Page 15 - Asian Paradises 2019-20

— India —

INDIA

Every busy thoroughfare in the cities and towns AD. Judaism dates back to 973 BC while Sikhism was introduced
across India has peddlers and pedestrians jostling by Guru Nanak, its founder, in the 15th century. Hindi is the
for standing room as the traffic streams past official language, popular in the north while in the south, Tamil,
uninterrupted. Telugu and Malayalam is spoken with hundreds of dialects
between them. English continues to be widely spoken throughout
Ancient buildings dazzle the eye at every turn and everywhere India and helps bridge the many different dialects.
there is evidence of the past—conquerors and colonisers from Nature
the Greeks and Persians to the Portuguese, French and British: India is divided from the rest of Asia by mountains and sea. It is
magnificent monuments, memorials, palaces and forts were bound by the Great Himalayas in the north, stretches southward
their legacy. In addition, the Arabs and the Chinese used India and at the Tropic of Cancer, and tapers off into the Indian
as a trading post for spices and silks long before a sea route from Ocean, between the Bay of Bengal in the east and the Arabian
Europe was discovered. India is a land of warmth and hospitality, Sea in the west. One-fifth of the land is covered with forests
a bright colourful world of saris, festivals and fairs.
harbouring a variety of wildlife. Rare species like the Asian lion,
Capital and major centres the white tiger, the one-horned rhinoceros, and the Kashmir stag
New Delhi, in the country’s north, is the capital and major are protected animals.
gateway. It is a contemporary, busy metropolis, which combines The sights
both the influence of the British Raj with modern development There is so much to see in India. In Old Delhi the river Yamuna
interspersed with ancient monuments, some of which have even runs along the eastern boundary past the cremation sites of
been incorporated into a golf course. Also in the north are Agra, Mahatma Gandhi and Prime Ministers Jawaharlal Nehru and
Varanasi, Lucknow, Srinagar and Jaipur, Jodhpur, Udaipur, Indira and Rajiv Gandhi. The walls of the old city were built
Chandigarh, Amritsar and Shimla. In the west are Mumbai by Shah Jahan and are nearly nine kilometres long. The Ajmeri
(Bombay), Lonavala, Pune, Bhopal, Khajuraho, Gwalior, and Delhi gates are part of this old wall, which encloses the Red
Ahmedabad, Vadodara and the coastal regions of Goa and Fort. About 160 kilometres south of New Delhi is the town of
Karnataka. The capital of Karnataka is Bangalore, which is in
the south along with Hyderabad, Mysore, Chennai (Madras), Mathura, once a great Buddhist centre and the legendary scene of
Tiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum) and Kochi (Cochin). In the Lord Krishna’s playful exploits.
east is Kolkata (Calcutta), Bhubaneswar, Gopalpur on Sea, Port Agra is 200 kilometres from the capital and was the seat of the
Blair in the Andaman Islands and Darjeeling, famous for its great Moghul emperor Akbar who built a huge fort there, which
superb tasting teas and the World Heritage Toy Train. contained his palace known as the Jahangiri. His grandson,
The people Shah Jahan, built the incomparable Taj Mahal between 1630
India’s population is in excess of a billion people and its religions and 1652. Worth a visit is Akbar’s proposed capital of Fatehpur
are many and varied. Hindu originated with the early Aryans Sikri, abandoned after only a few years, and the tomb of Akbar at
and is not only a religion but also a philosophy and way of life. Sikandra.
Jainism and Buddhism were introduced in the 6th century Varanasi, arguably the world’s oldest living city, was once the
BC and the Islamic teachings were brought to the country by site of about 100 Hindu temples and 30 Buddhist monasteries.
Arab traders in the 7th century. The Afghans and Moghuls Most did not survive the Muslim occupation, but there is a sacred
who followed were also Muslim, so the religion flourished. area called Varamaso, which Hindus hope to visit once in their
Christianity reached India with the arrival of St Thomas, the life. Thousands make the pilgrimage every year to bathe in the
Apostle, and Zoroastrianism (whose total world population is no Ganges, a sacred river, and visit the holy Viswanath Temple (the
more than 140 000) found its way with followers who left their domes of which are covered in solid gold) dedicated to Shiva,
homeland in Iran following the Islamic conquest around 766 Lord of the Universe.

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