Monday, March 1, 2010

India Welcomes You….



India or Bharath is the Destination of the Millennium, a Land of All Seasons where beauty beckons, culture echoes, diversity delights and tradition talks. Those who reach India are greeted with a gracious Namasthe, Namaskaaram, Vanakkam or SatSriAkal denoting warmth, hospitality and respect - a tradition in tune with the country’s age-old motto “Athidhi Devo Bhava” where the guest is treated as God.

Blessed with mist clad mountain ranges, deep blue seas, enigmatic deserts, golden beaches, emerald green valleys, palm fringed backwaters on the one hand and unique art forms, exciting fairs and festivals, interesting pilgrim centres, exclusive heritage sites, royal forts, majestic monuments, architectural marvels and exotic flora and fauna on the other, this legendary land is unique in all aspects - it is no wonder that India has emerged as one among the Top Five Tourist Hotspots of the world, with a tremendous increase in tourist traffic all through the year.

Discover and explore this wonderful peninsular subcontinent that isIndia, the land that projects Unity in Diversity - surrounded by the grand snow capped Himalayan ranges in the North, the spectacular coastline offered by the Arabian Sea in the West, the vast Bay of Bengal in the East, and the awesome Indian Ocean in the South..
People and Life Style:
Indians are greatly bound by religion and family. These ties run deep into the cultural framework of the nation. The ancient culture of South Asia, going back at least 4,500 years, has come down to India primarily in the form of religious texts. The artistic heritage, as well as intellectual and philosophical contributions, has always owed much too religious thought and symbolism. The listing of the major belief systems only scratches the surface of the remarkable diversity in Indian religious life. The complex doctrines and institutions of the great traditions, preserved through written documents, are divided into numerous schools of thought, sects, and paths of devotion. In many cases, these divisions stem from the teachings of great masters, who arise continually to lead bands of followers with a new revelation or path to salvation. The local interaction between great traditions and local forms of worship and belief, based on village, caste, tribal, and linguistic differences, creates a range of ritual forms and mythology that varies widely throughout the country.
There are many diverse ethnic groups among the people of India. The 6 main ethnic groups are as follows.1.      Negrito .2.      Proto - Australoids or Austrics .3.      Mongoloids .4.      Mediterranean or Dravidian .5.      Western Brachycephals .6.      Nordic Aryans .
Negroitos/Brachycephalic: The people belong to Negroitos or the Brachycephalic are (broad headed) people fromAfrica were the earliest people have come to India. They have survived in their original habitat in Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The Jarawas, Onges, Sentinelese and the Great Andamanese are few examples and some hill tribes like Irulas, Kodars, Paniyans and Kurumbas are found in some patches in Southern part of mainland India.
Pro-Australoids/Austrics:
Pro-Australoids/Austrics 
were the next  group come to India after the Negritos and laid the foundation of Indian civilization. They cultivated rice and vegetables and made sugar from sugarcane.  They are people with long headed with low foreheads and prominent eye ridges, noses with low and broad roots, thick jaws, large palates and teeth and small chins with wavy hair lavishly distributed all over their brown bodies, The Austrics of India represent a race of medium height, dark complexion with long heads and rather flat noses but otherwise of regular features. Miscegenation with the earlier Negroids may be the reason for the dark or black pigmentation of the skin and flat noses. Now these people are found in some parts of IndiaMyanmar and the islands of South East Asia. Their languages have survived in the Central and Eastern India.
MongoloidsThese people are found in the North eastern part of India in the states of Assam, Nagaland, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, and Tripura. They are also found in Northern parts of west BengalSikkim, and Ladakh. Generally they are people with yellow complexion, oblique eyes, high cheekbones, sparse hair and medium height.
Dravidians:These are the people of South India having different sub-groups like the Paleo-Mediterranean, the true Mediterranean, and the Oriental Mediterranean. They have been believed to come before the Aryans.  They appear to be people of the same stock as the peoples of Asia Minor and Crete and pre- Hellenic Aegean's of Greece. They are reputed to have built up the city civilization of the Indus valley, whose remains have been found at Mohenjo- daro and Harappa and other Indus cities. 
Western Bracycephals:
These include the Alpinoids, Dinarics and Armenoids, The Parsis and Kodavas . They are the broad headed people living mainly on the western side of the country such as theGanga Valley and the delta, parts of KashmirKathiawarGujaratMaharashtra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
Nordics/Indo-Aryans:This group was the last one to immigrate to India somewhere between 2000 and 1500 B.C. They are now mainly found in the northern and central part of India

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