Fodor's India 3rd ed.
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Fodor's Exploring India: An information-rich cultural guide in full color.
Destination: IndiaStep into India and you are stepping into the most democratic and most feudal country in the world.
The marriage of feudalism to freedom is the grandest of India's many paradoxes, and part of its magic and charm. India's people are utterly free, yet the situations of many are fixed in time, at roughly 100 years ago. Contradictions in everyday Indian life may leave you nonplussed on your first trip here. No matter how quickly it charges onto the information superhighway, India remains an enigma, a perplexity, a puzzle you simply can't solve. And every time you think you know the place, something happens to jolt you out of your complacency.
DiningIndian cuisine varies widely from region to region, but taken together it's a fine art. Meat, seafood, vegetables, lentils, and grains proliferate in splendid combinations -- subtle and enticing. The word "curry" is a British corruption of the Hindi word
kari, the aromatic leaf of the kari plant; typical "curries" are dishes cooked in
masala (a spicy gravy). Over the centuries, each invading force brought new techniques, ingredients, and dishes; the Moguls, above all, revolutionized Indian cooking, especially in the north, introducing
birianis (rice dishes),
kormas (braised meat or vegetable dishes), kebabs,
kofta (meat or vegetable balls),
dum pukht (aromatic dishes that are sealed and slow-cooked), and tandoori cooking (which requires a tandoor, a cylindrical clay oven). The British introduced simple puddings and custards. Tibetan immigrants brought
momos (steamed dumplings),
kothay (fried dumplings), and hearty noodle soups called
thukpa. In the northeast, the Bengalis and Assamese took advantage of the nearby waters to emphasize fish and seafood.
Performing ArtsIndia's folk dances derive from various sources, but Indian classical dance originates in the temple.
Bharata Natyam is a dynamic, precise style in which the dancer wears anklets of bells to emphasize the rhythm. Many figures in South Indian temple sculptures strike Bharata Natyam dance poses.
Buddhist dances are as stylized as classical Hindu dance forms, except that the movements of the masked and costumed monks are more ritualized, usually working from a slow pace up to a whirl in which flowing skirts become a blur of color. The accompanying music, usually dominated by long horns and cymbals, adds an eerie counterpoint to the monks' deliberate footwork. The dances are usually enactments of important Buddhist legends, or are performed to ward off demons.
As with classical dance, the beginnings of classical Indian music can be traced to the Hindu Vedas. Over time, this music---an adjunct to worship---developed definite laws of theory and practice. North Indian music uses a wide range of beautiful instruments such as the sitar and the flute; in the south, musical forms are stricter, with less improvisation. In both schools, the fundamental form is a raga, a song based on a twelve-tone system unusual, at first, to the Western ear.
The arrival of the Moguls in the 12th century led to a new form of northern music incorporating the Persian ghazal, an Urdu rhyming couplet expressing love. In the ghazal, however, the object of devotion can be a woman or the divine or even the singer's home state. Part of the joy in hearing ghazals, at least for those who understand Urdu, comes from deciphering oblique references that give layers of meanings to a single line and are attributed to the skill of the poet and even the singer.
