"karma, cows and caste""; and Bhakti or devotional Hinduism, where intense emotions are elaborately incorporated in the pursuit of the spiritual. Michaels distinguishes three Hindu religions and four forms of Hindu religiosity. The three Hindu religions are ""Brahmanic-Sanskritic Hinduism"", ""folk religions and tribal religions"", and ""founded religions. The four forms of Hindu religiosity are the classical ""karma-marga"", jnana-marga, bhakti-marga, and ""heroism"", which is rooted in militaristic traditions, such as Ramaism and parts of political Hinduism. This is also called virya-marga. According to Michaels, one out of nine Hindu belongs by birth to one or both of the Brahmanic-Sanskritic Hinduism and"
"Sanskrit Sanskrit (; , ) is a language of ancient India with a history going back about 3,500 years. It is the primary liturgical language of Hinduism; the predominant language of most works of Hindu philosophy as well as some of the principal texts of Buddhism and Jainism. Sanskrit, in its various variants and dialects, was the ""lingua franca"" of ancient and medieval India. In the early 1st millennium CE, along with Buddhism and Hinduism, Sanskrit migrated to Southeast Asia, parts of East Asia and Central Asia, emerging as a language of high culture and of local ruling elites in"
"listed amongst the 22 official languages of India as per the Official Languages Act (1963). Tamil was the first language to be granted classical language status by the Government of India in 2004. Other major languages declared classical were Kannada (in 2008), Telugu (in 2008) and Malayalam (in 2013) Hinduism is the major religion with about 80% of the population adhering to it. About 11% of the population follow Islam and 8% follow Christianity. Evidence of prehistoric religion in South India comes from scattered Mesolithic rock paintings depicting dances and rituals in Stone Age sites such as the Kupgal petroglyphs"
"official languages, and the constitution recognises in particular 22 ""scheduled languages"". The 2011 census reported that the religion in India with the largest number of followers was Hinduism (79.80% of the population), followed by Islam (14.23%); the remaining were Christianity (2.30%), Sikhism (1.72%), Buddhism (0.70%), Jainism (0.36%) and others (0.9%). India has the world's largest Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Zoroastrian, and Bahá'í populations, and has the third-largest Muslim population—the largest for a non-Muslim majority country. Indian cultural history spans more than 4,500 years. During the Vedic period (c. 1700 – 500 BCE), the foundations of Hindu philosophy, mythology, theology and literature"
"only acquired their respective particularities because of cultural and religious differences in which each of them was independently used. Indeed, Hindi is the language of Hindus whereas Urdu is the language of Muslims. The only Indian language not proposed in primary school is Bhojpuri. The reason for that is the fact that only few students are interested in learning it. Moreover, Bhojpuri is considered as a spoken language and is only used on paper in traditional and popular poetry because of its negative connotation compared to Hindu or Urdu which are a lot more prestigious. This prestige probably comes from"
"the sacred texts that the liturgy is no longer comprehensible without special training. The concept of sacred languages is distinct from that of divine languages, which are languages ascribed to the divine (i.e. God or gods) and may not necessarily be natural languages. The concept, as expressed by the name of a script, for example in ""Devanāgarī"", the name of a script that roughly means ""[script] of the city”, and is used to write many Indian languages. Hinduism is traditionally considered to have Sanskrit as its principal liturgical language. Sanskrit is the language of the Vedas, Bhagavadgita, Puranas like Bhagavatam,"
"Hindi Hindi (Devanagari: हिन्दी, ""Hindī""), or Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: मानक हिन्दी, ""Mānak Hindī"") is a standardised and Sanskritised register of the Hindustani language. Hindi written in the Devanagari script is one of the official languages of India, along with the English language. It is one of the 22 scheduled languages of the Republic of India. However, it is not the national language of India because no language was given such a status in the Indian constitution. Hindi is the ""lingua franca"" of the ""Hindi belt"", and to a lesser extent other parts of India (usually in a simplified or"
"Hindustani language Hindustani (, ,), also known as Hindi-Urdu, and historically also known as Hindavi, Dehlavi, and Rekhta, is the ""lingua franca"" of Northern India and Pakistan. It is an Indo-Aryan language, deriving its base primarily from the Khariboli dialect of Delhi. The language incorporates a large amount of vocabulary from Prakrit, Persian as well as Sanskrit (via Prakrit and Tatsama borrowings) and Arabic (via Persian). It is a pluricentric language, with two official forms, Modern Standard Hindi and Modern Standard Urdu, which are its standardised registers. According to Ethnologue's 2017 estimates Hindustani is the 3rd most spoken language in"
"the majority of the population, Urdu is the ""lingua franca"". ""Hindustani"" was the official language of the British Raj and was synonymous with both Hindi and Urdu. After India's independence in 1947, the Sub-Committee on Fundamental Rights recommended that the official language of India be Hindustani: ""Hindustani, written either in Devanagari or the Perso-Arabic script at the option of the citizen, shall, as the national language, be the first official language of the Union."" However, this recommendation was not adopted by the Constituent Assembly. Besides being the ""lingua franca"" of North India and Pakistan in South Asia, Hindustani is also"
"is Hindi, followed by Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, Gujarati and Punjabi. In the modern era, new syncretic languages developed in the region such as Urdu that is used by Muslim community of northern south Asia (particularly Pakistan and northern states of India). The Punjabi language spans three religions: Islam, Hinduism and Sikhism. The spoken language is similar, but it is written in three scripts. The Sikh use Gurmukhi alphabet, Muslim Punjabis in Pakistan use the Nastaliq script, while Hindu Punjabis in India use the Gurmukhi or Nāgarī script. The Gurmukhi and Nagari scripts are distinct but close in their structure,"
"pidginized variety such as Bazaar Hindustani or Haflong Hindi). Outside India, several other languages are recognized officially as ""Hindi"" but do not refer to the Standard Hindi language described here and instead descend from other dialects of Hindustani, such as Awadhi and Bhojpuri. Such languages include ""Fiji Hindi"", which is official in Fiji, and Caribbean Hindustani, which is a recognized language in Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, and Suriname. Apart from specialized vocabulary, spoken Hindi is mutually intelligible with Urdu, another recognized register of Hindustani. As a linguistic variety, Hindi is the fourth most-spoken first language in the world, after Mandarin,"
"the Upanishads, the Hindu epics like Ramayana and Mahabharata and various other liturgical texts such as the Sahasranama, Chamakam and Rudram. Sanskrit is also the tongue of most Hindu rituals. It is an Indo-Aryan language and therefore a member of the Indo-European language family. It therefore has some similarities with Greek and Latin, as well as with many vernacular languages of Europe and south Asia. Like Latin and Greek, it also has secular literature along with its religious canon. Most Hindu theologians of later centuries continued to prefer to write in Sanskrit even when it was no longer spoken as"
"form the majority, followed by Muslims. The statistics are: Hindu (80.5%), Muslim (13.4%), Christian (2.3%), Sikh (2.1%), Buddhist, Bahá'í, Jain, Jew and Parsi populations. Linguistically, the two main language families in India are Indo-Aryan (a branch of Indo-European) and Dravidian. In India's northeast, people speaking Sino-Tibetan group of languages such as Meitei (Meitei-lon) recognized by the Indian constitution and Austroasiatic languages are commonly found. India (officially) follows a three-language policy. Hindi (spoken in the form of Hindustani) is the official federal language, English has the federal status of associate/subsidiary official language and each state has its own state official language"
"of the official languages of India and Fiji and is also spoken in Suriname, Mauritius, Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana. It is mutually intelligible to a high degree with Urdu which is spoken in Pakistan and together they are often considered the same language, referred to as Hindustani or Hindi-Urdu. Although very similar verbally, they do have different written scripts; Hindi is written in the Devanagari script and Urdu is written in the Nastaʿlīq script. Hindi has more than 550 million speakers in India alone, of whom 422 million are native, 98.2 million are second language speakers, and 31.2 million"
"the population as a lingua franca. English is given the status of an additional official language. Most of the languages spoken natively belong to the group of the Himachali languages. According to the 2001 Census of India, the languages spoken in the state in descending order of native speakers are Hindi, spoken by 89.01% of the population (including Himachali languages as dialects of Hindi); followed by Punjabi (5.99%), Nepali (1.16%) and Kinnauri (1.06%). Hinduism is the major religion in Himachal Pradesh. More than 95% of the total population adheres to the Hindu faith, the distribution of which is evenly spread"
"of Hindu texts has been Sanskrit. It or a hybrid form of Sanskrit became the preferred language of Mahayana Buddhism scholarship. One of the early and influential Buddhist philosopher Nagarjuna (~200 CE), for example, used Classical Sanskrit as the language for his texts. According to Renou, Sanskrit had a limited role in the Theravada tradition (formerly known as the Hinayana) but the Prakrit works that have survived are of doubtful authenticity. Some of the canonical fragments of the early Buddhist traditions, discovered in the 20th-century, suggest the early Buddhist traditions did use of imperfect and reasonably good Sanskrit, sometimes with"
"Spanish and English. Alongside Urdu as Hindustani, it is the third most-spoken language in the world, after Mandarin and English. The term ""Hindī"" originally was used to refer to inhabitants of the region east of the Indus. It was borrowed from Classical Persian ""Hindī"" (Iranian Persian ""Hendi""), meaning ""Indian"", from the proper noun ""Hind"" ""India"". The name ""Hindavī"" was used by Amir Khusrow in his poetry. Like other Indo-Aryan languages, Hindi is a direct descendant of an early form of Vedic Sanskrit, through Sauraseni Prakrit and Śauraseni Apabhraṃśa (from Sanskrit ""apabhraṃśa"" ""corrupted""), which emerged in the 7th century A.D. Modern"
"""the foremost place"" Buddhism. Sinhala, an Indo-European language, is the first language of the Sinhalese. Tamil, a Dravidian language, is the first language of the Tamils. Tamil is also the first language the majority of Moors and the Indian Tamils - according to the 2012 census 98% of Moors could speak Tamil but only 59% could speak Sinhala. Malays speak Sri Lanka Malay, a Creole language mixing Sinhala, Tamil and Malay. Many of the Burghers speak Sri Lankan Indo-Portuguese although its use has declined and the majority now speak Sinhala. The Veddahs speak Vedda, a Creole language closely based on"
"with the Muslims prompted Hindus to develop their own Sanskritised version of the dialect, leading to the formation of Modern Standard Hindi. After India became independent in 1947, the Khariboli-based dialect was officially recognized as the approved version of the Hindi language, which was declared as one of the official languages for central government functioning. Khariboli dialect Khariboli, also known as Kauravi or Delhavi, is the prestige dialect of Hindustani, of which Standard Hindi and Standard Urdu are standard registers and literary styles, which are the principal official languages of India and Pakistan respectively. The term ""Khariboli"" has, however, been"
"Hindi–Urdu controversy The Hindi–Urdu controversy is an ongoing dispute—dating back to the 19th century—regarding the status of Hindi and Urdu as a single language, Hindustani (lit ""of ""Hindustan""""), or as two dialects of a single language, and the establishment of a single standard language in certain areas of North India. Although this debate was officially settled by a government order in 1950, declaring Hindi as the official language, some resistance remains. The present notion among some Muslims about this dispute is that Hindus abandoned the Urdu language, whereas some Hindus claim that Urdu was artificially created during Muslim rule. Hindi"
"Linguistic history of India The languages of India are divided into various language families, of which the Indo-Iranian and the Dravidian languages are the most widely spoken. There are also many languages belonging to unrelated language families such as Sino-Tibetan, spoken by smaller groups. Linguistic records begin with the appearance of the Brāhmī script from about the 3rd century BCE. Proto-Indo-Aryan is a proto-language hypothesized to have been the direct ancestor of all Indo-Aryan languages. It would have had similarities to Proto-Indo-Iranian, but would ultimately have used Sanskritized phonemes and morphemes. Vedic Sanskrit is the language of the Vedas, a"
"Hindi and Urdu started to diverge linguistically, with Hindi drawing on Sanskrit as the primary source for formal and academic vocabulary, often with a conscious attempt to purge the language of Persian-derived equivalents. Deploring this Hindu-Muslim divide, Gandhi proposed re-merging the standards, using either Devanagari or Urdu script, under the traditional generic term Hindustani. Bolstered by the support of the Indian National Congress and various leaders involved in the Indian Independence Movement, Hindi, in the Devanagari script, along with English, replaced Urdu as the official language of India during the institution of the Indian constitution in 1950. The main cause"
"as defined by the 2001 plan to ""Central National Capital Region (CNCR)"". Hinduism is Delhi's predominant religious faith, with 81.68% of Delhi's population, followed by Islam (12.86%), Sikhism (3.40%), Jainism (0.99%), Christianity (0.87%), and Buddhism (0.11%). Other minority religions include Zoroastrianism, Baha'ism and Judaism. According to the 50th report of the commissioner for linguistic minorities in India, which was submitted in 2014, Hindi is Delhi's most spoken language, with 80.94% speakers, followed by Punjabi (7.14%), Urdu (6.31%) and Bengali (1.50%). 4.11% of the Delhites speak other languages. Hindi is also the official language of Delhi while Urdu and Punjabi have"
"must for officials. Hindustani was made the second language of British Indian Empire after English and considered as the language of administration. The British introduced the use of Roman script for Hindustani as well as other languages. Urdu had 70 million speakers in India (as per the Census of 2001), and, along with Hindi, is one of the 22 officially recognised regional languages of India and also an official language in the Indian states of Jammu and Kashmir, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Telangana that have significant Muslim populations. Gujarati is an Indo-Aryan language. It is native to the west"
"Hinduism Hinduism is an Indian religion and ""dharma"", or way of life, widely practised in the Indian subcontinent and parts of Southeast Asia. Hinduism has been called the oldest religion in the world, and some practitioners and scholars refer to it as ""Sanātana Dharma"", ""the eternal tradition"", or the ""eternal way"", beyond human history. Scholars regard Hinduism as a fusion or synthesis of various Indian cultures and traditions, with diverse roots and no founder. This ""Hindu synthesis"" started to develop between 500 BCE and 300 CE, after the end of the Vedic period (1500 BCE to 500 BCE), and flourished"
"been found. Hinduism is often regarded as the oldest religion in the world, with roots tracing back to prehistoric times, over 5,000 years ago. Hinduism spread through parts of Southeastern Asia, China, Korea, and Japan. Hindus worship a single god with different forms. Hinduism's origins include the cultural elements of the Indus Valley Civilisation along with other Indian civilisations. The oldest surviving text of Hinduism is the Rigveda, produced during the Vedic period and dating to 1700–1100 BCE. During the Epic and Puranic periods, the earliest versions of the epic poems, in their current form including ""Ramayana"" and ""Mahabharata"" were"
"is a literary register of the Hindustani language, derived from the Khariboli dialect of the Hindi languages. A Persianized variant of Hindustani began to take shape during the Delhi Sultanate (1206–1526 AD) and Mughal Empire (1526–1858 AD) in South Asia. Urdu, along with English, became the first official language of British India in 1850. Urdu was being written, spoken and translated to and from English in all courts, schools, official documents, and government institutes. Although the need to have a language for Hindus developed in the 1850s, the irrevocable momentum of the Hindi language movement occurred around 1880. Urdu is"
"script. Hindi, written in the Devanagri script, is used widely in the Indian states of Himanchal Pradesh and Haryana. Several dialects of Punjabi are spoken in the different regions. The Majhi dialect is considered to be textbook Punjabi and is shared by both countries. The vast majority of Pakistani Punjabis are Sunni Muslim by faith, but also include large minority faiths mostly Shia Muslim, Ahmadi Muslim and Christians. The Indian states of Haryana and Himachal Pradesh are mostly Hindu-majority. Sikhism, founded in the late 15thcentury, is the main religion practised in the post-1966 Indian Punjab state. About 57.7% of the"
"Languages of India Languages spoken in India belong to several language families, the major ones being the Indo-Aryan languages spoken by 78.05% of Indians and the Dravidian languages spoken by 19.64% of Indians. Languages spoken by the remaining 2.31% of the population belong to the Austroasiatic, Sino-Tibetan, Tai-Kadai, and a few other minor language families and isolates. India (780) has the world's second highest number of languages, after Papua New Guinea (839). Article 343 of the Indian constitution stated that the official language of the Union should become Hindi in Devanagari script instead of the extant English. But this was"
"language in which this particular religion was practiced. Hindus use Hindi, Telugu,Tamil, and Marathi in their worship. Most here Telugu is used as third language here over 30000 Telugu people are living With there un forgettable traditions.Even though Bhojpuri is a language well used by Hindus in their daily life, it is not used as a language of worship because of its spoken status which confer it its unworthiness. Muslims read the Koran in Arabic but the imam communicates with his congregation in Urdu or in Gujarati. As far as Buddhists are concerned, the language used in the practice of"
"Hinduism. These claims base their assumptions on the lack of a unified Hindu identity prior to the colonial period, and modern Hinduism's unprecedented outward focus on a monotheistic Vedanta worldview. These developments have been read as the result of colonial prejudices which discouraged aspects of Indian religions which differed too greatly from the template of Christianity. It has been noted that the prominence of the Bhagavad Gita as a primary religious text in Hindu discourse was a historical response to colonial criticisms of Indian culture. Europeans found that the Gita had more in common with their own Christian Bible, leading"
"Sikhs moved to India as refugees. In the 1998 Census the Hindu population was found to be 2,443,614. Hindus are found in all provinces of Pakistan but are mostly concentrated in Sindh. They speak a variety of languages such as Sindhi, Seraiki, Aer, Dhatki, Gera, Goaria, Gurgula, Jandavra, Kabutra, Koli, Loarki, Marwari, Sansi, Vaghri and Gujarati. Although small in numbers, Hinduism in Pakistan is not less complex than in other parts of the world. Many Hindus—especially in the rural areas—follow the teachings of local Sufi ""pīrs"" (Urdu: ""spiritual guide"") or adhere to the 14th-century saint Ramdevji, whose main temple is"
"faiths- 4.957 million-strong Sarnaism, 1.026 million-strong Gond, 506,000-strong Sari, Donyi-Polo (302,000) in Arunachal Pradesh, Sanamahism (222,000) in Manipur, Khasi (138,000) in Meghalaya dominate. Maharashtra is having the highest number of atheists in the country with 9,652 such people, followed by Kerala. Hindi is the most widely spoken language in northern parts of India. The Indian census takes the widest possible definition of ""Hindi"" as a broad variety of ""Hindi languages"". According to 2011 Census, 57.1% of Indian population know Hindi, in which 43.63% of Indian people have declared Hindi as their native language or mother tongue. The language data was"