Cultural traditions of ancient India

Ancient India practiced a strict caste system, which mainly existed in Hinduism and also influenced Islam and Sikhism to varying degrees.

In ancient India, because India was a slave society at that time, * * * had four classes, namely:

Brahman (mainly responsible for religious sacrifices, as priests of different levels. Some of them participate in politics and enjoy great political power)

Khrushchev (level of military and political power)

Vedas (civilians, engaged in agriculture, animal husbandry and commerce)

Sudra (engaged in agriculture, animal husbandry, fishing, hunting and other occupations that were considered low at that time, and some of them lost their means of production and became employees or even slaves).

This is because Brahmanism advocates the supremacy of Brahman caste, saying that Brahma made Brahma with his mouth, Kashatri with his hands, Vedas with his legs, and sudra with his feet, and stipulated social occupations for them, which will never change. Ethnic groups are not allowed to marry, and people at the lower level are not allowed to engage in occupations at the upper level. This strict hierarchy is regarded as a symbol of ancient Indian civilization, just as the hanging garden in ancient Babylon is a symbol of ancient Babylonian civilization. The caste system has a history of more than 3000 years, and it began to sprout as early as the end of primitive society. Later, in the process of class differentiation and slavery, the division of labor in primitive society became hierarchical and fixed, and gradually formed a strict caste system.

Caste is hereditary. For thousands of years, the caste system has had a profound impact on people's daily life and customs, and racial discrimination has not been eliminated, especially in the vast rural areas.

After independence, the Indian government has taken many measures to eliminate caste discrimination. The first is to formulate relevant laws and regulations. 1948, the National Assembly passed a bill to abolish the caste system. Later, the constitution and state laws also made corresponding provisions to protect the interests of the lower castes. The government has also provided a lot of help to the lower castes in education, employment and welfare.

With the progress of society, India's caste system is also changing. For example, the internal marriage system in the caste system has been hit. For example, women with high castes have also married men with low castes. People's views on occupation have also changed, and the measurement of occupation rank is no longer based on religious thought, but on money and power. In the city, people of all surnames have strengthened exchanges and contacts. Traditionally, India prefers boys to girls, because parents must prepare a generous dowry when their daughters get married. Without it, her daughter cannot get married.

Hindus are bathed in the "holy water" of the Ganges.

The way for Indians to celebrate the birth and safe growth of their children is to go to the temple for "Pujia ceremony", sing prayers, and then hold a dinner with relatives and friends.

After Indian children are born, parents will find someone to tell them divination, and most of the children's names are taken from heroes or gods. Children's birthdays are especially valued because they can decide who they will marry in the future. Puja is a Hindu ritual of offering sacrifices to gods, and Puja ritual must be performed by priests. During the ceremony, believers will decorate the statue and carry it out of the temple to celebrate, and offer flowers, coconuts, tika powder and other offerings. Finally, the priest held an oil lamp and performed "Alati" in front of the idol.

In the process of "Alati", believers gently cover the lamp in the priest's hand with their hands, and then touch it on their eyes, which represents the power given by the gods.

Usually, after the worship ceremony, believers can get some sacrificial flowers, tika powder or water, which is called Prasad. So in India, as long as you see Indians worship from temples, almost all of them are painted with red or white powder on their foreheads. Most Indian men wear headscarves, which are called Muslim headscarves. There are many ways to wrap headscarves, among which Sikh male headscarves have specific styles. Traditionally, Sikhs have grown up with hair, beards and headscarves. The style of children's headscarves is relatively simple, and only black cloth is tied into the shape of a bun. The headscarf style of adults is more complicated. First of all, long hair must be tied into a bun with black elastic band, and then wrapped into a headscarf with a piece of cloth about 3 meters long. The style is regular rows on both sides. Sikh headscarves are colorful, and some people even match the colors of their clothes.

Most Indian men wear loose tunics with narrow-legged trousers (Dhoti), while men in Rajasthan are wrapped in a white cloth with colorful patterns on their heads. The traditional dress of Indian women is sari, which refers to a piece of cloth with a length of more than 15 yards, which is wrapped around the body when worn. Indian women are good at using skills such as tying, encircling, tying, wrapping, wrapping and wearing. This has made a different change in Sally.

The sari of women in Rajasthan is very short and only covers their heads, but it is brightly colored and embroidered with gold and silver. The tops of women in Rajasthan are a bit like the collarless dresses of China Impatiens, and the lower part is a long skirt with piping and floor.

The way Sally dresses:

The traditional dress of Indian women is wrapped in a 3-meter-long cloth called sari. There are many changes in the way Indian saris are dressed. Different races, different regions and different beliefs have many different colors, different textures and different ways of dressing. When Indian women wear saris, they wear short-sleeved tights (Choli) above their navel and a straight petticoat (Ghagra) below, touching the ground.

The most basic method of wearing sari can be divided into the following steps:

1. First pull out the left end of the sari cloth and stuff it into the petticoat head on the right.

2. Wrap the sari cloth around the lower circumference from right to left for about three or four times.

3. Then, use sari cloth to fold it into four folds at the right front and stuff it into the skirt.

4. Then wrap the rest of the cloth around the right armpit from the left rear and put it on the left shoulder.

5. Finally, put the sari cloth directly on your shoulders or head. The earliest literary work in ancient India is Veda, among which Rigveda, which is the oldest and has the highest literary value, is a collection of poems with 65,438+0,028 poems, mainly praising gods and secular poems. So the Vedas are not just religious classics. The most famous literary works in ancient India are Mahabharata and Ramayana. The former is 654.38+ million fu, and the latter is about 24,000 fu, which is a unique long poem in the ancient world. There are 18 articles in Mahabharata, the main content of which is the story of the house king and the house Wang Zhengduo's throne in Mahabharata family. After many tortuous struggles, the two sides finally had to fight 18 days. It is said that this war involves all countries and tribes in India. As a result, all the troops of King Julou were killed, and the troops of King Dudu won. According to legend, the author of this long poem is Pitty. In fact, it has been gradually accumulated and sorted out by generations of folk poets. Its basic content was basically formed in the 5th century BC, and the final edition was in the 4th century AD. Ramayana has seven chapters. The main story is that Rama, the son of Giussandro, the king of ten chariots, was framed by his stepmother and lived in seclusion in the forest with his wife Starr 14 years. After the demon king Luopo robbed Sida to Linga Island, that is, Sri Lanka, Rama led the monkey soldiers to defeat and kill the demon king with the help of monkeys, rescued Sida, and then returned to China and made Sida king. According to legend, the author of this poem is an ant. In fact, this poem was gradually compiled from the 4th century BC to the 2nd century AD. Although the two epics are fairy tales, they both have expositions on philosophy, religion, law and various scientific knowledge, which reflect all aspects of social life in India at that time and the expansion of Aryans to the southeast. What is particularly valuable is that it runs through deep sympathy for justice and kindness, mercilessly exposing and condemning ugly acts such as treachery and cruelty. It is a treasure in the treasure house of world literature.

Ancient Indian folk literature works also occupy an important position. Most of them are preserved in the five-volume Collection of Good Words for the Benefit of the World and Buddhist Scriptures. One of the most popular is The Life Sutra of the Buddha, which mainly describes the story of the Buddha's past lives. The folk stories preserved here have been processed by Buddhists, and the protagonist of the original work has been labeled as the Buddha to promote the teachings of Buddhism, but many excellent and healthy secular stories have still been preserved. These stories despise treachery, sympathize with kindness, have profound implications and distinguish between love and hate. These works of upholding justice not only have important literary value, but also provide a lot of information for studying the society at that time. This book has 550 stories, and the completion date is about the third century BC. From the perspective of architectural art, the Vedic era and the world era were basically wooden structures, and these buildings have now disappeared. When Ashoka was in power, he began to use masonry building materials. The stupa preserved in Sanchi is made of brick, which was later expanded and covered with a layer of stone. The stupa is semicircular, with a direct connection of about 30 meters. There is a platform at the top, on which stands a square altar with stacked umbrella columns, which is the place where Buddhists worship Buddhist bones. There is a circular road around the pagoda, surrounded by fences and four gates, all of which are covered with exquisite carvings centered on Buddhist themes.

Ashoka Shashizhu is also an important relic of ancient Indian architectural art. These stone pillars with a height of15m weigh about 50 tons. In addition to the stylized stigmas of galloping horses, humpbacked cows and elephants, the most famous stone pillar is Sarnaz, with four lions crouching back to back on the stigmas, which are lifelike and powerful, symbolizing the authority of the emperor. In medicine, Avina Veda recorded 77 diseases and prescribed corresponding prescriptions. Of course, these records are also mixed with the mystery of witchcraft. The most famous medical works are Xie Luo Jia Ji and Miao Wen Ji. According to legend, Xie Luojia was a doctor in Garnish, who was born in the 2nd century. His book is known as the medical encyclopedia, which discusses the diagnosis, disease prognosis, disease classification and other issues, and regards nutrition, sleep and dieting as the three major elements to maintain human health. There are 500 kinds of drugs mentioned in the book. After a while, good news came from Yu Heluo. His book covers a wide range of contents. Besides anatomy, physiology and pathology, I also studied internal medicine, surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics and other 1 120 diseases. Especially in surgery, it has a very high standard. There are 120 kinds of surgical instruments in the book, including cataract extraction, hernia removal, treatment of bladder stones, caesarean section and other surgical methods, and as many as 760 kinds of drugs are recorded. These two books are still of practical value today.