Hinduism is the primary religion of India and one of the largest religions in the world, based on the number of followers. These Indian women are lighting lamps for a major Hindu festival called Diwali, celebrated by Hindu communities worldwide.
Credit: AP/Wide World

Happy Diwali! It is a time for family, flowers, fireworks, lights, sweet treats, and vibrant silks. Diwali,also spelled Divali or Dipavali, is a major Hindu festival. It is sometimes called the festival of lights. It is celebrated in all parts of India, where it is a national holiday, and in Hindu communities worldwide. Just recently New York City Public Schools announced Diwali will be recognized as an official holiday starting in 2023. Diwali is scheduled based on the phases of the moon. The festivities normally fall after India cools down from summer but before monsoon season begins.

Diwali lasts from two to five days, depending on local custom. It falls during the Hindu month of Kartika (October to November). The high point of Diwali is the day of the new moon, which is New Year’s Day in some parts of India. Dipavali is a Sanskrit term that means row of lights. During Diwali, people decorate their homes and Hindu temples with small earthenware oil lamps. They also may visit each other, exchange gifts and greeting cards, and wear new clothes.

During Diwali, a major Hindu festival, people decorate their homes and temples with small earthenware oil lamps. The name Diwali comes from a Sanskrit word meaning row of lights. This picture shows a man in India lighting Diwali lamps that are decorated with flowers.
Credit: © Bob Krist, Corbis

Diwali has different meanings for different groups of Hindus, but it usually honors Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth. Thus, Diwali has a special importance for business owners, merchants, and shopkeepers, who pray to Lakshmi during the festival. For these people, Diwali lamps are meant to help Lakshmi find her way into the homes of the faithful to give them prosperity. For others, the lamps light the path of ancestors who have visited earth. The lamps also symbolize the turning of the seasons and of the human spirit from darkness to light.

Diwali also commemorates the return of Rama and his wife, Sita, to the holy city of Ayodhya after 14 years in exile. Rama is the hero of the ancient Sanskrit the Ramayana. The Diwali lamps serve to welcome the returning couple. In West Bengal, Diwali is associated with Kali, the goddess of destruction.

Followers of the Sikh religion also celebrate Diwali. It marks the release from prison in 1619 of Guru Hargobind by the Mughal emperor. Guru Hargobind was the sixth Sikh guru (spiritual leader). Like Hindus, Sikhs exchange gifts and light lamps in their homes and temples during the festival.

Vira-nirvana, a one-day Jain festival, coincides with Diwali and shares some of its features. Vira-nirvana marks the passing of Mahavira, who organized the Jain religion, into nirvana. Nirvana is a state of perfect peace outside the cycle of birth and death. Many Jains devote this day to fasting and meditation. They also light lamps to mark Mahavira’s passing.

June 18, 2018

Malay is the language of a large group of people in Southeast Asia. The language is spoken by about 13.5 million in Malaysia, plus millions of other people who live in nearby Brunei, Indonesia, and Singapore. Malay belongs to the Malayo-Polynesian branch of Austronesian, a language family that includes Javanese, Sundanese, and Tagalog.

The flag of Malaysia flies over some 13.5 million Malay speakers. Credit: © PhotoRoman/Shutterstock

The Malay language has numerous dialects. The official language of Malaysia, Bahasa Malaysia, is based largely on the Malay dialect of Johor, a southern state in Peninsular Malaysia. The official language of Indonesia, Bahasa Indonesia, is based on the dialect used in the Riau Islands of Indonesia. Because of the similarities between the language used in Johor and in the nearby Riau Islands, the two forms are sometimes classified together as Johor-Riau Malay. Other dialects include Ambon Malay, Ternate Malay, and Banjar Malay. In most cases, speakers of different dialects can communicate with each other without great difficulty.

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Malaysia. Credit: WORLD BOOK map

The Malay language includes elements of Sanskrit and Arabic. These elements entered the language through contact with the culture and religions of India and the Arab world. Contact with traders from many countries led to the development of Bazaar Malay, which became widely spoken in trading communities.

The oldest known Malay text is a stone inscription from the early years of the Srivijaya Empire, a Malay kingdom that emerged in the late 600′s and lasted until the late 1300′s. The text is written in the Indian Pallava script, and it tells of military expeditions. Later Malay texts were written in Devanagari, an alphabet and script used to write Hindi. Beginning in the late 1300′s, many Malay literary and religious works were written in an Arabic-based script called Jawi or Classical Malay. Beginning in the 1500′s, Dutch and British influence in Malaysia led to the adoption of a Malay writing system using the Roman alphabet.

In the 1970’s, Indonesia and Malaysia adopted a common spelling system for their official languages. Since then, efforts have continued to further standardize the Malay language.

April 16, 2018

Hindi <<HIHN dee,>>, also called Modern Standard Hindi, is spoken by more than 500 million people. It is the principal official language of India. More than two-fifths of India’s people speak one or more of the dialects (language variations) of Hindi. There are many regional and local dialects in India, and each state has its own official language. Hindi is the official language of the capital, Delhi, and seven states. Hindi speakers live mostly in northern India, but Hindi is commonly heard in other parts of the country. Hindi speakers are also found in Nepal, Singapore, South Africa, the United Kingdom, the United States, and many other countries.

The flag of India flies over hundreds of millions of Hindi speakers in India. Credit: © T. Lesia, Shutterstock

Urdu is a sister language of Hindi. The languages are similar in grammar and pronunciation. When written, however, they use different alphabets and scripts. Cultural differences further separate the languages. Indian Hindus, people who practice Hinduism, often speak Hindi. Indian Muslims, people who practice Islam, often speak Urdu. Urdu is also spoken in Pakistan and Kashmir. Scholars sometimes speak of the two languages collectively as Hindi-Urdu. The spoken form is sometimes called Hindustani. Hindi-Urdu is the main language used in Indian films (Bollywood) and in much Indian popular music.

The Indian film industry produces hundreds of motion pictures every year. Most films are in Hindi (or Hindustani), but some are made in regional languages. Credit: WORLD BOOK photo by David R. Frazier

Hindi is an Indo-Aryan language of the Indo-European family. It is part of the New Indo-Aryan (NIA) group. Hindi uses the Devanagari alphabet, which has roots in Sanskrit, the oldest formal written language of India. Devanagari is a phonetic alphabet, so each letter represents a sound. It has 44 letters, with 33 consonants and 11 vowels. Smaller marks called matras represent vowels preceded by a consonant. Matras are written on the symbol of the preceding consonant. The letters are formed by markings that hang down from a horizontal line (see the red script in the movie poster above).

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Hindi is spoken in Delhi and the northern states of India. Credit: WORLD BOOK map

Hindi nouns have gender, number, and case. They can be masculine or feminine, singular or plural, and direct or oblique. Most adjectives agree with the gender, number, and case of the nouns they modify. Hindi has four simple tenses and three aspects. Word order for the Hindi language is subject-object-verb. Hindi is written from left to right, and Urdu is written from right to left. Urdu uses the Persian-Arabic alphabet. English words with Hindi origins include bungalow, shampoo, bandana, and jungle.

Hindi and Urdu are based of the spoken dialect of Delhi, Khari Boli, which means standard speech. The modern literary language is based on Khari Boli, which was written in the Devanagari alphabet. Written Hindi can be traced back to poetry of the 1300′s. Hindi prose became prominent in the early 1900’s.

October 27, 2016

In the village of Deshnoke, in India’s northwestern state of Rajasthan, stands the Karni Mata temple and its population of more than 20,000 sacred residents. Tourists from around the world travel to this Hindu temple to meet these residents, dine with them, and allow them to scamper across their feet, which is seen as a sign of good luck. You see, the residents of Karni Mata are rats.

Sacred rats drink milk from a bowl in India’s Karni Mata Temple in Deshnoke, Rajasthan. Credit: © Don Mammoser, Shutterstock

Hindus believe that the soul of a person who dies is reborn in a process known as reincarnation. Depending on how a person has lived, the soul may be reborn in the body of a human or animal. This cycle of life, death, and reincarnation continues until a person achieves spiritual perfection.

The temple in Deshnoke is dedicated to Karni Mata, a woman bard (singer-poet) who lived in the late 1400’s and early 1500’s. During Karni Mata’s lifetime, a clan of followers worshipped her as an incarnation (earthly embodiment) of the goddess Durga. According to tradition, after the son of one of her followers died, Karni Mata asked the underworld god Yama to bring the boy back to life. Yama refused, saying the boy had already been reincarnated. Karni Mata then made a bargain with Yama, so that from then on her followers would be reincarnated as rats until they could be reborn into the human clan.

The Karni Mata temple dates from the early 1900’s. A few human residents clean the temple and feed the rats from metal bowls. Visitors may eat food or drink water that has been nibbled or sipped by the rats. Such rat-blessed treats are considered holy and likely to bring good luck. Even better fortune is said to await those who catch a glimpse of one of the temple’s few white rats, which are believed to be incarnations of Karni Mata and her family. Visitors are required to remove their shoes inside the temple, and are advised to carefully watch their steps. A person who steps on a rat must buy a gold or silver statue to apologize.