India

A country of southern Asia covering most of the Indian subcontinent. Aryans from the northwest invaded c. 1500 BC, pushing Dravidian and other peoples to the south. Most of India was unified by the emperor Asoka in the 3rd century BC. It experienced a golden age in the 4th and 5th centuries AD before being invaded c. 1000 by Muslims and later by the Mongol conqueror Baber, who established the Mogul empire (1526-1857). Various European powers established trading posts in the 16th and 17th centuries, with the British assuming authority over India in 1857. In the 20th century, India gained its independence from Great Britain (1947) following a campaign of civil disobedience led by the pacifist Mohandas Gandhi. Its concomitant partition into the separate countries of India and Pakistan resulted in a tumultuous migration of Muslims to Pakistan and Hindus and Sikhs to India in which approximately one million people died. New Delhi is the capital and Mumbai (Bombay) the largest city. Population: 1,130,000,000.

Country, South Asia. It fronts the Bay of Bengal on the southeast and the Arabian Sea on the southwest. Area: 1,222,559 sq mi (3,166,414 sq km). Population (2005 est.): 1,103,371,000. Capital: New Delhi. The peoples of India comprise widely varying mixtures of ethnic strains drawn from peoples settled in the subcontinent before the dawn of history or from invaders. Languages: Hindi, English (both official), and other Indo-European languages, including Bengali, Kashmiri, Marathi, and Urdu; Dravidian languages; hundreds from several other language families. Religions: Hinduism; also Islam, Christianity, Sikhism, Buddhism, Jainism. Currency: rupee. India has three major geographic regions: the Himalayas, along its northern border; the Indo-Gangetic Plain, formed by the alluvial deposits of three great river systems, including the Ganges (Ganga); and the southern region, noted for the Deccan plateau. Agricultural products include rice, wheat, cotton, sugarcane, coconut, spices, jute, tobacco, tea, coffee, and rubber. The manufacturing sector is highly diversified and includes both heavy and high-technology industries. India is a republic with two legislative houses; its chief of state is the president, and the head of government is the prime minister. India has been inhabited for thousands of years. Agriculture in India dates to the 7th millennium BC, and an urban civilization, that of the Indus valley, was established by 2600 BC. Buddhism and Jainism arose in the 6th century BC in reaction to the caste-based society created by the Vedic religion and its successor, Hinduism. Muslim invasions began c. AD 1000, establishing the long-lived Delhi sultanate in 1206 and the Mughal dynasty in 1526. Vasco da Gama's voyage to India in 1498 initiated several centuries of commercial rivalry between the Portuguese, Dutch, English, and French. British conquests in the 18th and 19th centuries led to the rule of the British East India Co., and direct administration by the British Empire began in 1858. After Mohandas K. Gandhi helped end British rule in 1947, Jawaharlal Nehru became India's first prime minister, and Nehru, his daughter Indira Gandhi, and his grandson Rajiv Gandhi guided the nation's destiny for all but a few years until 1991. The subcontinent was partitioned into two countries — India, with a Hindu majority, and Pakistan, with a Muslim majority — in 1947. A later clash with Pakistan resulted in the creation of Bangladesh in 1971. In the 1980s and '90s, Sikhs sought to establish an independent state in Punjab, and ethnic and religious conflicts took place in other parts of the country as well. The Kashmir region in the northwest has been a source of constant tension.

For more information on India, visit Britannica.com.

In currencies, this is the abbreviation for the Indian Rupee.

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India, or Hindustan, was named by the Greeks after the Indus valley. Its dominant civilization was Hindu and Buddhist but, from the 11th cent., it was subject to conquest from the Islamic north. The most famous of its conquerors were the Mughals, who established their empire in 1526. In the age of exploration, the first Europeans to arrive were the Portuguese who developed a sea-borne empire centred on Goa. In the early 17th cent., the Dutch displaced the Portuguese, but India was peripheral to their principal interests in Java. The English East India Company established its presence from the 1610s and the French arrived in the 1660s. From the 1720s, the power of the Mughal empire started to decline. In Europe, France and England found themselves at war in this period and their respective companies carried on the conflict by constructing alliances with the successor states. At first, the French under Dupleix had the upper hand. But, from the late 1740s, the English company's fortunes began to turn as Robert Clive won a series of military victories. The major threat posed by the French was eliminated after the battle of Wandewash in 1760. For the next 30 years, there was some hesitancy in British circles at building on these foundations. But, during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars, the opportunity was seized and by 1818, with the defeat of the Maratha empire, the East India Company had gained supremacy. After the Indian mutiny of 1857, however, the company was abolished and sovereignty passed to the British crown. In the 19th cent., India was undoubtedly Britain's most important colony. After the First World War, both its military and economic status began to decline and a mass nationalist movement emerged under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi. As early as 1920, the British began to clear the way for ‘responsible self-government’and, by 1935, had drawn up plans for India's eventual conversion into a dominion. However, the Second World War cut short this programme of devolution and promoted an extremely hasty retreat. British India was partitioned into the separate states of Pakistan and India, which became independent on 15 August 1947.

The classical dance forms of India and Pakistan evolved as vehicles for portraying the characters and stories of the gods. Shiva is known as the Lord of the Dance and according to Hindu legend created heaven and earth when he performed his Dance of Creation. Bharata's treatise the Natya Shastra was written c.200 BC-AD 300 and its guidelines on dance, drama, and music acquired the status of holy writ. The main dance forms are bharata natyam from S. India, kathakali from SW India, manipuri from NE India, kuchipudi from SE India, odissi from Orissa, and kathak from N. India. While these ancient dance forms were frequently degraded under colonial rule, the 20th century saw a major renaissance of standards in both teaching and performance. Pavlova learnt Indian dance from Uday Shankar and performed the duet Radha and Krishna with him in 1923, but the most influential performer in the West for many years was Ram Gopal. On his many tours from the late 1930s through to the 1970s he initiated a new international audience to the aesthetic of Indian dance and also performed with Markova. Today classical Indian dance is taught and performed in many countries and a new generation of artists has begun to evolve contemporary versions of classical forms. British-based Shobana Jeyasingh has brought aspects of Western modern dance to her choreographic idiom while Chandralekha has turned to martial arts and yoga for new influences. Among younger choreographers based in India there is wide experimentation with new music, a marked modernization of costume and stage manner, and a tendency to work with ensembles rather than soloists.

Although Buddhism originated in India it now flourishes predominantly in other parts of Asia. Pockets of Buddhism have always existed in the northern extremities of the subcontinent in the Tibetan-influenced regions of Ladakh, Sikkim, and Bhutan. There has also been a limited revival of Buddhism in India in the 20th century, due partly to an influx of refugees from Tibet, and the conversion of the so-called ‘Ambedkar Buddhists’ who became Buddhists in an attempt to improve their former low status as members of the untouchable caste.

Leaving modern developments to one side, the history of Buddhism in India (used here as a geographical term for the whole of the subcontinent rather than simply the territory of the present republic) extends from the 5th century bce to the 15th century ce, and perhaps somewhat later. Buddhism originates with the teachings of the Buddha, who lived at the beginning of the Magadhan period (546-324 bce) when the kingdom of Magadha was undergoing rapid expansion. In the year of the Buddha's death the Council of Rājagṛja compiled a canon, and some hundred years later the Council of Vaiśālī resolved a dispute over monastic practice, indicating the beginning of sectarianism among the originally unified community. Towards the end of the period north-west India had been colonized by Alexander the Great, and by this time Buddhist monks had established the foundations of their canonical writings and organized themselves into monastic communities. The Mauryan period (324-187 bce) is dominated by the figure of Aśoka and witnessed the expansion of Buddhism throughout India under his patronage. The Edicts of Aśoka carved on rock provide the first tangible historical evidence of Buddhism, and record that the emperor dispatched missions abroad to promote Buddhism. This period was marked by dissension among the monks, and the schism of the Mahāsaṃghikas split the early community into two rival parties (see Council of Pāṭaliputra I). The period of the Śuṇgas and Yavanas (187-30 bce) brought mixed fortunes: in the region of the Ganges Basin Buddhism encountered hostility and persecution under Puṣyamitra Śuṇga, but this period also sees the construction of great stūpa complexes such as those at Sāñcī, Bhārhut, and Amarāvatī. In the north-west Buddhism flourished under Indo-Greek monarchs such as Menander (see Milindapañha). The Śakas and Pahlavas (100 bce-75 ce) who succeeded the Greeks in the north-west also favoured Buddhism, as did the ruler of the later Kuṣāṇa dynasty, Kaniṣka I, who is said to have supported Buddhism and convened the ‘fourth council’ in Gandhāra (see Council of Kaniṣka).

The early centuries of the Christian era saw the rise of the Mahāyāna, a broad-based movement emphasizing inclusivity and an expanded role for the laity. The early understanding of the Buddha was reworked in the new doctrine of his ‘three bodies’ (trikāya), and the figure of the Bodhisattva came to prominence, replacing the early ideal of the Arhat. New sūtras, purportedly also the word of the Buddha, began to appear, notably in the Perfection of Insight literature (see Prajñā-pāramitā Sūtras) and other profoundly influential texts such as the Lotus Sūtra. New philosophical schools, notably the Madhyamaka and the Yogācāra, arose to interpret this material, and in doing so they offered radical reinterpretations of the early teachings. A final wave of new literature known as tantras appeared around the 7th century promoting radical forms of practice, including rituals and meditation techniques for accelerating spiritual progress. This form of tantric Buddhism became known as the ‘diamond vehicle’ or Vajrayāna.

The intellectual vigour of Buddhism during this period attracted large numbers of students to monastic centres of learning. The most famous of these (at least among Mahāyānists) was Nālandā, founded in the second century and later patronised by Kumāra Gupta I, 414-455 ce (see Gupta Dynasty). It was reputed to have been home to 10,000 students, with admission being gained through an oral exam at the main gateway. Through continuing royal patronage, such as that of King Harṣa and the rulers of the Pāla dynasty (650-950 ce), other major centres of learning such as Vikramaśīla and Odantapurī also flourished. It was these institutions that produced the great generation of Indian Buddhist scholars like Śāntarakṣita and Kamalaśīla, who would play a vital role in the transmission of Buddhism to Tibet.

A less fortunate consequence of the growth of monastic centres was that monks became increasingly specialized in abstruse doctrines and began to lose touch with the world outside the cloister. Although little is known about popular Buddhism in ancient India, it can be conjectured that unlike Hinduism, which has always had roots at the village level, Buddhism became concentrated in a few key institutions of higher learning. This proved to be its undoing when Muslim raiding parties began to enter India from the 11th century. Undefended Buddhist monasteries, often containing valuable treasures, proved irresistible targets to raiders bent on booty in the name of holy war. The Turkic general Mahmud Shabuddin Ghorī sacked Nālandā in 1197 and Vikramaśīla in 1203, burning their libraries and destroying priceless literary and artistic treasures. These traumatic events effectively marked the end of the history of Buddhism in India until modern times although some limited activity continued in the south: there were Buddhist monasteries in Orissa and south India in the 15th century, and Buddhist teachers went from India to Tibet even later.

The founder's meeting of the Indian Psychoanalytic Society took place in Calcutta in 1922 with Girindrashekhar Bose, a young Bengali doctor who had read the English translations of Freud's work, in the chair. Of the fifteen original members, nine were college teachers of psychology or philosophy and five belonged to the medical corps of the Indian Army, including two British psychiatrists. In the same year, Bose wrote to Freud in Vienna. Freud was pleased that his ideas had spread to such a far-off land and asked Bose to write Ernest Jones, then President of the International Psychoanalytic Association, for membership of that body. Bose did so and the Indian Psychoanalytic Society, with Bose as its first president (a position he was to hold till his death in 1953) became a fully-fledged member of the international psychoanalytic community.

Cut off from the debate, controversy, and ferment of the psychoanalytic centers in Europe, and dependent upon often difficult to acquire books and journals for outside intellectual sustenance, Indian psychoanalysis was nurtured through its infancy primarily by the enthusiasm and intellectual passion of its progenitor. In the informal meetings of eight to ten people held on Saturday evenings at the president's house—which was was to become the headquarters of the Indian Society after Bose's death—Bose read most of the papers and led almost all the discussions.

Although psychoanalysis attracted some academic and intellectual interest in the 1930s and 1940s, mostly in Calcutta, the number of analysts was still small (fifteen) when in 1945 a second training center, under the leadership of an Italian expatriate, Emilio Servadio, was started in Bombay.

To judge from the record of publications of its members, the small Indian society was fairly active up through the 1940s. There was a persistent concern with the illumination of Indian cultural phenomena as well as attempts to register the "Indian" aspects of the patients' mental life. By the early 1950s, however, the interest in comparative and cultural aspects of mental life, as well as the freshness of the papers written by the pioneering generation of Indian psychoanalysts, was lost. Thereafter, most Indian contributions, to judge from the official journal of the Indian Society, have been neither particularly distinctive nor original.

In the public arena, psychoanalysis has generally had an indifferent, if not hostile, reception. At first glance, the Indian indifference to psychoanalysis seems surprising, given the fact that there has rarely been a civilization in human history that has concerned itself so persistently over the millennia with the nature of the "self" and with seeking answers to the question, "Who am I?" As a colonized people, however, reeling under the onslaught of a conquering European civilization that proclaimed its forms of knowledge and its political and social structures as self-evidently superior, Indian intellectuals in the early twentieth century felt the need to cling doggedly to at least a few distinctive Indian forms in order to maintain intact their civilization's identity. The Indian concern with the "self," its psycho-philosophical schools of "self-realization," often appearing under the label of Indian metaphysics or "spirituality," has become one of the primary ways of salvaging self-respect, even a means of affirming a superiority over a materialistic Western civilization. Psychoanalysis was seen to be a direct challenge to the Indian intellectual's important source of self-respect; it stepped on a turf the Indian felt was uniquely his own.

Another reason for the rejection of Freudian concepts had to do with their origins. Derived from clinical experience with patients growing up in a cultural environment very different from that of India, some of the concepts, when transposed, did not carry much conviction. The different patterns of family life and the role of multiple caretakers in India seemed to push in the direction of modifications of psychoanalytical theory. Similarly, Freudian views of religion, derived from the Judeo-Christian monotheistic tradition, with its emphasis on a father-god, had little relevance for the Indian religious tradition of polytheism where mother-goddesses often constituted the deepest sub-stratum of Indian religiosity.

Because of its relative isolation, Indian psychoanalysis has been decisively marked by the stamp of the first Indian analyst, Girindrashekhar Bose (1886-1953). Without experiencing the benefits of training analysis himself, it was Bose who "analyzed" the other members in a more or less informal manner. He developed a method of his own, similar to the active therapy and forced fantasy method of Sándor Ferenczi, which calls for a more active, didactic stance from the analyst, and which came dangerously close to what a lawyer is forbidden to do in the courtroom, namely "lead the witness," increasing the chances of suggestion. In hindsight, Bose's important contribution to psychoanalysis was less his "theory of opposite wishes" and more his questioning of some presumed psychoanalytic universals, based on his clinical experience. In his letters to Freud, Bose points out differences in the castration reactions of his Indian and European patients and notes that the desire to be a female is more easily unearthed in Indian male patients than in European. Since cultural relativism was not on the psychoanalytic agenda in the 1930s when Bose communicated his observations, they received little attention.

The question of cultural relativism versus the universality of many psychoanalytic concepts and theories is very much at the heart of contemporary analyst Sudhir Kakar's work. Based on clinical and cultural data from India, Kakar has highlighted the cultural aspects of the psyche in his many books and papers, trying to show that mental representations of the culture play a significant role in psychic life.

The Indian Psychoanalytic Society has published a journal, Samiksa, the Journal of the Indian Psychoanalytical Society, since 1946.

Bibliography

Hartnack, Christiane. (1990). Vishnu on Freud's desk: psychoanalysis in colonial India. Social Research., 57 (4), p. 921-949.

Kakar, Sudhir. (1996). Culture and psyche: Psychoanalysis and India. New York: Psyche Press.

Vaidyanathan, T.G. (1996). Hinduism and psychoanalysis: A reader. Delhi, Oxford University Press.

—SUDHIR KAHAR

This entry contains three subentries:
Moghul India
Northern India
Southern India

Republic in southern Asia. Its capital is New Delhi, and its largest city is Calcutta.

• India is the second most populous country in the world, after China.
• British control of India began in 1757 and did not end until the dissolution of the British regime, or Raj, in 1947, when India was divided into India and Pakistan.
• Mahatma Gandhi led the movement for Indian independence through passive resistance to British rule. He was killed by a fanatic in 1948.
• The country is marked by conflict between the Hindu and Muslim populations and violence between castes.
• Despite world disapproval, in 1998 India successfully conducted nuclear bomb tests. Pakistan did the same two weeks later. (See Kashmir.)

The international dialing code for India is:   91

Recipes

Geographic Setting and Environment

The Republic of India, Asia's second-largest country after China, occupies the largest part of the South Asian subcontinent, which it shares with Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, and Bangladesh. India's total area is 3.3 million square kilometers (1.3 million square miles). Among India's most serious environmental problems are land damage, water shortages, and air and water pollution (about 70 percent of India's water is polluted). Even in rural areas, the burning of wood, charcoal, and dung for fuel, coupled with dust from wind erosion during the dry season, creates an air pollution problem. Rice, the largest crop, is grown wherever the conditions are suitable.

History and Food

Some of India's foods date back five thousand years. The Indus Valley peoples (who settled in what is now northern Pakistan) hunted turtles and alligator, as well as wild grains, herbs and plants. Many foods from the Indus period (c. 3000–1500 B.C.) remain common today. Some include wheat, barley, rice, tamarind, eggplant and cucumber. The Indus Valley peoples cooked with oils, ginger, salt, green peppers, and turmeric root, which would be dried and ground into an orange powder.

The Aryan-speaking peoples who entered India between 1500 and 1000 B.C used leafy vegetables, lentils, and milk products such as yogurt and ghee (clarified butter). The Aryans also used spices such as cumin and coriander. Black pepper was widely used by 400 A.D. The Greeks brought saffron, while the Chinese introduced tea. The Portuguese and British made red chili, potato and cauliflower popular after 1700 A.D.

Perhaps the biggest contributors to India's culinary heritage are the Muslim peoples from Persia and present-day Turkey, who began arriving in India after 1200. These peoples, known later as the Mughals, ruled much of India between 1500 and early 1800. They saw food as an art, and many Mughal dishes are cooked with as many as twenty-five spices, as well as rose water, cashews, raisins and almonds.

See Baigan Bhartha (Eggplant Puree) recipe.

See Garam Masala (Spice Mixture) recipe.

Foods of the Indians

What Indians eat varies by region and religion. Northern Indians eat more flat breads, while those from southern India prefer rice. In coastal states, such as Kerala and Bengal, fish dishes are popular. Chicken and mutton (sheep) are eaten more often in mountain and plains regions. While many Hindus avoid eating beef, Muslims avoid pork. In addition, many Indians—particularly Hindus, Buddhists, and Jains—are vegetarian.

Spices are used in many Indian dishes. When it is hot, spices such as chili peppers and garlic help the body sweat and cool it down. In colder weather, spices such as cloves, cinnamon, ginger, black pepper, cardamom, and nutmeg help warm the body.

Indian cuisine is varied, but many dishes are cooked in a similar way. The preparation starts with frying onion, ginger, garlic or spices such as cumin seeds in oil at a high temperature. Meats, vegetables, flavorings such as yogurt, and spices such as turmeric then are added. The dish then simmers at a low heat until the ingredients are cooked. At the end of the preparation, leafy herbs such as cilantro and flavorings such as lemon juice are added.

This style of preparation may be linked to the traditional use of cow dung. For centuries, families would cook by placing a pan on top of patties made from cow dung. Like the charcoal used in modern-day barbecues, dung initially produces a high heat, but then burns slowly. Although middle-class and urban Indians have electric or gas stoves, many rural households still use cow dung (waste).

See Dal (Lentils) recipe.

See Palak Bhaji (Spicy Fried Spinach) recipe.

See Tandoori Chicken (Spicy Barbecued Chicken) recipe.

Food for Religious and Holiday Celebrations

Nearly every holiday in India requires a feast. The year's biggest festival is Diwali, which occurs in October or November. The actual date is set by the lunar calendar and varies from year to year. The festival's meaning varies by region and religious group. But some traditions are shared: old debts are paid off, homes are cleaned, new clothes are made or purchased, and an elab orate meal is prepared.

On Diwali and other festive occasions, India's Mughal heritage takes center stage. The Mughals saw eating as an art and a pleasure. Courtly chefs prepared food that tasted good, and delighted the senses of smell, sight and touch. Many Mughal dishes call for meat, but vegetarians incorporate the spices and nuts that Mugal cooking made popular. In addition, many purchase sweets such as ladhu and barfi at local shops, and distribute them among their relatives and friends. Many of these sweets also date to Mughal times, and use ingredients such as besan (chickpea flour), paneer (a white cheese), rose water, almonds, and sugars.

Many celebrate the start of spring with Holi. In the morning, people splash each other with colored water and smear one another with red, yellow, green, blue and orange powders. Many also drink bhang, a yogurt drink. After the festival, the old clothes are burned and halwa (a sweet dish made with wheat or rice flour, butter and sugar) is eaten. The day often ends with a feast and musical festivities. Halwa "cakes" are often served for breakfast on special occasions, such as birthdays.

See Tamatar Salat (Luscious Tomato Salad) recipe.

See Fancy Rice recipe.

See Kheer (Sweet Rice Pudding) recipe.

Mealtime Customs

Indians eat several small meals a day. Many families begin the day at dawn with prayers. A light meal of chai (Indian tea) and a salty snack will follow. Breakfast usually takes place a couple of hours later, and may include a traditional Indian dish such as aloo paratha (a flatbread stuffed with potato and fried), or toast with eggs. Other popular breakfast dishes include halwa (made with ground wheat, butter, sugar and sliced almonds) or uppma, which is a spicier version of halwa.

Students often eat a mid-morning snack, such as a banana with juice or tea, at school. Lunch usually includes one or two cooked vegetable dishes, rice and chapati (a flat-bread that resembles a Mexican tortilla). Many students carry their lunches from home in containers known as tiffins. Many students also eat sandwiches.

An afternoon snack often is served around 5 or 6 P.M. It includes tea and namkeen (snacks or appetizers), and sometimes may involve a visit to a restaurant or street stall that sells spicy snacks such as samosa (a small turnover stuffed with potatoes and peas) or bhel puri (a combination of puffed rice, yogurt, tamarind sauce, and boiled potatoes). In addition, fruits such as mango, pomegranate, grapes, and melon may be served. Dinner traditionally is served quite late, and includes two or three vegetable dishes along with rice and chapati. In many households, both adults and children take a cup of hot milk, flavored with sugar and a touch of cardamom before going to sleep.

See Chai (Indian Tea) recipe.

See Vegetable Sandwich recipe.

See Mathis (Spicy Cookie) recipe.

Politics, Economics, and Nutrition

About 22 percent of the population of India is classified as undernourished by the World Bank. This means they do not receive adequate nutrition in their diet. Of children under the age of five, about 53 percent are underweight, and more than 52 percent are stunted (short for their age). The government put into place a national system to distribute Vitamin A to children, which contributes to malnutrition and blindness.

India is one of the few countries where men, on the average, live longer than women. To explain this, it has been suggested that daughters are more likely to be malnourished and be provided with fewer health care choices. In a society where sons are favored over daughters, female infanticide is a mounting problem. In addition, hundreds of thousands of children are living and working on the streets. Child prostitution is widespread. Special measures are being taken by the government to rehabilitate juvenile prostitutes and convicts to help remedy the growing problem.

India's government has established an extensive social welfare system. Programs for children include supplementary nutrition for expectant mothers and for children under the age of seven, immunization and health programs, and prevocational training for adolescents. The government is also paying increasing attention to health, maternity, and childcare in rural India by sending out growing numbers of community health workers and doctors to areas in need.

Further Study

Books

Achaya, K.T. Indian Food: A Historical Companion Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1994.

Hospodar, Miriam Kasin. Heaven's Banquet: Vegetarian Cooking for Lifelong Health the Ayurveda Way E.P. Dutton, 1999.

Jaffrey, Madhur. Madhur Jaffrey's Spice Kitchen. Carol Southern Books, 1993.

Kirchner, Bharti. The Healthy Cuisine of India Lowell House, 1992.

Lethaby, Jo, editor. Indian Food and Folklore. (Laurel Glen, 2000).

Solomon, Charmaine. The Complete Asian Cookbook Charles E. Tuttle Co., 1992.

Web Sites

Ruschikitchen.com. [Online] Available http://www.ruchikitchen.com (accessed March 4, 2001).

Sources for Special Ingredients

Most ingredients for Indian foods are available at grocery stores. Health food stores and ethnic stores that specialize in Indian, Pakistani or Middle Eastern cuisine often have special ingredients such as garam masala and premixed tandoori masala pastes.

Many occult beliefs and practices stem from the complex religious and mystical concepts of India and her people. It might be said that the mysticism of the Hindus was a reaction against the austere religion and practical ceremonial of the sacred scriptures, the Vedas. If its trend were summarized it might justly be said that the Vedas point champion detachment; the pantheistic identification of the subject and object, worshiper and worship, aimed at ultimate absorption in the Infinite; inculcating transcendence from the material world through the most minute self-examination, the cessation of physical powers; and belief in the spiritual guidance of the guru or mystical adept.

For the Indian theosophist there is only one Absolute Being, the One Reality. However, in popular Hinduism, the pantheistic doctrine of Ekam advitiyam "the One without Second" supposes a countless pantheon of gods, great and small, and a rich demonology, but these should be understood ultimately as merely illusions of the soul and not realities. Upon the soul's coming to fuller knowledge, its illusions are totally dispelled. According to such a theory, to the ordinary man and woman the impersonality of the Absolute being is too remote, and they require a symbolic deity to bridge the gulf between the impersonal Absolute and the very material self, hence the numerous gods of Hinduism regarded by the initiated merely as manifestations of the Supreme Spirit.

In this way, even the everyday forms of temple idols can be seen as possessing higher meaning. As Sir Alfred Lyall stated, "It [Brahminism] treats all the worships as outward visible signs of the same spiritual truth, and is ready to show how each particular image or rite is the symbol of some aspect of universal divinity. The Hindus, like the pagans of antiquity, adore natural objects and forces,—a mountain, a river, or an animal. The Brahmin holds all nature to be the vesture or cloak of indwelling divine energy which inspires everything that produces all or passes man's understanding."

A life time of asceticism has from the remotest times been regarded in India as a true preparation for communion with the deity. Asceticism has been extremely prevalent especially in connection with the cult of the god Siva, who is in great measure regarded as the prototype of this class.

The yogis (disciples of the yoga philosophy) practice mental abstraction, and are popularly supposed to attain to superhuman powers. In some cases their extreme ascetic practices have resulted in madness or mental vacancy and many claimed paranormal powers, as in Spiritualism, have turned out to be jugglery and conjuring. Charlatans, of course, exist in all religions. The authentic prerequisites of the training of a yogi preclude such imposture and warn against the vanity of displaying supernatural powers.

The paramahamsas, that is "supreme swans," are believed to have achieved communion with the world-soul through spiritual disciplines and meditation. They are said to be equally indifferent to pleasure or pain, insensible to heat or cold, and incapable of satiety or want. The sannyasis are those who renounce the world and live as wandering monks or residents in an ashram or spiritual retreat. The dandis, or staff-bearers, are worshipers of Siva in his form of Bhairava the Terrible.

J. C. Oman in Mystics, Ascetics and Saints of India (1903) said of these sadhus or holy men, " Sadhuism, whether perpetuating the peculiar idea of the efficacy of asceticism for the acquisition of far-reaching powers over natural phenomena, or bearing its testimony to the belief in the indispensableness of detachment from the world as a preparation for the ineffable joy of ecstatic communion with the Divine Being, has undoubtedly tended to keep before men's eyes, as the highest ideal, a life of purity, self-restraint, and contempt of the world and human affairs. It has also necessarily maintained amongst the laity a sense of the righteous claims of the poor upon the charity of the more affluent members of the community. Further, Sadhuism, by the multiplicity of the independent sects which have arisen in India has engendered and favoured a spirit of tolerance which cannot escape the notice of the most superficial observer."

Of the three main branches of Hinduism, the most esoteric is the Shaktas. The Shaktas are worshipers of the shakti or the female principle as a creative and reproductive agency. Each of the principal gods possesses his own Shakti, through which his creative acts are performed. The Shaktas or Tantrics developed an elaborate picture of the subtle anatomy of the individual, proposing that each person had a secondary body composed of spiritual/psychic energies. In Tantra, sexual energy in the yogi is manifested in a pure form as kundalini, a psycho-physiological force resting like a coiled snake at the base of the spine. When awakened, the kundalini travels up the spine to the several psychic centers called chakras and eventually to the top of the head. The rise of the kundalini to the highest chakra brings higher consciousness and spiritual enlightenment.

Tantrics usually can be divided into two distinct groups. The original self-existent gods were supposed to divide themselves into male and female energies, the male half occupying the right-hand and the female the left-hand side. From this conception we have the two groups of "right-hand" observers and "left-hand" observers. In distinction to the ascetic world-denying approach to the religious life, Tantra does not offer enlightenment as a result of denying the material world, but from using it. Tantric practice takes things specifically denied to the ascetic and accepts them as the means "of overcoming the world and gaining enlightenment. The righthand path does this symbolically, the left hand path actually eats denied food and participates in denied activities. Most controversial of all is sexual activity, for which tantrics have been most frequently criticized. The left-hand path of Tantra involves participation in sexual intercourse as a means of union with the goddess.

The right hand tantrism was expounded by Sri Aurobindo and Pandit Gopi Krishna. Lefthand tantrism has found a major exponent in Swami Satyananda Saraswati whose students have moved to the west.

Brahmanism

Brahmanism is a system originated by the Brahmans, the sacerdotal caste of the Hindus, at a comparatively early date. It is the mystical religion of India par excellence, and represents the older beliefs of its peoples. It states that the numerous individual existences of animate nature are only so many manifestations of the one eternal spirit towards which they tend as their final goal of supreme bliss. The object of life is to prevent oneself sinking lower in the scale, and by degrees to raise oneself in it, or if possible to attain the ultimate goal immediately from such state of existence as one happens to be in.

The socio-religious Code of Manu concludes "He who in his own soul perceives the supreme soul in all beings and acquires equanimity towards them all attains the highest state of bliss." Mortification of animal instincts, absolute purity and perfection of spirit, were the moral ideals of the Brahman class. But it was necessary to pass through a succession of four orders or states of existence before any hope of union with the deity could be held out. These were: that of brahmacharin, or student of religious matters; grihastha, or householder; varnaprastha or hermit; and sannyasin or bhikshu, religious mendicant.

Virtually every man of the higher castes practiced at least the first two of these stages, while the priestly class took the entire course. Later, this was by no means the rule, as the scope of study was intensely exacting, often lasting as long as forty-eight years. The neophyte had to support himself by begging from door to door.

He was most often guided by a spiritual preceptor. After several years of his tuition he was married. It was considered absolutely essential that he should leave a son behind him to offer food to his spirit and to those of his ancestors. He was then said to have become a "house-holder" and was required to maintain the fire perpetually that he brought into his house upon his marriage day.

Upon growing older, the time arrived for him to enter the third stage of life. Having fulfilled his dharma (social and religious obligations) he now became aware of the transitory nature of the material life and found it necessary to become preoccupied with more eternal spiritual truth. He consequently cut himself off from family ties except (if she wished) his wife, who might accompany him, and went into retirement in a lonely place, carrying with him his sacred fire, and the instruments necessary for his daily sacrifices. Scantily clothed, the anchorite lived entirely on food growing wild in the forest—roots, herbs, wild grain, and similar primitive nourishment. He was not permitted to accept gifts unless absolutely necessary. His time was spent in studying the metaphysical portions of the Vedas under the guidance of a guru, in making offerings, and in practicing austerities with the object of producing entire indifference to worldly desires.

In this way he fitted himself for the final and most exalted order, that of religious mendicant or bhikshu. This consisted solely of meditation. He took up his abode at the foot of a tree in entire solitude and only once a day at the end of his labors might he go near the dwellings of men to beg a little food. In this way he waited for death, neither desiring extinction nor existence, until at length it reached him, and was absorbed in the eternal Brahma.

The doctrines of Brahmanism are to be found in the vedanta philosophic system, which recognizes the Vedas, a collection of ancient Sanskrit hymns, as the revealed source of religious belief through the visions of the ancient rishis or seers. The Upanishads are later scriptures (after 1000 B.C.E.). The Vedas and Upanishads are the most widely accepted holy writings in India. A large number of later writings are also accepted by various groups as sacred scripture. Among the most popular of these later scriptures is the Bhagavad-Gita.

As before noted, the Hindu regarded the entire gamut of animated nature as being traversed by the one soul, which journeyed up and down the scale as its actions in its previous existence were good or evil. To the Hindu the vital element in all animate beings appears essentially similar, and this observation gave credence to the Brahmanical theory of reincarnation that took such a powerful hold upon the Hindu mind.

Demonology

A large and intricate demonology appears as part of Hindu mythology. The gods were at constant war with demons. Vishnu slew more than one demon, but Durga appeared to have been a great enemy of the demon race. The asuras, probably a very ancient and aboriginal pantheon of deities, later became demons in the popular imagination, and the rakshasas may have been cloud-demons. They were described as cannibals, could take many forms, and were constantly menacing the gods. They haunted cemeteries, disturbed sacrifices, animated the dead, and harried and afflicted mankind in all sorts of ways. There were in fact somewhat similar to the vampires of Slavonic countries—assisting the conjecture that the Slavonic vampires were originally cloud-spirits.

We find the gods constantly harassed by demons, and on the whole may be justified in concluding that just as the Tuatha-dedanaan harassed the later deities of Ireland, so did these aboriginal gods lead an existence of constant warfare with the divine beings of the pantheon of the immigrant Aryans.

Popular Witchcraft & Sorcery

The popular witchcraft and sorcery of India resembles that of Europe. The Dravidian or aboriginal peoples of India have always been strong believers in sorcery, and it is possible that this is an example of the mythic influence of a conquered people. They are nonetheless extremely reticent regarding any knowledge they possess of it.

It seems possible that the demands made upon the popular religious sense by Brahmanism crushed the superstitions of the popular occult practices of the very early period, and confined the practice of minor sorcery, (malevolent magic), to the castes of Dravidian or aboriginal stock. Witchcraft seems most prevalent among the more isolated peoples like the Kols, Bhils, and Santals.

The nomadic peoples were also strong believers in sorcery, one of the most dreaded forms of which was the Jigar Khor, or liver-eater, of whom Abul Fazl (1551-1602) stated: "One of this class can steal away the liver of another by looks and incantations. Other accounts say that by looking at a person he deprives him of his senses, and then steals from him something resembling the seed of a pomegranate, which he hides in the calf of his leg; after being swelled by the fire, he distributes it among his fellows to be eaten, which ceremony concludes the life of the fascinated person. A Jigar Khor is able to communicate his art to another by teaching him incantations, and by making him eat a bit of the liver cake. These Jigar Khors are mostly women. It is said they can bring intelligence from a long distance in a short space of time, and if they are thrown into a river with a stone tied to them, they nevertheless will not sink. In order to deprive any one of this wicked power, they brand his temples and every joint of his body, cram his eyes with salt, suspend him for forty days in a subterranean chamber, and repeat over him certain incantations."

The witch does not, however, devour the man's liver for two and a half days, and even if she has eaten it, and is put under the hands of an exorcizer, can be forced to substitute a liver of some animal in the body of the man whom she victimized. Folk tales also exist about witches taking out the entrails of people, sucking them, and then replacing them.

All this undoubtedly illustrates, as in ancient France and Germany, and probably also in the Slavonic countries, the manner in which the witch and vampire were believed to be essentially one and the same. In India the archwitch Ralaratri, or "black night" has the joined eyebrows, large cheeks, widely-parted lips, and projecting teeth, of the Slavonic werewolf and is a veritable vampire. But she also possesses the powers of ordinary witchcraft— second-sight, the making of philters, the control of tempests, the evil eye, and so forth.

Witches also took animal forms, especially those of tigers, and stories of trials are related at which people gave evidence that they had tracked certain tigers to their lairs, which upon entering they had found tenanted by a notorious witch or wizard. For such witch-tigers the usual remedy was to knock out their teeth to prevent their doing any more mischief.

Strangely enough, the Indian witch, like her European prototype, was very often accompanied by a cat. The cat, said the jungle people, is aunt to the tiger, and taught him everything but how to climb a tree. Zalim Sinh, the famous regent of Kota, believed that cats were associated with witches, and imagining himself enchanted ordered that every cat should be expelled from his province.

As in Europe, witches were known by certain marks. They were believed to learn the secrets of their craft by eating offal of all kinds. The popular belief concerning them was that they were often very handsome and neat, and invariably applied a clear line of red lead to the parting of their hair. They were popularly accused of exhuming dead children and bringing them to life to serve occult purposes of their own. Witches could not die as long as they were witches and until (as in Italy) they could pass on their knowledge of witchcraft to someone else.

They recited charms backwards, repeating two letters and a half from a verse in the Quran. If a certain charm was repeated "forwards," the person employing it would become invisible to his neighbor, but if he repeated it backwards, he would assume whatever shape he chose.

A witch could acquire power over her victim by getting possession of a lock of hair, the paring of nails, or some other part of his body, such as a tooth. For this reason Indian people were extremely careful about the disposal of these particular body parts, burying them in the earth in a place covered with grass, or in the neighborhood of water, which witches universally disliked. Some people even cast the cuttings of their hair into running water.

Like the witches of Europe, these witches also made images of persons out of wax, dough, or similar substances, and tortured them with the idea that the pain would be felt by the person whom they desired to injure.

In India the witches" familiar was known as a bir or the "hero," who aided her to inflict injury upon human beings. The power of the witch was greatest on the 14th, 15th, and 29th of each month, and in particular on the Feast of Lamps (Diwali) and the Festival of Durga.

Witches were often severely punished amongst the isolated hill-folk and diabolical ingenuity was shown in torturing them. To nullify their evil influence, they were beaten with rods of the castor-oil plant and usually died in the process. They were often forced to drink filthy water used by couriers in the process of their work. If not, their noses were cut off, or they were put to death. It has also been reported that their teeth were often knocked out, their heads shaved and offal thrown at them. In the case of women, their heads were shaved and their hair was attached to a tree in some public place. They were also branded, had a ploughshare tied to their legs or were made to drink the water of a tannery.

During the Mutiny, when British authority was relaxed, the most atrocious horrors were inflicted upon witches and sorcerers by the Dravidian people. Pounded chili peppers were placed in their eyes to see if they would bring tears, and the wretched beings were suspended from a tree head downwards, being swung violently from side to side. They were then forced to drink the blood of a goat, and to exorcize the evil spirits that they had caused to enter the bodies of certain sick persons. The mutilations and cruelties practiced on them were severe; but one of the favorite ways of counteracting the spells of a witch was to draw blood from her, and the local priest would often prick the tongue of the witch with a needle and place the resulting blood on some rice and compel her to eat it.

In Bombay state, the Tharus people were supposed to possess special powers of witchcraft, so that the "Land of Tharus" is a synonym for witch-land. In Gorakhpur, witches were also very numerous and the half-gypsy banjaras, or grain-carriers, were notorious believers in witchcraft. In his Popular Religion and Folk-lore of Northern India (1896) William Crooke, who did much to elucidate India's popular mythology, stated regarding the various types of Indian witches: "At the present day [ca. 1895] the half-deified witch most dreaded in the Eastern Districts of the North-western Provinces is Lona, or Nona, a Chamarin or woman of the currier caste. Her legend is in this wise. The great physician Dhanwantara, who corresponds to Luqman Hakim of the Muhammadans, was once on his way to cure King Parikshit, and was deceived and bitten by the snake king Takshaka. He therefore desired his sons to roast him and eat his flesh, and thus succeed to his magical powers. The snake king dissuaded them from eating the unholy meal, and they let the cauldron containing it float down the Ganges. A currier woman, named Lona, found it and ate the contents, and thus succeeded to the mystic powers of Dhanwantara. She became skilful in cures, particularly of snake-bite. Finally she was discovered to be a witch by the extraordinary rapidity with which she could plant out rice seedlings. One day the people watched her, and saw that when she believed herself unobserved she stripped herself naked, and taking the bundle of the plants in her hands threw them into the air, reciting certain spells. When the seedlings forthwith arranged themselves in their proper places, the spectators called out in astonishment, and finding herself discovered, Nona rushed along over the country, and the channel which she made in her course is the Loni river to this day. So a saint in Broach formed a new course for a river by dragging his clothes behind him… "Another terrible witch, whose legend is told at Mathura, is Putana, the daughter of Bali, king of the lower world. She found the infant Krishna asleep, and began to suckle him with her devil's milk. The first drop would have poisoned a mortal child, but Krishna drew her breast with such strength that he drained her life-blood, and the fiend, terrifying the whole land of Braj with her cries of agony, fell lifeless on the ground. European witches suck the blood of children; here the divine Krishna turns the tables on the witch.

"The Palwar Rajputs of Oudh have a witch ancestress. Soon after the birth of her son she was engaged in baking cakes. Her infant began to cry, and she was obliged to perform a double duty. At this juncture her husband arrived just in time to see his demon wife assume gigantic and supernatural proportions, so as to allow both the baking and nursing to go on at the same time. But finding her secret discovered, the witch disappeared, leaving her son as a legacy to her astonished husband. Here, though the story is incomplete, we have almost certainly, as in the case of Nona Chamarin, one of the Melusina type of legend, where the supernatural wife leaves her husband and children, because he violated some taboo, by which he is forbidden to see her in a state of nudity, or the like."

The aborigines of India lived in great fear of ghosts and invisible spirits, and a considerable portion of their time was given up to averting the evil influences of these. Protectives of every description littered their houses, and the approaches to them, and they wore numerous amulets for the purpose of averting evil influences. Regarding these, W. Crooke stated: "Some of the Indian ghosts, like the ifrit of the Arabian Nights, can grow to the length of ten yojanas or eighty miles. In one of the Bengal tales a ghost is identified because she can stretch out her hands several yards for a vessel. Some ghosts possess the very dangerous power of entering human corpses, like the Vetala, and swelling to an enormous size. The Kharwars of Mirzapur have a wild legend which tells how long ago an unmarried girl of the tribe died, and was being cremated. While the relations were collecting wood for the pyre, a ghost entered the corpse, but the friends managed to expel him. Since then great care is taken not to leave the bodies of women unwatched. So, in the Punjab, when a great person is cremated the bones and ashes are carefully watched till the fourth day, to prevent a magician interfering with them. If he has a chance, he can restore the deceased to life, and ever after retain him under his influence. This is the origin of the custom in Great Britain of waking the dead, a practice which 'most probably originated from a silly superstition as to the danger of a corpse being carried off by some of the agents of the invisible world, or exposed to the ominous liberties of brute animals.' But in India it is considered the best course, if the corpse cannot be immediately disposed of, to measure it carefully, and then no malignant Bhut can occupy it.

"Most of the ghosts whom we have been as yet considering are malignant. There are, however, others which are friendly. Such are the German Elves, the Robin Goodfellow, Puck, Brownie and the Cauld Lad of Hilton of England, the Glashan of the Isle of Man, the Phouka or Leprechaun of Ireland. Such, in one of his many forms, is the Brahmadaitya, or ghost of a Brahman who has died unmarried. In Bengal he is believed to be more neat and less mischievous than other ghosts; the Bhuts carry him in a palanquin, he wears wooden sandals, and lives in a Banyan tree."

Psychical Research and Parapsychology

While Madame Blavatsky's Theosophist movement did find its way to India, the scientific study of psychical phenomena in India really belongs to the period following independence (1948). A small beginning took place in 1951 at the Department of Philosophy and Psychology of Benares Hindu University under Bhikhan L. Atreya, when parapsychology was included as a postgraduate subject, but it did not make much progress. Other Indian scholars such as C. T. K. Chari and S. Parthasarthy of Madras, and Prof. & Mrs. Akolkar of Poona did become interested in psychical phenomena. Prof. Chari took a special interest in scientific and statistical approaches and published papers in the Journal of the American Society of Psychical Research.

Another pioneer was K. Ramakrishna Rao, professor and head of the Department of Psychology and Parapsychology at Andhra University who worked for several years at Duke University, North Carolina, and then established the department at Andhra University and collaborated with B. K. Kanthamani. Rao subsequently became president of the Parapsychological Association for 1965 and 1978, and was later director of the Institute for Parapsychology, Durham, North Carolina.

In North India, Dr. Sampurananand first became interested in parapsychology when Education Minister, and later initiated study of the paranormal at the University of Lucknow in conjunction with Kali Prasad, head of the Department of Philosophy and Psychology. When Sampurananand was appointed Governor of Rajasthan, he helped to establish a department of parapsychology at the Rajasthan University at Jaipur, although this was subsequently closed. Since then, however, there has been interest in the subject for postgraduate degrees in Lucknow and Agra Universities.

In 1962-63, the Bureau of Psychology in Allahabad took up a research project in parapsychology, studying (ESP) Extra sensory perception in schoolchildren. The results were published in the International Journal of Parapsychology in the Autumn 1968 issue.

In 1964, Jamuna Prasad, president of the Indian Institute of Parapsychology, Allahabad, assisted Ian Stevenson who visited India to investigate reported cases of reincarnation first hand. A group of researchers took part in this project, which involved a Specific Trait Questionnaire designed to assess the possible impressions of past experiences carried over to another incarnation. With the formal establishment of the Indian Institute of Parapsychology, another valuable project on "Paranormal Powers Manifested During Yogic Training" was undertaken with a grant from the Parapsychology Foundation.

Of a slightly different nature was "Project Consciousness" inaugurated in December 1966 by Karan Singh, Minister of Health and Family Planning. This project, conducted by the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences, Bangalore, was largely concerned with exploration of the ancient Hindu concept of kundalini as a psycho-physiological force in humans related to sexual energy, and in a sublimated form, to levels of higher consciousness. Interest stemmed from the work of Pandit Gopi Krishna, one of several modern spiritual teachers who revived interest in the subject through his writing and teaching activity. The project languished after a change of government.

Indian publications concerned with parapsychology have included: Darshana International (quarterly journal of philosophy, psychology, psychical research, religion and mysticism); Psychics International (quarterly journal of psychic and yoga research); Parapsychology (an Indian journal of parapsychological research from the department of parapsychology; Rajasthan University, Jaipur), discontinued with the closure of the Department of Parapsychology at Rajasthan University; and the Journal of Indian Psychology (Andhra University).

The journal Kundalini (formerly Kundalini & Spiritual India) was devoted to the study of consciousness evolution arising from the work of Gopi Krishna and embodying more the mystical realm than parapsychological. In this connection, a Central Institute for Kundalini Research was established at Srinagar, Kashmir, although it became inactive following the Gopi Krishna's death in 1984. The influence of the mysticism and gurus from India have been a strong influence in America for decades, particularly since the 1950s.

Sources:

Abbott, John. The Keys of Power: A Study of Indian Ritual and Belief. London, 1932. Reprint, New Hyde Park, N.Y.: University Books, 1974.

Atreya, B. L. An Introduction to Parapsychology. Banaras, India: International Standard Publications, 1957.

Berger, Arthur S., and Joyce Berger. The Encyclopedia of Parapsychology and Psychical Research. New York: Paragon House, 1991.

Bernard, Theos. Philosophical Foundations of India. London: Rider, 1945.

Crooke, William. The Popular Religion and Folk-Lore of Northern India. Allahabad, India: Government Press, 1894. Reprint, 2 vols. London: A. Constable, 1896.

Garrison, Omar. Tantra—The Yoga of Sex. New York: Causeway Books, 1973.

Gervis, Pearce. Naked They Pray. London: Cassell, 1956.

Gopi Krishna, Pandit. The Biological Basis of Religion & Genius. New York: Harper & Row, 1971.

——. Kundalini: The Evolutionary Energy in Man. London: Stuart & Watkins, n.d. Reprint, Boulder, Colo.: Shambhala, 1967.

Oman, J. Campbell. Cults, Customs & Superstitions of India. London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1908.

——. The Mystics, Ascetics and Saints of India. London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1903.

Sanyal, J. M., trans. The Srimad Bhagavatam. 2 Vols., New Delhi, India: Munshiram Manocharlal, 1973.

Washington, Peter. Madame Blavatsky's Baboon, A History of the Mystics, Mediums, and Misfits Who Brought Spiritualism to America. New York: Schocken Books, 1993.

Jana-gana-mana-adhinayaka, jaya he
Bharata-bhagya-vidhata
Punjab-Sindhu-Gujarata-Maratha
Dravida-Utkala-Banga
Vindhya-Himachala-Yamuna-Ganga
Uchchala-Jaldhi-taranga
Tava shubha name jage
Tava shubha ashish mange
Gahe tava jaya-gatha
Jana-gana-mangala-dayaka jaya he
Bharata-bhagya-vidhata
Jaya he, jaya he, jaya he
Jaya jaya jaya, jaya he!

The Translation of "The Indian National Anthem"

Thou art the rulers of the minds of all people,
dispenser of India's destiny.
Thy name rouses the hearts of Punjab, Sind, Gujarat and Maratha,
Of the Dravida and Orissa and Bengal;
It echoes in the hills of the Vindhyas and Himalayas,
mingles in the music of Yamuna and Ganga and is
chanted by the waves of the Indian Sea.
They pray for thy blessings and sing thy praise.
The saving of all people waits in thy hand,
thou dispenser of India's destiny,
Victory, victory, victory to thee.

India is the birthplace of many world religions, most notably Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism. Indians have speculated extensively about the significance of dreams, often coming to much the same conclusion as other cultures. For instance, they have a tradition of regarding dreams as messages from the gods. One of the unique aspects of this tradition is a record of these speculations from as early as the Vedic period (three or four thousand years ago, when the Vedas were composed). In the Atharva Veda, for instance, dream elements indicating good or bad omens are discussed. Also discussed in the same text are rites for counteracting bad omens.

Where India outstrips other cultural traditions is in the development of the theme of this life or this world as a kind of dream. According to mainstream Hindu religious thought, the individual soul is trapped in the sufferings involved with life in this world, and, because of reincarnation, even death does not release one from this world. In most of the religious traditions of southern Asia, release or liberation from the cycle of death and rebirth is the ultimate goal of the spiritual life. A metaphor often used to describe the insight that leads directly to liberation is awakening from a dream. Especially in the philosophical tradition of Advaita Vedanta, this metaphor is developed to stress the dreamlike quality-and hence the unreality-of the world as we experience it in our normal state of consciousness. The doctrine of the ultimate unreality of this world is referred to as maya.

Regarding the classification of dreams, the simplest division into auspicious and inauspicious dreams seems to be very ancient, in that the key words for good dreams and bad dreams have stayed constant from the earliest lists down to the twelfth-century work by Jagaddeva. In the Hindu view, during sleep a subtle body that is the basis for dream consciousness can detach itself from the physical body and wander. This view is very similar to that of many traditional tribal peoples, who regard dreams as resulting from the experiences of the wandering soul.

In the Atharva-Veda, men are said to have one of three temperaments: bilious, phlegmatic, or sanguine. Dreams of arid land and burning objects are attributed to bilious persons, dreams of nature's splendor and burgeoning life are attributed to the phlegmatic, and dreams of racing clouds and forest creatures running in terror are attributed to sanguine persons. In the Questions of King Milinda (an early Indian Buddhist work), it is said that persons who dream are either under the influence of a deity, under the influence of their experiences, or under the influence of prophecy. The basic Jaina classification, by way of contrast, is into seen, unseen, and inscrutably seen, that is both seen and unseen. According to some Indian medical texts, dreams are merely past experiences just now being apprehended, while others are considered wish fulfillments.

The classical schools of Indian philosophy offer two different interpretations of dreams. The terminology presentative theory explains dream cognition as perception of the mind itself in retirement when the external sense organs have ceased to function. Representative theory holds that dream consciousness amounts to a false recollection. Both positions view the mind as a sixth sense. The dream is the object of this sense, since the five external sense organs cease to function during sleep and thus cannot contribute to its perception.