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Hinduism In South India
Hinduism in South India refers to the Hindu culture of the people of South India. Hinduism in South India is characterized by Dravidian customs and traditions, hence it is also called Dravidian Hinduism. The Dravidians made great contributions to the development of Hinduism. South India was the birthplace of many Hindu saints and reformers. The Brahmins (Hindu priests class) of ancient Dakshinapatha (Tamilakam, Telangana, Karnataka including Maharashtra and Gujarat) were classified as Pancha-Dravida (The Five Dravidians). The Hindus in South India are followers of various Hindu branches such as Shaivism, Vaishnavism, Shaktism, Brahmanism and others. Hinduism was the state religion of most of the South Indian kingdoms. During the Ancient and Middle Ages were built in South India one of the greatest Hindu temples. South Indian kings such as the Cholas spread Hinduism overseas to parts of Southeast Asia. The activities of South India across the Palk Strait led to survival of Hind ...
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States And Union Territories Of India
India is a federal union comprising 28 states and 8 union territories, with a total of 36 entities. The states and union territories are further subdivided into districts and smaller administrative divisions. History Pre-independence The Indian subcontinent has been ruled by many different ethnic groups throughout its history, each instituting their own policies of administrative division in the region. The British Raj mostly retained the administrative structure of the preceding Mughal Empire. India was divided into provinces (also called Presidencies), directly governed by the British, and princely states, which were nominally controlled by a local prince or raja loyal to the British Empire, which held ''de facto'' sovereignty ( suzerainty) over the princely states. 1947–1950 Between 1947 and 1950 the territories of the princely states were politically integrated into the Indian union. Most were merged into existing provinces; others were organised into ...
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Kerala
Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South Canara, and Thiruvithamkoor. Spread over , Kerala is the 21st largest Indian state by area. It is bordered by Karnataka to the north and northeast, Tamil Nadu to the east and south, and the Lakshadweep Sea to the west. With 33 million inhabitants as per the 2011 census, Kerala is the 13th-largest Indian state by population. It is divided into 14 districts with the capital being Thiruvananthapuram. Malayalam is the most widely spoken language and is also the official language of the state. The Chera dynasty was the first prominent kingdom based in Kerala. The Ay kingdom in the deep south and the Ezhimala kingdom in the north formed the other kingdoms in the early years of the Common Era (CE). The region had been a prominent spic ...
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Palk Strait
The Palk Strait ( ta, பாக்கு நீரிணை ''Pākku Nīriṇai'', si, පෝක් සමුද්‍ර සන්ධිය ''Pok Samudra Sandhiya'') is a strait between the Tamil Nadu state of India and the Jaffna District of the Northern Province of the island nation of Sri Lanka. It connects the Bay of Bengal in the northeast with Palk Bay in the southwest. With a minimum depth of less than 9.1 m,Palk Bay
Sea Seek.
it is 40 to 85 miles (64 to 137 km) wide and 85 miles long.Palk Strait
Encyclopedia britannica.
Several rivers flow into it, including the

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Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of mainland China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and north-west of mainland Australia. Southeast Asia is bordered to the north by East Asia, to the west by South Asia and the Bay of Bengal, to the east by Oceania and the Pacific Ocean, and to the south by Australia (continent), Australia and the Indian Ocean. Apart from the British Indian Ocean Territory and two out of atolls of Maldives, 26 atolls of Maldives in South Asia, Maritime Southeast Asia is the only other subregion of Asia that lies partly within the Southern Hemisphere. Mainland Southeast Asia is completely in the Northern Hemisphere. East Timor and the southern portion of Indonesia are the only parts that are south of the Equator. Th ...
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Cholas
The Chola dynasty was a Tamil thalassocratic empire of southern India and one of the longest-ruling dynasties in the history of the world. The earliest datable references to the Chola are from inscriptions dated to the 3rd century BCE during the reign of Ashoka of the Maurya Empire. As one of the Three Crowned Kings of Tamilakam, along with the Chera and Pandya, the dynasty continued to govern over varying territories until the 13th century CE. The Chola Empire was at its peak under the Medieval Cholas in the mid-9th century CE. The heartland of the Cholas was the fertile valley of the Kaveri River. They ruled a significantly larger area at the height of their power from the later half of the 9th century till the beginning of the 13th century. They unified peninsular India south of the Tungabhadra River, and held the territory as one state for three centuries between 907 and 1215 CE. K. A. Nilakanta Sastri, ''A History of South India'', p 157 Under Rajaraja I and h ...
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State Religion
A state religion (also called religious state or official religion) is a religion or creed officially endorsed by a sovereign state. A state with an official religion (also known as confessional state), while not secular state, secular, is not necessarily a theocracy. State religions are official or government-sanctioned establishments of a religion, but the state does not need to be under the control of the religion (as in a theocracy) nor is the state-sanctioned religion necessarily under the control of the state. Official religions have been known throughout human history in almost all types of cultures, reaching into the Ancient Near East and prehistory. The relation of Cult, religious cult and the state was discussed by the Ancient Rome, ancient Latin scholar Marcus Terentius Varro, under the term of ''theologia civilis'' (). The first state-sponsored Church (congregation), Christian church was the Armenian Apostolic Church, established in 301 CE. In Christianity, as the ter ...
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Brahmanism
The historical Vedic religion (also known as Vedicism, Vedism or ancient Hinduism and subsequently Brahmanism (also spelled as Brahminism)), constituted the religious ideas and practices among some Indo-Aryan peoples of northwest Indian Subcontinent (Punjab and the western Ganges plain) during the Vedic period (1500–500 BCE). These ideas and practices are found in the Vedas, Vedic texts, and some Vedic rituals are still practiced today. It is one of the major traditions which Origins of Hinduism, shaped Hinduism, though present-day Hinduism is markedly different from the historical Vedic religion. The Vedic religion developed in the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent during the early Vedic period (1500–1100 BCE), but has roots in the Eurasian Steppe Sintashta culture (2200–1800 BCE), the subsequent Central Asian Andronovo culture (2000–900 BCE), and the Indus Valley civilisation, Indus Valley civilization (2600–1900 BCE). It was a composite of the religio ...
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Pancha-Dravida
Pancha Dravida is one of the two major groupings of Brahmins in Hinduism, of which the other was Pancha-Gauda. In ''Rajatarangini'' Kalhana, in his ''Rajatarangini'' (c. 12th century CE), classifies the following five Brahmin communities as Pancha Dravida, stating that they reside to the south of the Vindhyas: * Karnataka (Karnataka Brahmins) * Tailanga (Telugu Brahmins) * Dravida (Brahmins of Tamil Brahmins, Tamil Nadu and Malayali Brahmin, Kerala) * Maharashtraka (Maharashtrian Brahmins) * Gurjara (:Brahmin communities of Gujarat, Gujarati, :Brahmin communities of Rajasthan, Marwari and Mewari Brahmins) In the ''kaifiyat''s The Maratha confederacy, Maratha-era ''kaifiyats'' (bureaucratic records) of Deccan Plateau, Deccan, which give an account of the society in the southern Maratha country, mention the following Brahmin communities as Pancha Dravida: * Andhra-Purva Desastha * Dravida Desastha * Karnataka Brahmins * Deshastha Brahmin, Desastha The ''kafiyat''s classify th ...
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Gujarat
Gujarat (, ) is a state along the western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the fifth-largest Indian state by area, covering some ; and the ninth-most populous state, with a population of 60.4 million. It is bordered by Rajasthan to the northeast, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu to the south, Maharashtra to the southeast, Madhya Pradesh to the east, and the Arabian Sea and the Pakistani province of Sindh to the west. Gujarat's capital city is Gandhinagar, while its largest city is Ahmedabad. The Gujaratis are indigenous to the state and their language, Gujarati, is the state's official language. The state encompasses 23 sites of the ancient Indus Valley civilisation (more than any other state). The most important sites are Lothal (the world's first dry dock), Dholavira (the fifth largest site), and Gola Dhoro (where 5 uncommon seals were found). Lothal i ...
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Maharashtra
Maharashtra (; , abbr. MH or Maha) is a states and union territories of India, state in the western India, western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. Maharashtra is the List of states and union territories of India by population, second-most populous state in India and the second-most populous country subdivision globally. It was formed on 1 May 1960 by splitting the bilingual Bombay State, which had existed since 1956, into majority Marathi language, Marathi-speaking Maharashtra and Gujarati language, Gujarati-speaking Gujarat. Maharashtra is home to the Marathi people, the predominant ethno-linguistic group, who speak the Marathi language, Marathi language, the official language of the state. The state is divided into 6 Divisions of Maharashtra, divisions and 36 List of districts of Maharashtra, districts, with the state capital being Mumbai, the List of million-plus urban agglomerations in India, most populous urban area in India ...
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Tamilakam
Tamiḻakam (Tamil: தமிழகம்; Malayalam: തമിഴകം), refers to the geographical region inhabited by the ancient Tamil people, covering the southernmost region of the Indian subcontinent. Tamilakam covered today's Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Puducherry, Lakshadweep and southern parts of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. Traditional accounts and the ''Tolkāppiyam'' referred to these territories as a single cultural area, where Tamil was the natural language and permeated the culture of all its inhabitants. The ancient Tamil country was divided into kingdoms. The best known among them were the Cheras, Cholas, Pandyans and Pallavas. During the Sangam period, Tamil culture began to spread outside Tamilakam. Ancient Tamil settlements were also established in Sri Lanka ( Sri Lankan Tamils) and the Maldives ( Giravarus). In contemporary India, Tamil politicians and orators often use the name ''Tamilakam'' to refer to Tamil Nadu alone. Etymology "Tamiḻakam" is a p ...
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Dakshinapatha
__NOTOC__ Dakshinapatha is an important historical region which is an ancient equivalent of present day South India or Deccan plateau and which may mean; *the "Ancient South of the Indian subcontinent" below Uttarapatha. The term can encompass Dravida, Simhala, the Kollam region, and the Maldives.In the south region * the "great southern highway" in India, traveling from Magadha to Pratishthana, or * a kingdom on the Godavari River in southern India Etymology The term ''Dakshinapatha'' is composite of two terms, ''dakshina'' and ''patha''. name ''Deccan'' is an anglicised form of the Prakrit word ' or ' derived from Sanskrit ''dakṣiṇa'' ( "south"), as the region was located just south of North India. Path means road, hence, Dakshinapatha means ''southern road'', but it has been also applied for South Indian realm. Historical background Three divisions of the Indian subcontinent mentioned in the Later Vedic texts are Aryavarta (Northern India), Madhya Desha (Central I ...
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