Suppose you wake yourself up one morning to find yourself in the Strange Land, where people speak a language you don't understand, wear different clothes, eat what you don't use. You will find it impossible to live until you learn their ways of behaving. These ways of behaving, among many other things, go into the construction of our culture. You see, we are all born into a culture. This may vary according to our region, religion and race or class. As we grow, each of us absorbs dozens of cultural practices almost automatically. Many of these methods have been passed down from generation to generation, some of them centuries old, and some even millennia old traditions.
In India we have many different cultural forms. This includes sculpture, architecture, painting, and to name a few, music. There is an immense diversity within each of these. For example, if we think of songs, we can immediately think of many types: ballads, film songs, hymns, qawwalis.
Popular Folk Culture
Ordinary people have developed rich cultural traditions that are often called popular by the people. People have expressed themselves and approached cultural values through song, dance and storytelling. All this goes into the construction of folk culture. Given their limited material resources, ordinary people cannot build magnificent monuments, but they create and use numerous small objects that are extremely beautiful. While some of these items are used for regular activities, others are reserved for special occasions. Unfortunately, it is advisable to destroy most materials, such as cane, cloth, wood, leaves or pottery. As such, these objects do not last very long. So we know very little about the cultures of the common people since ancient times
Classical Culture
Dance forms like Bharat Natyam are often referred to as classical. This means that it is one of the best forms of artistic expression. In the same way that Kalidasa is regarded as an example of a classical Sanskrit poet, the temples built by the Cholas are regarded as an example of classical temple architecture, so the Taj Mahal of Mughal architecture we can feel justly proud of these achievements. However, we need to remember that when Kalidasa wrote (4th century AD) most people in North and Central India speak different forms of Prakrit (from which many modern Indian languages have evolved). When they had followed the natural parts of the Kalidasa plays, they would not have understood their Sanskrit texts. In the same way, it would have been difficult for ordinary people to enter the magnificent monuments we have just mentioned. Entry may be restricted on the basis of caste or religion. As such, classical culture is highly developed but specialized. It is only for the last two centuries or so that many Sanskrit works have been translated into regional languages, and monuments have been left open to the masses. Folk and classical cultures have co-existed and communicated with each other for centuries. They have borrowed and accepted ideas from each other.
Anthropology literally means the study of human beings. Cultural and social ethnographers study existing societies, including rituals, beliefs, social customs, patterns of work, and so on. Therefore, when anthropologists write about culture, it includes some or all aspects. While it often seems like we have something in common with those who eat and dress like us, while those who see and see us are connected to different cultures. This definition of culture is similar to that used by archaeologists. Archaeologists study houses, tools, pots, statues, etc. and try to reconstruct how people lived in the past. Because all of these seen objects can be seen and touched, and are more or less permanent are considered part of our material culture. You will learn more about the production of some aspects of our content culture in the next blog.Some of our most spectacular forms of cultural expression are associated with religion. In architecture, the stupa at Sanchi (Madhya Pradesh), the above mentioned temples of South India and Dilwara (Rajasthan), as well as the Jama Masjid, Delhi (pictured) are excellent examples of beautiful structures designed for religious purposes. Religion, throughout the ages, has also been inspiring some of our best poems and music. These include Vedic mantras, compositions by Buddhist monks and nuns, and perhaps the most well-known, devotional and Sufi saints. Tamil Nadu has a rich and enduring tradition of Vaishnava and Shaivite devotional literature, including works by women like Andal. One of the most ancient and well-known Kashmiri poets was Lai Dead, a fourteenth century female saint. Today, medieval saint-musicians like Mira Bai, Guru Nanak and Kabir are revered not only in their own regions, but all over India.
Many saints were of lower caste and used the language of common people. His creations, part of our popular culture, have been transmitted orally for centuries. Our religious beliefs also influence our daily lives. Sometimes, the wedding rituals, what we eat and what we wear are governed by religious rules. But, more often than not, what we eat and wear, or our wedding customs, “varies from region to region according to religion. To take a simple example. In Punjab, Hindu, Muslim, Christian and Sikh dynasties usually wear salwar kameez, while in Tamil Nadu, Hindu, Muslim and Christian women usually wear saris. So while our religious beliefs shape our cultural practices, they are not the only influence. . For example, we can wear the influence of our social situation. You may have noticed that many women need to dress differently, depending on whether they are unmarried or widowed. Sometimes, our cultural practices can be influenced by both our social and our economic situation. This includes things like our tastes and preferences in music - whether we like folk songs, movie songs, classical music or western pop music.
While we can quickly learn Hindi film songs from radio, for example, learning classical music is more difficult and expensive. It also takes more time, and many of us may find it difficult to devote time to it. The cultural budgets we create and use are often limited by our economic resources as well. None of us could have built the Taj Mahal even if we had wanted to. This was possible only for Shah Jahan, the ruler of a large and prosperous empire. In fact, most of the magnificent forts, palaces and religious monuments we saw (for example, Jodhpur / Jaipur) were built by the rulers. Apart from serving as royal residences or places of worship, they were to declare their power and glory when they built them. However, while physical resources are important, they are not always crucial.
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