up is applied according to moods and characters and to transform performers. Rainbow of Desire was my first performance. At the time I named it “body art performance”.

I then gave another performance called Voices from Within at my 12, Beles Street studio, wherein I painted my face and body as if it were burnt, by applying copper mixed gold paint. With my own “burnt” painted body, decked with broken branches and fresh green leaves separated from their stems, I held the leaves in my hands to convey feelings of alienation and detachment from my identity and roots. It was a comment on the sociocultural disparities in the world we live in.

Somnath da then wrote a letter to me saying: “Don’t stay in Greece longer, come back and show your performances, and introduce that art form to young artists in India.” I came back to India in mid-1986.

Of Rainbow of Desire , critic Pranabranjan Ray observed that you used your body as “not a dancing thing, but a bodily performance”. How do you interpret the difference between creative acts like dancing, acting and “bodily performing”? Nowadays people understand the difference between the general term “performing arts” and the specific genre of “performance art” within contemporary visual art. Performance art stands against all those “finished” works of art defined by stasis. The real aim of this form of art is dematerialisation, decommodification and proximity with common people. I felt that art practice in India at that time, in the 1980s, had sunk into a state of fatigue because of commercialisation, and could be rescued from stagnation only through new ways of thinking and execution. To me, performance art is the art of resistance, and is constructive in its nature.

The terms “performance installation”, “performance sculpture” and “body art performances” have been used to refer to these early works. Which term do you consider most accurate? “Installation performance” is the term under which I introduced and developed a performative visual art for the first time in India.

The performance art practice I developed is not governed by any pre-established rules and cannot be judged using familiar categories of the work. This is an artform which diverges from traditional media of visual art. The artist uses her own body as the medium to mirror society or the world we live in. This establishes a direct relationship amongst artwork, artist and viewer, thus arousing critical public consciousness. The artist constitutes the very performance, that is the work cannot be split into installation and the performer. The two are an integrated, autonomous whole.

Thank you for sharing your reflections on performance art as a genre. Returning to the chronology of your work: on returning to India from Greece, you mounted a performance – Facing Nightmares Alone – at the India International Centre in 1991. Can you tell us about the work, the process of producing it, and what the response was? Before I initiated performance art in India, I held exhibitions of sculptures and paintings which were well-received. In 1991, at the India International Centre in Delhi, I introduced and performed for the first time in India my performing-sculpture, Facing Nightmare Alone .

Referring to the disrobement of Draupadi in the Mahabharata , the piece reflects on violence against women and gender justice.

This performance comprised choreographical movements and m fiberglass sculptures. I enacted the humiliation and anguish of Draupadi before a relief panel of six life-size black fibreglass figures representing her five husbands plus Krishna. This group was present on the stage, as though they were living performers, not a mere backdrop. A long red piece of cloth was draped across these male figures, the fabric ensnaring a fallen nude female figure lying on the floor, in obvious agony, as if trying to protect herself against ravagers. This work has great relevance to the harsh reality of contemporary society and the position of woman in it.

As I trained as a dancer also, I thought this kind of interdisciplinary performance could be of help for artists in other fields as well. I did a few more performances along these lines, in which installations were constructed and embedded as an integral part of the performance.

The fibreglass ensemble was retrieved years later from the Lalit Kala Akademi godown and is currently displayed at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi, as a permanent exhibit.

In 1996, your performance piece I Feel Life to be Green was broadcast on Doordarshan. It is a rare instance of a performance artwork being distributed through a popular medium like television. How were your performance pieces chiefly documented and circulated at that time before YouTube and social media? Even speaking to the quality of the images I am able to share, I am an old person and in the early days of my performance practice, only VHS recordings were available. So, all the stills are from those tapes. I had to work on a very low budget and couldn’t afford still photography.

Since performance art is mostly a moving form of art, videography is the best way to document it. These days, if you share it on social media, it can reach more people. But long before social media became popular, recorded videos of my performances were circulated as CDs and projected in universities and art schools.

Your performance pieces were intermedial, that is featuring a diverse range of media. Facing Nightmare Alone (1991) included fibreglass sculptures, Red Under the Golden Halo (2001) foregrounded painting while Tree of Soul at the end of Rainbow (2003) was accompanied by a video recording of your choreography. Besides this, text and poetry were part of your performance pieces. Can you tell us why you chose this intermedial format? I combined performance art and installation, supported by the Indian traditional aesthetic concept of the interrelationship of the arts. Art in India was never dissociated from other aspects of life and from other disciplines, particularly its poetry, architecture, sculpture, painting, music and dance. reflected this vision through multimedia communication to evoke this wholeness. I firmly believe that art performances reflect this multimedial vision of classical Indian aesthetics and play an increasingly important creative role by combining various forms.

Your last performance piece was in 2005. We next saw your public sculptures at the Garden of Five Senses – Children Reading (1996) made with Kristine Michael, and the bronze series Senses through Seasons (2002). Why did you decide to return to sculpture? I am a sculptor, and I love to sculpt. I have never deviated from this art practice throughout my life.

• Ratnabali Kant

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Old stones, new tales: How inscriptions rewrite Kashmir’s religious history

A new study has revealed narratives of syncretism that counter the politically motivated and polarised versions of the valley’s history..

Published : Sep 13, 2024 19:25 IST - 10 MINS READ

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The 17th century limestone slab in the walls of Jamia Masjid in Srinagar. At the bottom, a small engraving reads, “the work of Hari Ram”. | Photo Credit: Tabish Haider, Barakat Trust 

Strolling inside the quadrangle of Kashmir’s 600-year-old Jamia Masjid, worshippers stop to take pictures of the mosque’s large steeple, its outlines sharpened against the backdrop of Hari Parbat, the famous fort-hill of Srinagar. What they usually overlook is a limestone plaque with Persian inscriptions embedded in the wall just above the mosque’s entrance.

In January 2024, when the Srinagar-based art historian Hakim Sameer Hamdani (he is currently the Design Director of the Jammu and Kashmir chapter of the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage) examined the slab, he found that it mentioned names of medieval-era sultans and their governors involved in the repeated repair and rebuilding of the mosque since its original construction in 1402. At the bottom, he noticed the name of the engraver: Hari Ram. Hamdani told  Frontline : “Based on our investigation, it appears that Hari Ram, who inscribed the text on the limestone plaque, was a master carver in the Mughal atelier. There is no information about Hari Ram in any Mughal source. But from this slab we know now that he was Hindu and part of the overall Mughal patronage system.”

The Jamia mosque was constructed during the reign of Sultan Sikandar Shah Miri in 1402, a few decades after the Turkic-origin Shahmirid dynasty took over the reins of the kingdom from the royal house of the Loharas, who were Hindus. In Kashmir’s narrative tradition, the mosque is invested with great symbolism: Jamia Masjid embodies not just the crowning of Islam as the State religion of Kashmir after eight centuries of Hindu rule, but also the start of the spread of a culture heavily influenced by Persia.

Hakim Sameer Hamdani, Srinagar-based architect and art historian who led the documentation project. Hamdani is Design Director with INTACH, Jammu & Kashmir. | Photo Credit: By Special Arrangement

The medieval era in Kashmir, particularly the 14th and 15th centuries, when it gradually transitioned to Islam, has been sought to be presented in contemporary political and cinematic discourse as a period of widespread persecution of Hindus. The movie  The Kashmir Files  (2022), for example, has a scene where the protagonist describes the Kashmir of yore as a thriving seat of Hindu learning until it was despoiled by Islamic rulers in the 14th century. However, historic epigraphs such as the one in Jamia Masjid and elsewhere in Srinagar point to a culture that was more syncretic than confrontational.

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With such discoveries, Hamdani’s project intends to counter the politically motivated narratives around Kashmir’s history. He embarked on the project earlier in 2024, roping in a team of heritage architects and graphic designers from Srinagar. The team consisted of Umar Farooq (Assistant Professor, Department of Architecture, Islamic University of Science and Technology, or IUST, Jammu and Kashmir), who surveyed the inscriptions; Tabish Haider (cultural activist and Young India Fellow, 2022, at Ashoka University), who took life-size images of the plaques; Mehran Qureshi (Assistant Professor, Department of Architecture, IUST), who investigated the epigraphs and translated them into English; and Taha Mughal (a specialist in preservation), who rendered them into measured drawings. The team has examined several epigraphs, dating from the 15th to the 19th centuries, engraved in various heritage sites across the Valley. While the majority of them are in Persian, there are texts in Arabic and Sharda (an ancient script of Kashmir) as well.

Many of these inscriptions have been rendered almost undecipherable by the passage of time—the main reason why they had escaped the attention of historians so far. Hamdani and his team used technology and linguistic expertise to decipher their content and to bring the information to the public domain for the first time. Of the over 100 slabs that the team has investigated across Kashmir, the details of 40 were catalogued and put on display in an exhibition, “Naqsh-i-Dawaam”, held in Srinagar in June 2024. Hamdani is currently writing a coffee-table book that will make the findings accessible to readers across India and the world. Qureshi is further expanding the scope of the investigation by surveying similar inscriptions found in medieval-era tombstones in Kashmir. Qureshi’s work is sponsored by the Netherlands-based Prince Claus Fund while the grant for Hamdani’s project came from London’s Barakat Trust, which researches the art, architecture, and history of the Islamic world.

• A documentation project undertaken by Srinagar-based architect and art historian, Hakim Sameer Hamdani, has added layers to Kashmir’s history, challenging its unipolar representation in popular narratives.
• Of the over 100 slabs that Hamdani’s team has investigated across Kashmir, the details of 40 were catalogued and put on display in an exhibition, “Naqsh-i-Dawaam”, held in Srinagar in June 2024.
• Hamdani is currently writing a coffee-table book that will make the findings accessible to readers across India and the world.

“The idea was to add a layer of nuance to Kashmir’s history,” Hamdani said while talking about his project. “We tried to flesh out what we already knew about the transmission of knowledge and culture from the Central Asian regions into Kashmir at the onset of the Sultanate period in the 14th century.”

Adding layers

The investigation has added layers to the understanding of Kashmir’s history. Take the Jamia Masjid slab, for instance. It dates back to 1622, when Jahangir was the emperor of Hindustan. In 1589, Jahangir’s father, Akbar, had forced Kashmir to surrender its sovereignty to the larger Mughal Empire. This created resentment, sparking off rebellion and political unrest that continued for years until a semblance of stability was achieved during Jahangir’s rule. To mark the end of hostilities, Jahangir commissioned a renovation of the mosque and installed the slab, which attempts to naturalise him as the legitimate ruler of Kashmir.

The 15th century Aali Masjid, Srinagar’s second largest mosque. It combines Mughal, Kashmiri and Safavid architectural styles. | Photo Credit: Tabish Haider, Barakat Trust 

Hamdani said: “The text seeks to connect Jahangir to a historical project, showing him as continuing the work of the sultans of Kashmir, who reigned before the Mughal annexation.” The association of a Hindu craftsman with a major imperial programme tells us something about the prevailing milieu, where royal patronage could be sought and obtained regardless of the craftperson’s religious affiliation.

The idea of exploring epigraphs to unravel history came to Hamdani when he was working on his thesis on Islamic architecture at the School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi, six years ago. As part of his study, he examined extant Islamic epigraphs in the monuments and buildings of Kashmir. Among the ones he analysed was an Arabic  hadith  (essays on the words and actions of the Prophet Muhammad ) etched on the 15th century hospice of a Sufi mystic, Malik Ahmad Itoo, located at Safa Kadal in Srinagar city. It is a small hermitage on the banks of the Jhelum river. The verses, engraved on the shrine’s tympanum, remind the faithful of the spiritual rewards that would accrue to the builder of a mosque.

The Persian slab inside Aali Masjid which identifies the architect of the mosque as Raja Bihisti Zargar. | Photo Credit: Tabish Haider, Barakat Trust 

Hamdani said: “Such inscriptions, commonly seen in Kashmiri shrines, are different from medieval Islamic epigraphy found in Delhi.” Speaking of the latter, the scholar Anthony Welch said that their “principal function in late-twelfth-century India was to warn the non-Muslim majority to accept Islam” (in his 2008 essay, “The Emperor’s Grief: Two Mughal Tombs”). The epigraphs associated with early Islam in Kashmir, by comparison, are devoid of such hegemonic overtones. “Their stress is rather on cultivating personal piety,” Hamdani said.

His project has thrown up unexpected stories that often go against the recorded textual histories of Kashmir. Consider the case of Aali Masjid, Srinagar’s second largest mosque. The 15th century mosque embodies a fusion of Iranian, Mughal, and Kashmiri architectural styles. Added during a renovation in the 17th century, the balusters of its portico rest on distinct stone bases reminiscent of those of Safavid pavilions in Iran; the technique was brought to Kashmir by the Mughals. Although the 1887 Persian text  Tarikh-e-Hasan— thought to be an authoritative commentary on Kashmir’s medieval history — attributes its construction to Ali Shah, the eighth sultan of the Shahmirid dynasty, the stone slab restored by Hamdani names a different patron: Sultan Hasan Shah, who reigned 50 years later. The epigraph identifies Raja Bihisti Zargar as the architect of the mosque.

Startlingly, the same name was once engraved on a stone pillar inside Srinagar’s Shankaracharya temple. Today, no trace of this inscription remains in the temple, but it is important to remember its existence in view of recent attempts to polarise sentiments by creating a controversy over the name of the Shankaracharya hill, also called Takht-e-Suleiman.

The Shankaracharya temple is one of the oldest temples in Kashmir, mentioned by Kalhana, author of the 12th century Sanskrit text  Rajatarangini  (River of Kings), which gives a history of Kashmir. The  Rajatarangini  remained a text in progress for a long time, with Brahmin court historians adding bits to it at different periods. After Kalhana, Jonaraja took it up in the 15th century, followed by Srivara and Shuka in the 16th century.

The hadith inscription on the shrine of Sufi mystic, Malik Ahmad Itoo, in Srinagar. It is one of the earliest surviving Islamic epigraphies in Kashmir. | Photo Credit: Shakir Mir

Hamdani’s team was able to access a preserved facsimile of the temple epigraph in a book titled  Illustrations of Ancient Buildings in Kashmir  (1869), based on a survey conducted under the Archaeological Survey of India by Henry Hardy Cole. In the survey, Cole suggested that the inscriptions (there were more than one) were linked to repair work done in the temple in the 16th century. But he could not identify the ruler under whose leadership the work was carried out.

Cole was not the only one whose interest was piqued by the presence of Persian inscriptions inside a Hindu temple. The British explorer Alexander Cunningham (1814-93) also mentioned them in his “Essay on the Arian Order of Architecture in Temples of Kashmir” (1848), which says that he had copied out an inscription (a different one at the same site): “but since then it has been so completely defaced by the Dogar [Dogra] soldiery that I could with difficulty trace the name of Takht-i-Suliman”.

Later, in 1875, a group of European travellers made another attempt to decode the writings, scrawling a rudimentary translation in their diary. “This idol… was made by Haji Hashti… in the year 54 of the Samut (Samvat) or Hindoo era,” they wrote, adding that “the foot of the back part of the pillar states that he who raised up this idol was Quajah Rukm, son of Mirjan.”

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The case seems to be have been buried in 1935 after it received a clumsy dismissal from an antiquarian, Pandit Anand Koul, who concluded: “Islam was unknown in that remote period when this temple was built, so there could not have been a Khwaja or a Mir then.... Nor would a Muhammadan build a temple as his own” ( Archaeological Remains in Kashmir , 1935).

The restored epigraphs were put on display at an exhibition in Srinagar in June 2024. | Photo Credit: Tabish Haider, Barakat Trust 

But when Hamdani’s team examined the Aali Masjid slab, a different story emerged: the Muslim architect (Raja Bihisti Zargar) responsible for designing the mosque was the same one who oversaw the repair of the Shankaracharya temple in the 16th century. This suggests that even in the late Sultanate era, often depicted as a period of widespread destruction of Hindu places of worship, Muslim rulers continued to extend their patronage to Hindu cultural spaces. Understandably, the Dogra militia had tampered with this evidence in the 19th century.

Folds of history

Another epigraph documented by Hamdani was written in Sharada on the limestone wall of a 15th century almshouse at Khonmoh in Srinagar, built by a Hindu merchant, Purnaka. The text seems to heap praises on one of the Shahmirid kings by describing him as the son of the “illustrious Sakandra” (Sultan Sikandar). The effusive language used for Sikandar by a Hindu merchant is especially significant because the sultan was depicted as an iconoclast by the contemporary Brahmin chronicler Jonaraja in  Rajatarangini . Jonaraja’s characterisation of Sikandar was perpetuated by colonial historiographers. In his 1848 booklet, Cunningham invoked the “destroying hand of Mahomedan [sic] bigotry” to explain the ruin into which Kashmir’s ancient temples had fallen.

But the Khonmoh inscription reveals that there existed a multiplicity of narratives around Sikandar in the 15th century and not all of them told the same story. “We are not denying that persecutions have happened in the past,” Hamdani said. “Our project drives home the point that history never uncoils in a linear way. History has many folds, each one with layers and textures of its own.”

Shakir Mir is a freelance journalist based in Srinagar. He was previously a correspondent with  The Times of India.

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