Portal:India

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THE INDIA PORTAL

The Republic of India is a country that occupies a greater part of South Asia. It borders Pakistan and Afghanistan in the northwest, the People's Republic of China, Nepal, and Bhutan in the north, and Bangladesh and Myanmar in the east. India's coastline stretches for over seven thousand kilometres. Its neighbours in the Indian Ocean are the island nations of the Maldives in the southwest, Sri Lanka in the south, and Indonesia in the southeast. India is the second most populous country in the world, with a population of over one billion and is the seventh largest country by geographical area. It is a constitutional republic consisting of twenty eight states and six union territories. The word India derives from the Old Persian cognate for the Sanskrit word Sindhu, the Indus river. The Constitution of India also recognises Bhārat listen (help·info) as an official name with equal status.

A centre of important historic trade routes, India is the home to some of the most ancient civilisations. India is the birthplace to four major world religions: Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism and has the third largest Muslim population in the world after Indonesia and Pakistan. India was a former colony of the British Empire under the British Raj before gaining independence on 15 August 1947. The country has witnessed significant economic and military growth after the liberalisation of the Indian economy.

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Greco-Buddhism is the cultural syncretism between the culture of Classical Greece and Buddhism, which developed over a period of close to 800 years in Central Asia in the area corresponding to modern-day Afghanistan and Pakistan, between the 4th century BCE and the 5th century CE. Greco-Buddhism influenced the artistic (and, possibly, conceptual) development of Buddhism, and in particular Mahayana Buddhism, before it was adopted by Central and Northeastern Asia from the 1st century CE, ultimately spreading to China, Korea and Japan. Numerous Greco-Buddhist works of art display the intermixing of Greek and Buddhist influences, around such creation centers as Gandhara. The subject matter of Gandharan art was definitely Buddhist, while most motifs were of Western Asiatic or Hellenistic origin. The interaction between Hellenistic Greece and Buddhism started when Alexander the Great conquered Asia Minor and Central Asia in 334 BCE, going as far as the Indus, thus establishing direct contact with India, the birthplace of Buddhism. (more...)

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Goa is India's smallest state in terms of area and the fourth smallest in terms of population. It is located on the west coast of India, in the region known as the Konkan. The state is divided into two districts: North Goa (purple shades) and South Goa (orange shades) and the districts are further divided into eleven talukas. Panaji is the state's capital, and Vasco-da-Gama (Vasco) its largest town.

Photo credit: Nichalp