1.
The world’s
first granite temple is the Brihadeswara Temple at Tanjavur, Tamil Nadu. It was
started in 1004 AD and is made from 130 000 tons of granite.
2.
India is about 1/3 the size of the United
States, yet it is the second most populous country in the world, with a
population of 1,166,079,217. India is the seventh largest country in the world,
at 1.27 million square miles.
3.
India is the largest democracy in the world.
4.
The Kumbh Mela (or Grand Pitcher Festival) is
a huge Hindu religious festival that takes place in India every 12 years. In
2001, 60 million people attended, breaking the record for the world’s biggest
gathering. The mass of people was photographed from space by a satellite
5.
Many Indians find toilet paper repellent and
consider it cleaner to splash water with the left hand in the appropriate
direction. Consequently, the left hand is considered unclean and is never used
for eating.
6.
To avoid polluting the elements (fire, earth,
water, air), followers of Zoroastrianism in India don’t bury their dead, but
instead leave bodies in buildings called “Towers of Silence” for the vultures
to pick clean. After the bones dry, they are swept into a central well.
7.
It is illegal to take Indian currency (rupees)
out of India.
8.
India leads the world with the most murders
(32,719), with Russia taking second at 28,904 murders per year.
9.
India has one of the world’s highest rates of abortion
10. More
than a million Indians are millionaires, yet most Indians live on less than two
dollars a day. An estimated 35% of India’s population lives below the poverty
line.
11. Cows
can be found freely wandering the streets of India’s cities. They are
considered sacred and will often wear a tilak, a Hindu symbol of good fortune. Cows are considered
one of humankind’s seven mothers because they offer milk as does one’s natural
mother.
12. Dancing
is one of India’s most highly developed arts and was an integral part of
worship in the inner shrines of every temple. It is notable for its expressive
hand movements.
13. Rabies
is endemic in India. Additionally, “Delhi Belly” or diarrhea is commonplace due
to contaminated drinking water.
14. Many
Indian wives will never say their husband’s name aloud, as it is a sign of
disrespect. When addressing him, the wife will use several indirect references,
such as “ji” or “look here” or “hello,” or even refer to him as the father of
her child.
15. A
widow is considered bad luck—otherwise, her husband wouldn’t have died. Elderly
women in the village might call a widow “the one who ate her husband.” In some
orthodox families, widows are not allowed near newlyweds or welcomed at social
gatherings.
16. India
is the birthplace of chess. The original word for “chess” is the Sanskrit chaturanga, meaning “four members of
an army”—which were mostly likely elephants, horses, chariots, and foot
soldiers
.
17. The
Indian flag has three horizontal bands of color: saffron for courage and
sacrifice, white for truth and peace, and green for faith, fertility, and
chivalry. An emblem of a wheel spinning used to be in the center of the white
band, but when India gained independence, a Buddhist dharma chakra, or wheel of life, replaced
the spinning wheel.
18. The
temples of Khajuraho are famous for their erotic sculptures and are one of the
most popular tourist attractions in India. Scholars still debate the purpose of
such explicit portrayals of sexual intercourse, which sometimes involve
animals.
19. The
earliest cotton in the world was spun and woven in India. Roman emperors would
wear delicate cotton from India that they would call “woven winds.” Mogul
emperors called the fabrics “morning dew” and “cloth of running water”.
20. In
ancient and medieval India, suttees,
in which a recently widowed woman would immolate herself on her husband’s
funeral pyre, were common.
21. The
Himalayas—from the Sanskrit hima,
meaning “snow,” and alaya,
meaning “abode”—are found in the north of India. They extend 1,500 miles and
are slowly growing taller, by almost an inch (2.5 cm) a year. Several ancient
Indian monasteries are found nestled in the grandeur of these mountains.
22. India
is the world’s largest producer of dried beans, such as kidney beans and
chickpeas. It also leads the world in banana exports; Brazil is second.
23. In
India, the fold and color of clothing are viewed as important markers of social
classification. Additionally, a woman will be viewed as either a prostitute or
a holy person depending on the manner in which she parts her hair.
24. With
150,000 post offices, India has the largest postal network in the world.
However, it is not unusual for a letter to take two weeks to travel just 30
miles.
25. In
India, grasping one’s ears signifies repentance or sincerity.
26. The
Bengal tiger is India’s national animal. It was once ubiquitous throughout the
country, but now there are fewer than 4,000 wild tigers left.
27. Indians
hold prominent places both internationally and in the United States. For
example, the co-founder of Sun Microsystems (Vinod Khosla), the creator of the
Pentium chip (Vinod Dahm), the founder/creator of Hotmail (Sabeer Bhatia), and
the GM of Hewlett-Packard (Rajiv Gupta) are all Indian.
28. Alexander
the Great of Macedon (356-323 B.C.) was one of the first important figures to
bring India into contact with the West. After his death, a link between Europe
and the East would not be restored until Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama
(1460-1524) landed in Calicut, India, in 1498.
29. The
British Raj, or British rule, lasted from 1858 to 1947 (although they had a
strong presence in India since the 1700s). British influence is still seen in
Indian architecture, education system, transportation, and politics. Many of
India’s worst famines are associated with British rule in India.
30. Every
major world religion is represented in India. Additionally, Hinduism, Buddhism,
Jainism, and Sikhism all originated in India.
31. About
80% of Indians are Hindu. Muslims are the largest minority in India and form
approximately 13% of the country’s population. In fact, India has the third
largest population of Muslims in the world, after Indonesia and Pakistan.
32. India
has the world’s largest movie industry, based in the city of Mumbai (known as
the “City of Dreams”). The B in “Bollywood” comes from Bombay, the former name
for Mumbai. Almost all Bollywood movies are musicals.
33. Mumbai
(Bombay) is India’s largest city, with a population of 15 million. In 1661,
British engineers built a causeway uniting all seven original islands of Bombay
into a single landmass.
34. Mohandas
K. Gandhi (1869-1948) is known around the world as Mahatma, which is an
honorific title meaning “Great Soul” in the ancient Indian language of
Sanskrit. He devoted his life to free India from British rule peacefully and
based his campaign on civil disobedience. His birthday, October 2, is a
national holiday. He was assassinated in 1948.
35. The
lotus is sacred to both Hindus and Buddhists. The Baha’i house of worship in
Delhi, known as the “Lotus Temple,” is shaped like a lotus flower with 27
gigantic “petals” that are covered in marble.
36. The
banyan, or Indian fig tree, is considered a symbol of immortality and is
mentioned in many Indian myths and legends. This self-renewing plant is India’s
national tree.
37. Marigold
flowers are used as decoration for Hindu marriages and are a symbol of good
fortune and happiness.
38. The
official name of India is the Republic of India. The name “India” derives from
the River Indus, which most likely is derived from the Sanskrit sindhu, meaning “river.” The official
Sanskrit name of India is Bharat, after
the legendary king in the epic Mahabharata.
39. Introduced
by the British, cricket is India’s most popular sport. Hockey is considered the
national sport, and the Indian field hockey team proudly won Olympic gold in
1928.
40. Indians
made significant contributions to calculus, trigonometry, and algebra. The
decimal system was invented in India in 100 B.C. The concept of zero as a
number is also attributed to India.
41. The
national fruit of India is the mango. The national bird is the peacock, which
was initially bred for food.
42. Most
historians agree that the first recorded account of plastic
surgery is found in ancient Indian Sanskrit texts.
43. Hindi
and English are the official languages of India. The government also recognizes
17 other languages (Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Nepali, Manipuri, Konkani,
Kannada, Kashmiri, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Sindhi, Tamil,
Telugu, and Urdu). Apart from these languages, about 1,652 dialects are spoken
in the country.
44. India’s
pastoral communities are largely dependent on dairy and have made India the
largest milk-producing country in the world.
45. India
has the world’s third largest road network at 1.9 million miles. It also has
the world’s second largest rail network, which is the world’s largest civilian
employer with 16 million workers.
46. Rivers
have played a vital role in India’s popular culture and folklore - they have
been worshipped as goddesses because they bring water to an otherwise dry land.
Bathing in the Ganges in particular is thought to take away a person’s sins. It
is not unusual to spread a loved one’s ashes in the Ganges.
47. Raziya
Sultana (1205-1240) was the first woman leader of India. She was considered a
great leader, though she ruled for only three years before being murdered.
48. Most
Indians rinse their hands, legs, and face before eating a meal. It is
considered polite to eat with the right hand, and women eat after everyone is
finished. Wasting food is considered a sin.
49. During
the Vedic era in India, horse sacrifice sanctioned the sovereignty of the king.
50. It
is traditional to wear white, not black, to a funeral in India. Widows will
often wear white in contrast to the colorful clothes of married or single
women.
51. All
of India is under a single time zone.
52. On
India’s Independence Day, August 15, 1947, the country was split into India and
Pakistan. The partition displaced 1.27 million people and resulted in the death
of several hundred thousand to a million people.
53. In
recent years, Indian authors have made a mark on the world with such novels as
Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses (1988), Vikram
Seth’s Suitable Boy (1993),
and Arundhati Roy’s The God of
Small Things (1997).
54. India
experiences six seasons: summer, autumn, winter, spring, summer monsoon, and
winter monsoon.
55. India
is the world’s largest tea producer, and tea (chai) is its most popular
beverage.
56. The
Taj Mahal (“crown palace”) was built by Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan (1592-1666)
for his beloved wife Mumtaz Mahal (1593-1631). This architectural beauty has
been called “marbled embroidery” for its intricate workmanship. It took 22,000
workmen 22 years to complete it.
57. The
first and greatest civilization in ancient India developed around the valley of
the Indus River (now Pakistan) around 3000 B.C. Called the Indus Valley
civilization, this early empire was larger than any other empire, including
Egypt and Mesopotamia.
58. After
the great Indus Civilization collapsed in 2000 B.C., groups of Indo-Europeans
called Aryans (“noble ones”) traveled to northwest India and reigned during
what is called the Vedic age. The mingling of ideas from the Aryan and Indus
Valley religions formed the basis of Hinduism, and the gods Shiva, Kali, and
Brahma all have their roots in Aryan civilization. The Aryans also recorded the Vedas, the first Hindu
scriptures, and introduced a caste system based on ethnicity and occupation.
59. Alexander
the Great invaded India partly because he wanted to solve the mystery of the
“ocean,” which he had been told was a huge, continuous sea that flowed in a
circle around the land. When he reached the Indian Ocean, he sacrificed some
bulls to Poseidon for leading him to his goal.
60. Greek
sculpture strongly influenced many portrayals of Indian gods and goddesses,
particularly after the conquest of Alexander the Great around 330 B.C. In fact,
early Indian gods had Greek features and only later did distinct Indian styles
emerge.
61. Chandragupta
Maurya (340-290 B.C.), a leader in India who established the Mauryan Empire
(321-185 B.C.), was guarded by a band of women on horseback.
62. When
the first independent prime minister of India, pacifist Jawaharlal Nehru (1889-1964),
was featured in Vogue, his
distinctive close fitting, single-breasted jacket briefly became an important
fashion statement for the Mod movement in the West. Named the Nehru jacket, the
prime minister’s coat was popularized by the Beatles and worn by such famous
people as Johnny Carson (1925-2005) and Sammy Davis Jr. (1925-1990).
63. India has the 3rd largest military force in the
world, yet the country has never in its history invaded another country.
