INDIA, A nation known for its glorious culture that became heritage over the time period .Indian culture is unique in several ways .It has an uninterrupted history of evolution that goes back to nearly five thousand years old .Our great land has been made up of several elements interms of its culture .One of the great feature of our great culture is it's assimilating nature which assimilated several elements with its existent culture . This assimilating nature has actually added vibrance , plurality ,sense of thrill and saved the people of India from a monotonous uniformity . Infact ,The pulsating mosaic ,it's abstractness is vividly displayed when one visits across the length and breadth of the country .Our culture has shared heritage which became India identity in the process of evolution of time . India ,The only country on the world map which is taking the responsibility of almost all the possible ethinicity of the world .We as a country is very diverse and vivid in terms of ritual ,custom , language, cuisine ,clothing architecture etc etc .It's feels like world population is living as one nation . I am huge admirer of my nation's ancient glory .I beleive it should never be forgotten because our ancient people laid the foundation of this great country .Country became great because the people living in the land was great in its approach towards life and ofcourse land geography is incredible .
Lets begin this journey by first arriving at a point from where it all has started .Our great civilization has its beginning from the bank of Indus river .It is also said that Indus is the mother of the name of the word called India and the religion called hindu (The habitants of Indus river ,which was tongue twisted by foreign intruder and called hindu ) . This civilization was very modern in its approach .The great civilization which flourished near the bank of Indus became culture over the time period . Culture developed from civilization as I beleive .Culture led to the term called tradition which is carried on by the people of the further generation . I beleive civilization is the way of living life and culture is the organized systematic arranged way of living life which splited from the term called civilization . Our Indus valley was great civilization that's why our culture is great . Civilization faded away but culture remained string point of the Indus river deposited land's identity. Our great civilization existed with Mesopotamian , Egyptian civilization simultaneously .Our civilization is 5000 old civilization and represented an advance level of living life with urban sort of settlements .They were advanced in their lifestyle with sewage ,bathroom , usage of bricks etc etc .Their brain was so evolved ,they understood the meticulous way of living life .It existed for 2500-1500 BC (I don't know the exact date but circa around this ) .This is one chapter of our great way of living life 5000 ago .After its decline due to some unfortunate geographic conditions ,This land saw its second chapter of glory associated with the coming of Aryans (Their origin is still a matter of debate ) .Their way of living life is described in Vedas .It is said that they are pastoral in their occupation .They brought the teaching of Vedas .This settlements is known as Vedic civilization .It lasted from 1500-600 BC .It was during this period that many features which we associate with what has come to be called as Hinduism originated and took shape .It is because these people were also living near Indus river and it's tributeries made land called saptasindhu .Rigveda was composed on this land . Their way of living life was based on agriculture,cattle breeding , centrality of cow in our economy (cow was the source of many product and transport as well ) ..later in time, Transportation shifted to horse, elephants,chariot etc .Their soceity was patriarchal .In terms of literature and philosophy thought it has given us Vedas, the Upanishads etc etc . Vedic people had very cumbersome practice but it was highly effective for quality life . Vedic people shifted to gagnetic plain after some point in time and made their home near the bank of river Ganga . They found the land of Ganga the most fertile compare to their earlier habitat ,so they started worshipping Ganga for giving such enriching soil that can produce more crops compare to their earlier settlements . This became a part of our practice from that time and we consider Ganga as mother for nurturing millions life then and to the coming people in future as well . Ganga is doing her job incredibly but I feel sad the way Ganga is treated from couple of years by some so called intellectuals .After Vedic people and their teachings,we had seen the era of ruler which established their vast empire .It's starts from Magadh extended to Mauryan empire till Common Era arrives . Many significant great discoveries happened in the field of science ,medicine , literature in these eras but Gupta Empire helmed by Samudra gupta showed incredible growth in various field during Common Era . Gupta period is often described as representative of the highest forms of Indian culture .The great epics ,Ramayana and Mahabharata though composed in between 6th -4th Century BC but it was collected during gupta period .This period kept the ancient treasure ( according to their time) well-preserved for further coming generations .This period also saw the resurgence of Hinduism as state religion because Ashoka the great Mauryan ruler had declared Buddhism as state religion due to cumbersome nature of its practices . The codes and ethics of Hindu social and family laws by done by Manu and his companions .The complete existent social scenario regarding domestic life of the Hindu family such as subordination of female ,joint family system was done by Manu during Gupta period .It was during this time ,The hindu thinkers developed a cyclic theory of time according to which it was divided into 4 ages (Satyug,Tretayug,Dwaparyug,Kaliyug ) .The purana was also composed during this period .Great development took place in the fields of Indian astronomy , astrology and mathematics during Gupta period .In literature ,We have Kalidasa ,Shudrak,Bababhatta,Vatsayayan contributed in literary field. The most famous literary works from this time was meghaduta,Shakuntala,Banbhatta,Kamasutra etc etc .This empire seen its collapse during skandagupta during beginning of 7th century .Harsha tried to revive the imperial tradition but after his death by the mid by mid 7th century his empire declined and foreign invadering started .But still,After so many Intrusion We have been able to keep the teaching of our old people alive with dignity and respect .Infact ,During the process of conserving our own practice we have assimilated the foreign practices in our own existed one to make it more vibrant and rich which offers variety to the people of the country . Now ,The foreign practice of art, architecture,music,clothing,cuisine etc is so deeply rooted to the soil of India that it's feels our own .They are part of our identity . We have our teaching of vashudeva Kutumbakam from our ancient people .We follow the practice and it has only made our life more happy and colourful . A country is not a mere land mass .It denotes the territory with people .The people define a country -Its past ,it's present ,it's future .They have their tradition which are part of their environment and their interaction with each other . The identities of the different people who constitute the generic term Indians have been achieved through their cultural and political expression in the history . Cultural advance is a continuous process -reformulation and redefinition in the context of the demands that history makes on human beings is its hallmarks . We have contribution from each and every period of Indian land history in various fields such as music ,dance , architecture,paintings ,hand craft, literature etc etc. We have gloried history in ancient times literature but during medieval times , literature developed in various part of the country reflected a diverse yet unified consciousness . Translation of important texts,religious and secular ,created a composite consciousness among the elite .Ramayana , Mahabharata,Vedas and Upanishads were translated into Persian and regional languages .Works on music and dance ,as well as various scientific treaties of ancient India and of the Arabs were also translated .Infact ,It would not be wrong to say that Indian cultural identity was forged in the struggle for freedom and social justice .We have gone through various struggles throughtout significant part of our history straight from Turks,Mongols,Afghan,British ,Dutch , Portugese etc etc.All these struggles created a great churning in Indian society and growth of new values at the popular level .The central role of the popular struggles in our national movement gave a qualitatively new basis to nationhood . A voluntary acceptance of diversity vand the right of all people to free and equal expression in all spheres of life becomes a cardinal ,consciously expressed principle of the nationhood .The search for civilization roots assumed the expression of religious forms .Now ,The pluralism was defined in more positive and egalitarian terms than co existence which has a long history in our country . Liberty,equality and fraternity is the new definition of pluralism .They have given to us the culture of democracy and democratic rights as values ,mass debates and definition of identities .They made possible an all Indian platform for the articulation of diversity as collective life and unity, and are as much part of our heritage as the cultural components of our tradition created in the ancient and medieval periods. The contemporary India faces serious threats from caste ,communal and ethic conflicts , discrimination against women ,unequal economic development and some separatist movement .These affect the cultural tradition and heritage and need to be tackled within a democratic secular framework of Indian soceity and polity .
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