Hindi Language Blog

Khajuraho (खजुराहो) also known as “Kharjuravāhaka”), is derived from the Sanskrit words kharjura = date palm and vāhaka = “one who carries”. It is a town in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh which is located about 620 kilometres southeast of New Delhi, the capital city of India.

The location is very famous for the number of Hindu and Jain temples from the medieval times. These temples where built over a period of 200 years, from 950 to 1150.  These temples are famous for their erotic sculptures and one of the major tourist attractions in the central India.

On the backdrop of such monuments an open-air auditorium dance festival which is known as Khajuraho Dance Festival, is organized every year from 25th February to 2nd March which show cases the spectacular performances from some of the best artists in the classical Indian dances. This event witnesses various Indian classical dance styles such as Bharathanatyam, Kathak, Odissi, Kuchipudi, Manipuri, Kathakali. Recently, the event has also added the modern Indian dances. The open-air auditoriums are located in front of Chitragupta Temple which is dedicated to Surya (सूर्य – the Sun God) and the Vishwanatha Temple dedicated to Lord Shiva.

The idea of presenting the classical dance and music at the back drop of classical monuments seems incredible and attracts a large number of tourists every year. Not just the classical medieval monuments, dances and music, one can also find some interesting folk arts from various craftsmen. These arts or craft can be purchased at the festival.

As the festival comes alive on evening during the festival period, it offers tourists to way to relax after an hectic day of sight-seeing, and let them relax and enjoy spectacular performances of Indian classical music and dances.

There is incredible variety of folk art (लोक – कला) in India which define its ethnic diversity and rich cultural heritage. Let me show you some of the famous folk art from India.

तंजौर की चित्रकारी  (Tanjore Painting)
Tanjore paintings are famous folk art from south Indian state of Tamil Nadu. This paintings represent an important form of classical South Indian painting style which is native to the town of Thanjavur (also know as as Tanjore)  in Tamil Nadu. This painting style is around 400 years old. These paintings are famous for their surface richness, bright colors and compact composition. Mostly, these painting depicts an Hindu religious such as icons, god, goddess or saints.

Tanjore Painting

मधुबनी की चित्रकारी (Madhubani Painting)
Madhubani paintings which are also known as Mithila paintings is native folk art of Mithila region (an city in ancient India) from northeast state of India state of Bihar and the adjoining parts of Terai region in Nepal. Incredible facts about these paintings are that these painting s are done with variety of medium such as fingers, twigs, brushes, nib-pens, and matchsticks, using natural dyes and pigments, and are characterized by vivid colors and splendid geometrical patterns.

Madhubani Art

राजस्थानी की लघु चित्रकारी  (Rajasthani Miniature Painting)
This paintings style is also known as Rajput painting. This style was evolved and flourished under the royal patronage of Rajput emperor of India during of the 18th century.  This style assimilated the style of Mughal painting which was itself derived from the Persian miniature. All colors were extracted or derived from certain metals like gold or silver, minerals, plant, conch shells or even precious stones. These paintings depict a variety of themes or events like the Ramayana , the Mahabharata or Krishna’s life from Hindu mythology and beautiful landscapes and humans.  These paintings could be found on the single sheets which could be placed in albums or on the walls of palaces, inner chambers of the forts and building ceiling.

Rajasthani Miniatures Painting

पत्ताचित्र चित्रकारी  (Pattachitra Paintings)
Pattachitra is formed from two Sanskrit words of patta which means canvas and chitra which means picture. These are the traditional painting art of southeastern Indian state of Orissa. This  painting style is one of the oldest and most popular art forms of Orissa. Mostly, these paintings depicst Hindu mythology and specially inspired by Jagannath and Vaishnava cult. All colors used in these paintings are derived from nature.

Pattachitra

India is a vast country with diverse terrain from the plains of Ganges valley and high mountains like the Himalayas. Because of wide variety of terrain, the climatic condition also varies. The climate (मौसम – Mausam) could be extremely  (अत्यंत – atiyant) warm (गर्म – garm) in one region to extremely cold (ठंडा - thanda) in another.

The climate in India could be divided into at least 6 sub-climates and micro-climates which include the desert with hot climate in northwest, permanent snowfields in north, tropical coast lands in south and southwest, fertile and intensively cultivated fields in the northeast.

According to India Meteorological Department, India has four climatic seasons and witness winter from December and April , summer from April to June or July (according to region), a rainy monsoon from June or July to September and a post-monsoon period from October to December. However, the Himalayan states have 2 additional seasons which are autumn and spring. According to Hindu calender, there are 6 seasons which are spring (vasanta), summer (ग्रीष्म - grīṣma), monsoon season (वर्षा - varṣā), early autumn (शरद - śarada), late autumn (हेमंत - hemanta), and winter (शीत - śiśira).

Average Annual Temperatures in India

Because of the Himalayas (हिमालय) and the Hindu Kush (हिन्दू कुश) mountains range in Pakistan, the cold wind from Central Asia are blocked from entering into India and keeping the Indian sub-continent (भारतीय उप महाद्वीप) warmer as compared to the country at similar latitude (अक्षांश).

Another important feature of Indian climate is Asiatic monsoon, in which the wind flows in one direction, southwest throughout India during a period in a year (वर्ष – varsha) and reverses the direction (दिशा – disha) of flow (प्रवाह – pravah) to northeast at another time in a year. During June to September period, the monsoon brings rain bearing winds from the southwest. This period is the most humid (नम – nam) in a year. The monsoon wind reach south India (दक्षिण भारत) around end of May or June and it takes around 6 weeks for the wind to move to the north Indian parts.  In some of the part, monsoon could bring heavy rains and in another no rain at all. People especially farmers usually expect monsoon to come on time and bring an adequate amount of rain. Heavy or no rain monsoon could destroy entire standing crops in the regions where no irrigation (सिंचाई – Sinchei) system is in place.