Indian culture
Culture is a principal mechanism to explore, integrate and assert the national identity of India which truly and certainly pluralistic. Culture pervades every sphere of human activity, determines and governs life and pattern of Indian civilisation. The word ‘Culture’ is emanated from the Latin term ‘cult or cultus’ which means tilling, or cultivating or refining and worship. Overall, it means cultivating and refining a thing to such an extent that its end product evokes our admiration and respect. This is nearly the same as ‘Sanskriti’ of the Sanskrit language. Basically, Culture denotes to a human-made environment which includes all the material and nonmaterial products of group life that are communicated from one generation to the subsequent.
The culture of India is about how people maintain their lifestyle. It was evident that India’s languages, religions, dance, music, architecture, food, and customs changed from place to place within the country. The Indian culture, often labelled as an incorporation of several cultures, spans across the Indian subcontinent and has been influenced by ancient history where many rulers dominated and altered its art, and architecture. Many features of India’s diverse cultures, such as Indian religions, Indian philosophy and Indian cuisine, have had a weighty impact across the world. Significant aspects of Indian culture is the caste system. The caste system in India is significant part of ancient Hindu custom and dates back to 1200 BCE. The phrase caste was first used by Portuguese travellers who entered to India in the 16th century. In Hinduism there exists four castes arranged in a hierarchy. The highest Varna is of the Brahman. Members of this class are priests and the educated people of the society. The Varna after them in hierarchy is Kshatria. The members of this class are the rulers and aristocrats of the society. After them are the Vaisia. Members of this class are the landlords and businessmen of the society. After them in hierarchy are the Sudra. Members of this class are the peasants and working class of the society who work in non-polluting jobs (R.K. Pruthi, 2004).
The untouchablity feature in the caste system is one of the harshest aspects of the caste system. It is seen by many as one of the strongest racist phenomenon in the world. In Indian society people who worked in ignominious, polluting and unclean occupations were seen as polluting peoples and were therefore considered as untouchables. The untouchables had almost no rights in the society. In different parts of India they were treated in different ways. In some regions the attitude towards the untouchables was harsh and strict. In other regions it was less strict.
Since earlier time, India had many religions that include Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism, collectively known as Indian religions.
The History of India originates with the Indus Valley Civilization and the coming of the Aryans. These two periods are generally defined as the pre-Vedic and Vedic periods. The Indus River Civilization dates back to 2300 – 1750 BC and had two main cities; Harappa in western Punjab and Mohenjo-Daro on the lower Indus in Sindh. Currently, the two important provinces of Pakistan. Both cities were urban grain growing civilizations and were believed to have run by Aryans who came from some other place. The statues found at the locations include both human and animal forms with intricacies and premium details. Some seals were found engraved with figures and motifs also. All these things were made with limestone, bronze, stone and terracotta (Pal, 1988). When discussing architecture, The Harappa and Mohanjo Daro sites display the great architecture patters of the time. The Houses were made of baked bricks, the drains and bathrooms were also laid down by bricks. There was a proper drainage system from the houses to the central drain. The houses were double storey with the ground floor made of bricks and the upper storey of wood. There was a public bath site found that could have been used for religious motives. Thus the cities were scientifically laid down. It was found in literature that there were cultural relationships of Indus valley civilization with other communities like the similar items are found in Mesopotamia (Mcintosh, 2008).
In previous literature, it is documented that India’s past is the Rig Veda. It is difficult to date this work with any accuracy on the basis of tradition and vague astronomical information contained in the choruses. It is expected that Rig Veda was composed between 1,500 B.C. and 1,000 B.C. In Rig Veda, there are references of dancing and other musical instruments as part of religious practice. The hymns of Rig Veda were chanted as a religious singing, it was more like a recitation than singing (Gupta, 1999). It was noted that The Vedas are the most primitive fabricated literary record of Indo-Aryan civilization. It entails mostly mantras or prayers and summons in praise of various Aryan gods. The word Veda means insight, facts or revelation, and it is valued and regarded as the language of the gods in human speech. The core message of the Vedas is to control the social, legal, domestic and religious traditions of the Hindus which are exactly followed to the present day. All the customs of Hindus conducted upon birth, marriage, death etc. are based upon Vedic principles and they are being followed from time immemorial (Khanna, 2007).
The Rig Veda is an assemblage of inspired songs or hymns and is a main source of information on the Rig Vedic civilization. It is the oldest book in any Indo-European language and contains the earliest form of all Sanskrit mantras that date back to 1500 B.C. – 1000 B.C. Some scholars date the Rig Veda as early as 12000 BC – 4000 B.C. (Vipul Singh, 2012).
Brahmanism was found in 900 B.C. In the meantime a group of solitary persons or loners and wanderers of the forest developed the concept of Supreme Reality in terms of “Brahma, the infinite divine power which means that by stripping off everything external a man can find its true being, the self, the soul. This originated the ideas of Hinduism, which later was the reason and motivation of many religious movements in the area. This later period is portrayed in the epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. There are folklores about the basis of dance in Hinduism, like the great Lord Siva gave the first indication of the dance who was a cosmic-dancer and among his many great names is Nataraja meaning the Lord of Dancers and Actors. Another holy dance is that of Krishna and Radha, the Eternal Lovers ((Bahadur, 1979). In this period, the class system divided the society and the people of lower castes were repressed and cruelly treated by the upper classes. There were no mixing of the lower and upper classes people, no social contacts, no marriages and lower classes were considered and treated like slaves.
In 500 B.C or 6th Century B.C, two major religions emerged such as Jainism and Buddhism. They transmitted the messages of Truth, Non-violence and Renunciation/Denial. They advocated for religion as a personal matter of an individual and exhibited reflection on the daily conduct of life (Sen, 1988). Their message was for ethical values and they believed in love, freedom and equality for all human beings. But people were divided into class system the oppression of the priests, became prone to their teachings and large number of people among the middle class and kings changed to Buddhism and Jainism was mostly followed by the richer merchant class (Sen, 1988). The lessons of Buddha were against the development of art as it leads to desire and avoid the man from reaching the final goal, so the monks were prohibited to paint the pictures on the walls of the monasteries or to indulge in the art of sculpture. So we find no traces of sculpture art in this period (Swarup, 1968). With respect to development of Architecture, from Indus Valley Civilization till the period of Maurya, there were no traces of architectural leftover and have to depend upon the literature and make assumption. The Vedic literature showed about houses, halls and fire-altars. In Ramayana and Mahabharata, there is description of assembly halls, balconies, gateways and double storey buildings (Swarup, 1968)
In the period of 327-26 B. C, Alexander attacked the Punjab state of the region and linked India with Iranian Civilization (Gordon and Walsh, 2009). In the fifth century, large sections of India were amalgamated under the regime of Maurya vansh. The 6th Century B.C. was a period of great uproar in India. The kingdom of Magadha, one of the 16 great Janapadas had become dominant over other kingdoms of the Ganges Valley. In this period, there was emergence of various heterodox cliques in India. In this period, Buddhism and Jainism arose as popular protestant movements to pose a serious challenge to Brahmanic convention.
During the period of 324 – 200 B.C or 273 – 236 B.C, Asoka Maurya’s period was dominated by Buddhism but he also showed tolerance to other religions (Sen, 1988).This period was followed by the Mauryas of whom the most famous was Ashoka the Great. The borders of his empire extended from Kashmir and Peshawar in the North and Northwest to Mysore in the South and Orissa in the East but his reputation rests not so much on military conquests as on his celebrated rejection of war. Asoka tried to give harmony of culture by making stupas (Buddhist relic shrines) and pillars inscribed with his addresses and lectures.
The pillars of Asoka’s period were regarded as marvellous piece of work in the Indian art history as they embodied bold designing, technical skills and expressive symbolism. During this era, there were renewal of Sanskrit language and the great epics. Under, Pushyamitra and his successors, the Buddhists were permitted to embellish their stupas and eventually the ritualistic worship was accepted in Budhism also (Sen, 1988). This paved the way for art to flourish as the Buddhists opinions and ideas, myths and legends were presented in visual forms. The pillars and stupas of that time portrayed the reincarnation stories of Buddha and were illustrated as scenes on them. The use of stone in architecture began in Maurya’s rule (Schmidt, 1995). He established monuments, pillars and stupas engraved with the teachings of the Master (Buddha). In the supremacy of Asoka, the dance continued as a sacrificial practice (Schmidt, 1995).
The greatest monument of this period, executed in the supremacy of Chandragupta Maurya, was the old palace at the site of Kumhrar. Excavations at the site of Kumhrar nearby have unearthed the remains of the palace. The palace is thought to have been an aggregated of buildings, the most important of which was an immense pillared hall supported on a high substratum of timbers. The pillars were set in regular rows, thus dividing the hall into a number of smaller square bays. The number of columns is 80, each about 20 high.
During the reign of Ashoka, stonework was highly diversified order and comprised lofty free-standing pillars, railings of stupas, lion thrones and other colossal figures. The use of stone had reached great perfection during this time that even small fragments of stone art was given a high lustrous polish resembling fine enamel. This period noticeable the beginning of the Buddhist school of architecture, Ashoka was responsible for the construction of several stupas, which were large halls, capped with domes and bore symbols of Buddha.
Maurya Empire (Source: Vipul Singh, 2012)
For the next four hundred years (after the great Mauryas), India remained politically separated and weak. It was recurrently invaded and plundered by outsiders. In Gupta Dynasty, there was some stability. The art of the time was reflected as “classic” in Indian history as it touches the limits of elegance and sophistication. Different gods of Hindu were portrayed in sculpture with sensuous details. The animal figures were also made but vegetative patterns found no place in the art (Prakash, 2005). It was the period of peace and prosperity and observed an unparalleled pinnacle of art, literature and the sciences. This period also witnessed as the beginning of Hindu temple architecture. The Gupta regime saw the development and rise of pivotal period in the form of temple as a Hindu sense of “House of god”. The Vishnu temple in Jabbalpur district, Siva temple at Bhumara in Negod, Parvati temple at Nachna in Ajaigah, temple of Siva at Deogarh in the Jahnsi district and nine rock-cut asylums in Gupta tradition at Udayagiri in Bhopal are the examples of fine architecture of the time (Prakash, 2005). In Gupta administration, dancing became basic elements in upper class culture and dancing at courts was a common feature. The history shown that some of the rulers of Gupta regime were musicians themselves (Prakash, 2005).
After the Guptas, there was only a brief glow, in the time of Harshavardhana of Kannauj. A Chinese traveler, Huen-tsang visited India from (629 – 645 A.D.) during the supremacy of Harshavardhana. He made changes that had taken place in the lives of the Indian people since the days of the Guptas.
Mahmud invaded the region in 1000 A.D. from Ghazni and demolished the worship style and wealth of the area and as a result the Hindu domain disappeared from most of the Punjab. A century passed and another Muslim warrior Sultan Muhammad came from Ghur a neighbouring area of Ghazni with his slave governor, Qutbuddin Aibak. Mughal Empire lasted from 1526 to 1858. The Muslims who supported for one God and the equality of all men, their simplicity and disapproval of caste system, polytheism, worship and ritualism became popular in the masses and most of the Hindus embraced Islam for the true faith, sincerity and purity of life which symbolized from the life of the Muslims. But at the same time, there were Muslim writers and poets (Muslim Sufi order) who along with their Islamic traditions brought assimilation with Hinduism and the rulers offered Hindus the jobs in bureaucracy and in Army too, without compromising in the supremacy of Islam. Hindu music, art and dance were given space at the courts and Hindu motifs got blended with Islamic art (Richard, 1995). In that period, the teachings of Islam and Quran forbade making of sculptures so human and animal statues and drawings are not found in this period (Sharma, 1999).
The Muslim architecture of the time was dominated by carving and paintings of text from the Holy Book “Quran” and Arabic and Persian floral and geometric motifs are found on the sites of Muslim architectures. The Mosque and the Grave were major important buildings of the time. Agra Fort and Moti Masjid near Delhi, Taj Mahal at Agra by Shahjahan and Badshahi Mosque at Lahore built by Aurengzaib (1674), are the fine examples of Muslim architecture (Sharma, 1999). The paintings in the regime of The emperors Khilji and Tughhluq included the calligraphy (transcribing the text from the Holy Quran) and also the garden scenes but no animated picture could be found in this time.
The Mughal had good perception in art. The style of painting in their rule is known as “miniature” which was primarily done on the delicate palm tree leaves till the introduction of paper in the country in 1400, which then became the most popular material for paintings. The supremacy of Jehangir was also considered as the Golden age of Mughal painting, the portraits of emperors, members of royal families, holy men, saints, soldiers and dancing girls were depicted by the artists in the paintings (Sharma, 1999). In the period of Muslim rule, there were decline of dancing art particularly in the North, only Kathak dance was the only survival in North with all its emotions and with the passage of time and the influence of the ruling elites became more and more secular (Sharma, 1999). Well-known Persian, Hazrat Amir Khusrau was a poet, a musician and a soldier during that time. In Akbar’s court, there were total thirty eight masters of music as stated in Ain i Akbari and Dhrupad was the most favoured melody sung mostly by Swami Hari Dass at Akbar’s court. The later emperors, Jahangir and Shahjahan displayed the same desire for music. Tansen played Rabab a musical instrument of that time and Amir Khusrau use to play sitar. Tabla and Shehnai were other popular musical instruments in later years of Mughal rule (Sharma, 1999). Sufism is a spiritual system that has had an incredible impact on world literature and has affected many cultures. The impact of Sufism on Islamic culture can also be observed in the design of many buildings and the architecture in general, the patterns of poetry and music, and the visual effect of colours and calligraphy (Bayat and Jamnia, 1994). Art in the Muslim period prospered due to their decent taste and aesthetic sense. The artists, writers, poets, thinkers, scholars from all over Asia came to their courts. It was a period of Indo-Islamic culmination of appearance and magnificence in arts (music, painting, crafts and architecture) and culture (Richard, 1995). Historical reports indicated that All the Mughal rulers stimulated the artists and musicians and thus the people of different religions gather together and also the sufis saints of the time paved a way in bringing people together.
In the period of 1700 – 1900, The European came to India from the route of the sea. These were the Portuguese traders, then subsequently came the British, the French and the Dutch. All these invaders brought with them the elements of western cultures into the art and ways of living of the people of the country. The Portuguese initiated the revival of glitzy art and the French introduced their tastes in the decorations of palaces and houses. The British brought with them the Britain style of architecture and also influenced their modes in paintings and sculptures to such an extent that the Indian mind became alien to their own inheritance. In Rashtrapati Bhawan, New Delhi, there is a clear picture of the British impact on Indian architecture. Apart from these architectural leftovers, the colonial state also left behind a uniform system of government, a system of education based on Western ideas, science and philosophies. Modern literature in Indian languages were all profoundly influenced by the spread of English education and through it India’s intimate contact with the ideas and institutions of the West.