The Cultural Heritage of India is a vibrant mosaic of lively and magnificent colors. Indian Culture encompasses a unique blend of food, fashion, festivals, dance and music that spellbounds the four corners of the world in its euphoric nature. Explore here, the diversified but united culture of India that has flourished for many centuries and is India's way of life.

India is a popular destination and boasts a cultural heritage that is worth exploring. As a tourist you have many choice to explore - from cuisine to dances to music. All diverse in nature encompass to form the culture of India. Very few countries in the world have such an ancient and diverse culture as India's. Dating back to over 5000 years old civilization, India's culture has been enriched by successive waves of migration which were absorbed into the Indian way of life. The Indian culture comprises of Indian music, Indian Dance, Indian cuisines, costumes and Indian Festivals. 

Indian Dances

Indian dances are popular all over the world for their unique style and lucid expression portrayed by the artiste. Indian dances have the potential to recreate the magic of past era as well as represent the present with their futuristic style. 

It is believed that classical dance in India originated 2BC when the ancient treatise on dance, Natya Shastra, was compiled. Guided by the elaborate codes in the Natya Shastra and by mythology, legend and classical literature, Indian classical dance attracts many tourist all across the world. Classical dance forms have rigid rules for presentation. ASome of the leading dance classical dance form are Bharata Natyam, Kathakali, Kathak, Manipuri, Odissi, Kuchipudi and Mohini Attam 

India's traditional art and entertainment forms are amongst the most evolved and sophisticated of such systems. Carnatic music, classical dances like Bharathanatyam, Kuchipudi etc, theatre and drama forms including Harikatha and folk arts are amongst the traditional and ancient art and entertainment forms today. Indian films which today have their own idioms are patterned after the traditional arts in their formative years during 1930's and 40's. Carnatic music and bharathanatyam reigned supreme in Tamil films during this period. Indian cinema especially Hindi and Tamil cinema have grown to be one of the largest film industries in the world, perhaps next only to Hollywood. 

India's classical arts like Carnatic music, dance, theatre and drama have traditions and history going back to several centuries. The musical forms prevalent today including Carnatic and Hindustani music have their roots in "Sama Veda" one of the four Vedas which are the eternal and timeless scriptures from which the religious and social ethos of the sub-continent evolved. Bharatnatyam too has an ancient antiquity with authoritative source books for it like "Natya Sastra" by the sage Bharata Muni and "Abhinaya Darpana" by Nandi Kesava dating back to centuries before Christ (scholars are yet to agree on the precise period) 

Another unique feature of the Indian art tradition is the guru-sishya parampara (teacher taught lineage). In this form of learning a student of an art form lived for long periods often more than a decade as apart of the teachers family where he learnt not just an art like carnatic music or dance but also imbibed the value systems of his guru. Thus there was an unbroken lineage not only of the art form but also a certain value system that was necessary for the growth and practice of the art. Sadly this centuries old system which flourished until the early part of this century is now more or less extinct.