10 Intresting Less Known Facts about India

India is one of the most populated country in the world and one of the most ancient and civilization. It has a rich and vibrant history and there is always more to discover about the country. Here are some interesting facts about India.

Population:

India is about one third the size of United States, yet it is the second most populous country in the world, with a population of about 1,166,079,217. China is the most populated country in the world and India will overtake it if the population goes the same way. India is predicted to have more than 1.53 billion people by the end of 2030. The figures show that India represents almost 17.31% of the world’s population, which means one out six people on this planet lives in India.

Name:

In Sanskrit, one of the national languages in India, the country is called Bharat. Even in golden age India is known Bharat. The name ‘India’ is derived from the river Indus, the valleys around which were the home of the early settlers. The Aryan worshippers referred to the river Indus as Sindhu. The Persian invaders converted it into Hindu. The name Hindustan combines Sindhu and Hindu and thus refers to the land of Hindus.

The Kumbh Mela:

The Kumbh Mela is a huge Hindu religious festival that takes place in India. It is considered to be the world’s largest peaceful gathering in the world with over 100million people visiting during the Maha Kumbh Mela in 2013. It is held every third year at one of the four places by rotation: Haridwar, Allahabad, Nashik, and Ujjain. Thus Kumbh Mela is held at each of these four places every twelfth year.

Religion:

Every major world religion is represented in India. Religion is a central part of Indian Culture. Jews began living in India in 200 B.C. and Christians settled in 52 A.D. Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism and Jainism all count India as birth place. About 80% of Indians are Hindu. Muslims are the largest minority in India and form approximately 13% of countries population. In fact, India has the third largest population of Muslims in the world after Indonesia and Pakistan. Further, there are more mosques in India – approximately 300,000- than the entire Muslim world combined.

Medicine:

Ayurveda is the earliest school of medicine known to mankind. The father of medicine Charaka, consolidated Ayurveda 2500 years ego. Ayurveda was born in India. Surgery and the use of anesthesia during surgery both originated in India. An Indian doctor named Sushruta began performing surgeries over 2600 years ago, and there are records indicating he was performing complex operations, including brain surgery and attaching artificial limbs. He used herbs as anesthesia during his surgeries. Most historians agree that the first recorded account of plastic surgery is found in ancient Indian Sanskrit text

Inventions:

Algebra, trigonometry and calculus can all be traced back to India. Indian mathematicians adopted the Pythagorean Theorem before European mathematicians. Quadratic equations have been used in Indian since the 11th century. The decimal system and system of place value were first used in India in 100 B.C. Bhaskaracharya rightly calculated the time taken by the earth to orbit the sun hundreds of years before the astronomer Smart. His calculations was - Time taken by earth to orbit the sun: ( 5th century ) 365.258756484 days. The value of "pi" was first calculated by the Indian Mathematician Budhayana, and he explained the concept of what is known as the Pythagorean Theorem. He discovered this in the 6th century, which was long before the European mathematicians. The number system was invented by India. Aryabhatta was the scientist who invented the digit zero.Chess was invented in India.

Do you like to play the game Snakes and Ladders? It started out as a morality lesson in India. It was created in the 13th century by a poet named Gyandev. In the game, the ladders represented virtues while the snakes represented bad habits. The game was designed to deliver the message that virtue can lead you to heaven while vices take you further away from reaching it.

Economy:

Although modern images and description of India often shows poverty, India was one of the richest countries till the time of British in the early 17^th century. Christopher Columbus was attracted by India’s wealth and was looking for route to India when he discovered America by mistake. Until 1986, the only place where diamonds had been officially found was in India.

Currently there are more than a million Indians are millionaires, yet most Indians live on less than two dollars a day. An estimated 35% of India’s population lives below the poverty line.

Khajuraho:

The Khajuraho Group of Monuments in Khajuraho, a town in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, is one of the most popular tourist destinations in India. Khajuraho has the largest group of medieval Hindu and Jain temples, famous for their erotic sculptures. T external curvature and carvings of the temples depict humans, human bodies, and the changes that occur in bodies, as well as facts of life. Some 10% of the carvings contain sexual themes; those reportedly do not show deities but rather sexual activities between people. The rest depict the everyday life of the common Indian when the carvings were made and activities of other beings. For example, those depictions show women putting on makeup, musicians, potters, farmers, and other folk. The mundane scenes are all at some distance from the temple deities. A common misconception is that, since the old structures with carvings in Khajuraho are temples, the carvings depict sex between deities. Scholars still debate the purpose of such explicit portrayals of sexual intercourse, which sometimes involve animals.

Invasion:

India had never invaded a country. It was invaded by other countries and rulers, including Alexander the Great. The British rule lasted from 1858 to 1947 (although they had a strong presence in India since the 1700s). British influence is still seen in Indian architecture, education system, transportation, and politics. Many of India’s worst famines are associated with British rule in India.

Random facts:

Dancing is one of India’s most highly developed arts and was an integral part of worship in the inner shrines of every temple. It is notable for its expressive hand movements.

Most Indians rinse their hands, legs, and face before eating a meal. It is considered polite to eat with the right hand, and women eat after everyone is finished. Wasting food is considered a sin.

It is traditional to wear white, not black, to a funeral in India. Widows will often wear white in contrast to the colorful clothes of married or single women.

Many Indians find toilet paper repellent and consider it cleaner to splash water with the left hand in the appropriate direction. Consequently, the left hand is considered unclean and is never used for eating.

India is the world’s largest exporter of computer software.

The art of Navigation & Navigating was born in the river Sindh 6000 over years ago. The very word 'Navigation' is derived from the Sanskrit word NAVGATIH. The word navy is also derived from the Sanskrit word 'Nou'.

With 150,000 post offices, India has the largest postal network in the world. However, it is not unusual for a letter to take two weeks to travel just 30 miles.

India has the world’s largest movie industry, based in the city of Mumbai (known as the “City of Dreams”). The B in “Bollywood” comes from Bombay, the former name for Mumbai.

India has the world’s third largest road network at 1.9 million miles. It also has the world’s second largest rail network, which is the world’s largest civilian employer with 16 million workers.