whatisindiablog

Introduced by the British, cricket is India’s most popular sport. Hockey is considered the national sport, and the Indian field hockey team proudly won Olympic gold in 1928.

Hockey player

Indian cricket team

The national fruit of India is The ‘Mango’. The bird is the Peacock, which was initially bred for food.

Hindi and English are the official languages of India. The government also rcognizes 17 other languages(Assamese,Bengali,Gujrati,Nepali,Manipuri,Konkani,Kannada,Kashmiri,Malyalam,Marathi,Oriya,Punjabi,Sanskrit,Sindhi,Tamil,Telagu,and Urdu). Apart from these languages,about 1,652 dialects are spoken in the country.

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

The Taj Mahal (Crown Palace) was built by Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan(1592-1666) for his beloved wife Mumtaj Mahal (1593-1631). This Architectural beauty has been called “marbled embroidery” for its intricate workmanship. It took 22,000 workman 22 years to complete it.

The number System was invented by India. Aryabhatta was the scientist who invented the digit zero’0′.

India is the birth place chess. The original word for ‘chess’ is the Sanskrit chaturanga, meaning “four members of an army”which were most likely elephants ,horses,chariots,and foot soldiers.

Algebra, Trigonometry and Calculus are studies which originated in India.

The world’s highest cricket ground in chail, Himachal Pradesh. Built in 1893 after levelling a hilltop,this cricket pitch is 2444 meters above the sea level.

Ayurveda is the earliest school of medicine known to Mankind. The father of medicine, Charaka, consolidated Ayurveda 25000 years ago.

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 centry, which was long before the European Mathematicians.

India is the only country other than US and Japan , to have built a super computer indeigenously.

India is about 1/3 the size of the United States ,yet it is the second most populous country in the world with a population of 1,166,079,217. India is the seventh largest country in the world,at 1.27 million square miles.

India is the largest democracy in the world.

The Kumbh Mela (or Grand Pitcher Festival) is a huge Hindu religious festival that takes place in india every 12 years. In 2001, 60 million people attended, breaking the record for the world’s biggest gathering. The mass of people was photographed fro space by by a satellite.

The Indian flag has three bands of color: saffron for courage and sacrifice, White for truth and peace , and green for faith ,fertility , and chivlary, An emblem of a wheel spinning used to be in the center of the white band, but when India gained Independence, a Buddhist dharma chakra , or wheel of life , replaced the spinning wheel.

The largest employer in the world is the Indian Railways,emplying over a million people.

India was one of the richest countries till the time of British Rule in the early 17th century. Christopher Columbus, attracted by India’s wealth ,had come looking for sea route to India when he discovered America by Mistake.

The Vishnu Temple in the city of Tirupati built in the 10th century , is the worlds largest religious pilgrimage destination. Larger than either Rome or Mecca, an average of 30,000 visitors donate 6 million(US) to the temple everyday.

The Himalayas: from sanskrit hima meaning ‘snow’, and alaya, meaning ‘abode’ are found in the north India.they extend 1,500 miles are slowly growing taller, by almost an inch (2.5 cm)a year. several ancient Indian monasteries are found nestled in the grandeur of these mountains.

Indians hold prominent places both internationally and in the United States. For example the co-founder of Sun Microsystems(Vinod Khosla), the creator of Pentium Chip (vinod Dahm),the founder of Hotmail(sabeer Bhatia), and the GM of Hewlett-Packard(Rajiv Gupta)are all Indian.

The Bengal tiger is India’s national animal. it was once ubiquitous throughout the country, but now there are fewer than 4,000 wild tigers left.

Every major religion is represented in India. Additionally , Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism all originated in India.