Cultural essence of south India





Masala Dosas, lungis, festivals, sculptures and a lot more. What am I talking about here? This is an ultimate mix of a variety available in the southern part of India. Come join me in exploring the never exhaustive multiple layers of South India and its ancient culture.


1. The Geography:




The southern part of India primarily consists of 5 states, i.e., Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra and Telangana (separated from Andhra in 2014). It occupies 19.31% (per Wikipedia) of India’s area. In other words, it covers 245,480 sq. miles of our country. It has major cities developing at a brisk pace compared to other cities in the country. With the likes of Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, Coimbatore, Kochi and more, these cities have already been famous in the entire world as we read.

Official languages like Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, and Malayalam are a few. However, there are a huge bunch of local/tribal languages being spoken even today.

2. The Attire :





Heard of lungi? Clue: Lungi dance song from Chennai ExpressJ. Turns out, it is one of the varied costumes men wear at home and during special occasions. They wear something called as panchey or mundu (basically a lungi but in white/creamish white colour made from silk with colourful borders covering the lower body) combined with preferably white shirts or shalya (covering the upper body completely made out of cotton or silk). Women on the other hand, traditionally wear vibrant, crisp silk sarees again during special occasions like festivals, marriages and more events. Watching a traditionally dressed south Indian couple is a treat to your eyes.


3. The Dish :




Isn’t the name Masala Dosa makes your mouth watery?. No? then let us explore more on the varieties on offer while we travel to south India. As northern part of India consumes wheat, the southern part of India grows and consumes rice. Rice being the primary food is consumed alongside Sambar, Rasam as gravy. Even pongal, pulav are made out of rice. Famous sweets like Mysore pak, dharwad peda, and kunda are made out in Karnataka. Ragi is produced and consumed more in Karnataka. It is considered to make people stronger and less prone of diabetes due to its nature. Food is consumed on a banana leaf in this part of the world as part of tradition. As per science, having a hot meal on a banana leaf is very healthy for a human body as it creates a complete nutritional value to our body.

4. The architecture/sculpture :



Southern part of India is also known to possess architectural finesse. Monuments, sculptures, paintings, temples spread across the southern part of India are known to depict a wide variety of ideas, expressions, and thoughts of the ancient people. South India alone is known to have 5 of the 26 world’s best heritage sites till date. With the likes of Hampi, Mahabalipuram, Belur, Halebidu, Tanjore, Shravanabelagola having the best sculptures made on temple and the hugely popular Raja Ravi Varma who is known to have portrayed the priceless paintings of people as well as instances of Indian mythology creates a true testament of the rich heritage that southern part of India has to offer.



Consider this as just a brief of all the varieties that southern part of India has to offer, make sure to add this as your next travel destination. Come down to feel the true essence of its cultural richness, mixed with delicious healthy food of South India. To top it all, people around this region are known to be peace loving, friendly ones you will ever come across and climate throughout the year are known to be very pleasing.