50 Fun Facts About Indian Culture

Which spring festival's eve bonfire recalls the demoness burned while trying to kill the boy devotee Prahlada?

Holi's eve is Holika Dahan, a bonfire marking the fire that burned the demoness Holika instead of Prahlada, a devotee of Vishnu; the coloured powders come out the next morning.

Which festival, a public holiday in India, ends Ramadan with dishes of sheer khurma and sweet toasted vermicelli?

Eid al-Fitr starts once the new moon is sighted on Chand Raat, an evening of late shopping for clothes and gifts; the morning prayer is followed by biryani, sheer khurma and sivayyan with milk and dried fruit.

At which festival, on the last day of the month of Shravana, do sisters tie a thread on their brothers' wrists?

Raksha Bandhan's thread is the rakhi, a talisman or amulet, and the festival usually falls in August; until the mid-20th century the name more often meant a same-day rite where a family priest tied threads on his patrons for money.

Which ten-day festival ends with clay idols paraded and immersed in water, around 150,000 of them in Mumbai alone?

Ganesh Chaturthi became a public spectacle in 1893, when Lokmanya Tilak used it to get around a British ban on public assembly; the tenth-day immersion is called the visarjan.

Which unstitched garment, 4.5 to 9 yards long and usually draped in the Nivi style, is worn over a petticoat?

The sari's petticoat has a different name in nearly every language — sāyā in Hindi, parkar in Marathi, ul pavadai in Tamil — and the fitted blouse worn with it is the choli.

Which Indian greeting is spoken with a slight bow, palms pressed together and thumbs close to the chest?

Namaste literally means 'bowing to you' — namaḥ is 'bow' and te is 'to you' — and in Hinduism it carries the sense 'I bow to the divine in you'.

Which Indian instrument did George Harrison play on the Beatles' 'Norwegian Wood', a first for a Western rock record?

The sitar first caught Harrison's eye while the Beatles filmed Help! in April 1965; by 1966 he was taking lessons from Ravi Shankar, whose concerts had carried the instrument west since 1956.

Which game, born as chaturanga in 7th-century India, made 18-year-old Gukesh Dommaraju its world champion in 2024?

Chess spread from India to Persia and the Arab world before reaching Europe, and Gukesh beat Ding Liren at 18 years and 195 days to become the 18th undisputed champion in a line that began with Wilhelm Steinitz in 1886.

Which Kolkata festival, inscribed on UNESCO's intangible heritage list in 2021, runs from Mahalaya to Vijayadashami?

Durga Puja's tenth day, Vijayadashami, opens with sindoor khela, married women smearing vermilion on the idols and on each other before the images are carried to the water.

Which Gujarat festival's nights end with dandiya raas, partners in two lines striking decorated sticks?

Navratri means 'a period of nine nights', and in Gujarat each night opens with arti before the dancing; the festival comes round twice a year, in Chaitra and again in Ashvin.

Which harvest festival, held over four days in Tamil Nadu, opens the month of Thai on 14 or 15 January?

Pongal means 'boiling over' in Tamil, after the dish of rice boiled with milk and jaggery that is allowed to spill from the pot; the four days are Bhogi, Thai Pongal, Mattu Pongal and Kaanum Pongal.

Which Punjabi spring harvest festival also marks the day Guru Gobind Singh founded the Khalsa, 13 April 1699?

Vaisakhi is also the Indian solar new year, and Sikhs mark it with nagar kirtan processions and the raising of the Nishan Sahib flag outside gurdwaras.

Buddha Purnima, on the Vaisakha full moon, marks which three events of Siddhartha Gautama's life on a single day?

Birth, enlightenment and death share one day in the South Asian tradition, unlike East Asia, where the enlightenment and the death are kept as separate holidays; Tibetans also keep the birth apart from Saga Dawa Duchen.

At which north Indian festival do married women fast from sunrise to moonrise, then view the moon through a sieve?

Karva Chauth's fast is kept for a husband's safety and long life, and after sighting the moon the woman looks at her husband's face through the same sieve; it falls on the fourth day of the waning moon.

Which eight-day Jain festival ends with Samvatsari, when everyone asks forgiveness with the words 'Micchami Dukkadam'?

Paryushana means 'abiding and coming together', and Jains spend it fasting, praying and hearing the scriptures; Digambara Jains keep a ten-day version called Dasa Lakshana Parva.

Which circle dance from Gujarat joined UNESCO's intangible heritage list in December 2023?

Garba is danced by women in honour of Amba Mata, the primordial mother, and each night usually closes with dandiya raas, the sibling dance in which partners tap sticks to a shared rhythm.

Which classical dance, known as Sadiraattam until 1932, was revived by Rukmini Devi Arundale at Kalakshetra?

Bharatanatyam got its name at a 1932 meeting of the Madras Music Academy, proposed by E. Krishna Iyer and Rukmini Devi, who opened Kalakshetra at Adyar in 1936 to teach it in the gurukul tradition.

Which classical dance, named for travelling storytellers, has gharanas named after Jaipur, Banaras and Lucknow?

Kathak's Jaipur gharana is known for fast spins and footwork, Banaras for footwork and Krishna stories, and Lucknow for grace; a fourth school grew at the court of Raigarh, whose king hired teachers from all three.

Which Assamese dance from the Vaishnavite monasteries founded by Sankardev was recognised as classical only in 2000?

Sattriya grew out of the Ankiya Nat one-act plays that the 15th-century polymath Sankardev wrote for his monasteries, and the Sangeet Natak Akademi admitted it to the classical canon on 15 November 2000.

Which Punjabi farmers' dance, driven by the double-headed dhol, became a pop genre abroad in the 1970s and 1980s?

Bhangra's dhol is struck with a heavy beater on one end and a lighter stick on the other, giving the swinging, syncopated beat; the dance itself welcomed the spring harvest in pre-partition Gurdaspur.

Which pair of hand drums, the larger bayan giving the bass, did Zakir Hussain play to win three Grammys in 2024?

The tabla's smaller drum, the dayan, is played with the dominant hand for treble; Hussain's four Grammys began with Planet Drum in 1992, the first ever awarded for Best World Music Album.

Which element of Indian classical music carries a season, time of day or mood, and is said to 'colour the mind'?

A raga is a melodic framework for improvisation, akin to a mode, and the word's root means 'colouring' or 'dyeing'; the rhythm cycle that partners it is the tala.

Which double-reed instrument did Ustad Bismillah Khan play at the Red Fort as the flag rose on 15 August 1947?

The shehnai is a wooden pipe with a double reed and a flared bell, played at weddings and temple festivals; Bismillah Khan received the Bharat Ratna in 2001, and India held a day of mourning when he died in 2006.

Hindi, with many dialects grouped under it, was the mother tongue of roughly what share of Indians in the 2011 census?

44% of Indians — more than half a billion people — named Hindi as their mother tongue in 2011, and counting second- and third-language speakers lifts its reach to 57%, still well short of the whole country.

How many languages does the Eighth Schedule of India's Constitution list, a roster that started at 14 in 1950?

22 languages are scheduled since the 92nd Amendment of 2003 added Bodo, Dogri, Santali and Maithili; Sindhi had been the first addition to the 1950 list, in 1967.

Which ancient language of Panini's Ashtadhyayi do several thousand Indians still report as their mother tongue?

Sanskrit's census returns are thought to reflect a wish for prestige rather than daily use, yet Panini's 'Eight-Chapter Grammar' still anchors its study as the foundation of Vyakarana, the Vedanga of grammar.

Which script, used for Hindi, Marathi and Nepali, hangs its letters from a horizontal headline called the shirorekha?

Devanagari runs left to right with rounded shapes inside squared outlines, and the headline that groups letters into words is already visible in the Kutila inscription of 992 CE.

Which language, written in Nastaliq-style Perso-Arabic script, is mutually intelligible with Hindi in everyday speech?

Urdu and Hindi form one continuum, Hindustani, that split on script and register: Urdu draws technical vocabulary from Persian and Arabic, and its Nastaliq calligraphy differs from the Naskh used for Arabic.

Which language, the second most spoken in India, did the 1952 Dhaka protests behind Mother Language Day defend?

Bengali speakers in East Pakistan fought on 21 February 1952 to have their language made a state language rather than a provincial one; UNESCO adopted the date in 1999 and it has been observed since 2000.

Which English word, recorded from 1762, comes from the Hindi cā̃pō — a head massage Dean Mahomed introduced to Britain?

Shampoo meant a head massage with hair oil long before it meant soap: Dean Mahomed brought 'shampooing' to Britain, and the first liquid hair-washing soap, named 'Champooing', appeared in Switzerland in 1900.

Which unstitched men's garment, about 4 yards of cloth, did Gandhi adopt in 1921 in solidarity with India's rural poor?

The dhoti is known as the panchakacham in the south, and Gandhi often wore it bare-chested, without a kurta, to stand with the rural poor and the handicrafts they made.

Which forehead dot, worn at the ajna chakra or 'third eye' between the eyebrows, is often a sticker these days?

Bindi comes from a word meaning 'point, drop or dot', and the red dot is worn by Hindus, Jains and Buddhists; a similar mark goes on babies in China, where it also stands for the opening of the third eye.

Which plant paste makes mehndi, the temporary skin art drawn on a bride's hands before an Indian wedding?

Henna paste leaves a temporary stain, and in the West the designs are simply called henna tattoos; the same body art runs through North Africa, East Africa and the Middle East.

Which hand-spun cloth, promoted by Gandhi as swadeshi, was by law the only fabric allowed for India's flag until 2021?

Khadi's coarseness led Gandhi to give it that name, from khaddar; the first piece was woven at his Sabarmati Ashram in 1917–18, and the right to make the flag still rests with the Khadi commission.

Which necklace of black beads on a thread treated with turmeric does the groom tie on the bride at a Hindu wedding?

The mangalsutra rite, Mangalya Dharanam, means 'wearing the auspicious', and the necklace is not universal: several Hindu communities never historically used it, while some non-Hindus do.

Which 1913 silent film by Dadasaheb Phalke, sparked by a screening of The Life of Christ, is India's first feature?

Raja Harishchandra told of a king who gave up his kingdom and family rather than break his word, and Phalke's name now sits on the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, the highest honour in Indian cinema.

Which director, whose 1955 debut Pather Panchali won eleven international prizes, received an honorary Oscar in 1992?

Satyajit Ray received the honorary Academy Award from Audrey Hepburn by video link 24 days before his death, calling it the best achievement of his movie-making career; Pather Panchali opened the Apu Trilogy.

Which song from the Telugu film RRR became the first from an Indian film to win the Oscar for Best Original Song?

Naatu Naatu was also the first Indian song to take the Golden Globe, and composer M. M. Keeravani modelled its beat on village folk songs; Rahul Sipligunj and Kaala Bhairava sang it.

Which 1975 'curry western' about the bandit Gabbar Singh ran for more than five years at Mumbai's Minerva cinema?

Sholay's dialogue entered everyday speech partly thanks to a dialogue-only LP that Polydor released about three weeks after the film opened, once audiences were already repeating the lines.

At which Mumbai cinema did Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, the 1995 Shah Rukh Khan romance, pass 1,000 weeks in 2014?

Maratha Mandir opened the film on 20 October 1995 and passed 1,000 weeks in December 2014, the longest run in Indian cinema; Raj and Simran are two London-raised non-resident Indians who fall in love on a trip through Europe.

Kollywood, the nickname of the Tamil film industry, fuses Hollywood with which Chennai neighbourhood full of studios?

Kodambakkam drew the studios after Madras, now Chennai, became a secondary hub for Hindi cinema, the other South Indian industries and even Sri Lankan films.

Which contact sport's raids were limited only by the raider's breath until a 2014 professional league set 30 seconds?

Kabaddi's raider crosses into the rival half to tag defenders and get back untackled, scoring a point per tag, while the defenders score by bringing the raider down.

Under which Indian name did Snakes and Ladders begin, with ladders for virtues and snakes for vices?

Moksha Patam means 'liberation lesson', and the board reached the United Kingdom in the 1890s with colonial families returning from the Raj; the related pachisi became Ludo.

Which floor art of rice flour or coloured powders is drawn at the threshold each morning, called kolam in Tamil Nadu?

Rangoli is meant to welcome Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth, and a household without a clean entrance and rangoli is said to be an abode of daridra, bad luck; the names run from muggu to alpana by region.

Which Mumbai workers move up to 200,000 home-cooked lunches a day by bicycle and train, earning a Harvard case study?

Dabbawalas sort each tin by a colour code for the starting station, a number for the destination and marks for the building and floor; the Harvard case study added in 2010 is titled On-Time Delivery, Every Time.

Which black eye cosmetic do Indian women and children wear, with a dot applied to ward off the evil eye, or nazar?

Kajal and kohl are not strictly identical, though Indians use the words interchangeably; in the Middle East and North Africa mothers long painted it on infants' eyes soon after birth, some to 'strengthen' them.

Which Nagaland festival, held at Kisama from 1 to 10 December each year, is called the 'Festival of Festivals'?

The Hornbill festival takes its name from the big forest bird that appears in the folklore of most Naga peoples, and the state government runs it to bring the ethnic groups together.

Which Sufi shrine music, credited to the 13th-century poet Amir Khusrau, did Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan take worldwide?

Qawwali aims to induce wajd, spiritual ecstasy, and dhikr, remembrance of God; Khusrau wrote for the Chishti saint Nizamuddin Auliya, and his Man Kunto Maula is among the earliest pieces in the repertoire.

In the Indian numbering system, how many is one crore, the unit equal to 100 lakh and abbreviated cr?

Ten million is one crore, and the next names up — arab for a billion and kharab for a hundred billion — are rarely used, so trillions get spoken of as lakh crore.

Which racket sport was known as Poona after the garrison town where its first rules were drawn up in 1873?

Badminton kept the Pune rules until 1887, and a London toy dealer, Isaac Spratt, had already printed a booklet called Badminton Battledore – A New Game as early as 1860.