Section

Itihasa & Faith

The Ramayana and the Mahabharata, which Indian tradition counts as itihasa, history as it happened, and the figures hundreds of millions revere.

The Archaeological Survey of India Began Restoring Prambanan in Java on 8 July 2026, Where 54 Panels Carry the Ramayana in Stone

Walk clockwise round a Javanese Shiva temple and the Ramayana unrolls in stone, from Vishnu on his serpent to the recognition of Rama's sons. Indian conservators now have a formal project there, and a target of 2029.

Ramnagar's Ramlila Plays the Ramayana Over 31 Evenings Across a Whole Town Without Microphones, and UNESCO Counts It Among India's Most Representative Ramlilas

The stage is a town of about forty open-air sites, the script is Tulsidas's poem, and the first episode is the birth of Ravana. Accounts disagree on when it began, from the early 1800s to a claim of 250 years.

Baroda's Oriental Institute Compared Ramayana Manuscripts Dated Back to 1020 CE and Published the Valmiki Ramayana in Seven Volumes Between 1960 and 1975

A department opened in March 1951, a Vice-Chancellor wrote the first verse on the collation sheets in April 1954, and a palm-leaf book from Nepal set the oldest date. The story of the seven-volume text of the Valmiki Ramayana.

Scholars in Pune Consulted 1,259 Manuscripts Over 47 Years to Produce the Mahabharata Critical Edition, 19 Volumes With More Than 89,000 Verses

A call from Paris in 1897, a lakh of rupees from the Chief of Aundh, hand-ruled collation sheets and three general editors in turn. How the text that scholars now cite was built.

Kurukshetra's 48 Kos Circuit Has 182 Documented Tirthas Across Five Haryana Districts, With Brahma Sarovar and Jyotisar at Its Centre and an Annual Gita Mahotsav Run by the Development Board

The land the Gita calls dharmakshetra is also a working pilgrimage map: four corner guardians, five districts, a board set up in 1968 and a festival that began as Gita Jayanti in 1989. Here is what each site is and what the official records say about it.

Mysuru Dasara Ran From 11 to 21 October 2026, and the 417th Jamboo Savari Carried Goddess Chamundeshwari to Bannimantap in a 750-Kilogram Golden Howdah

Elephants walk in from the Nagarhole camps, the palace is lit every evening, and on the tenth day an elephant named Prashantha carried the goddess in the golden howdah for the first time.

The 2026 Pandharpur Wari Set Out From Dehu on 7 July and Alandi on 8 July, and Lakhs of Warkaris Reached the Vitthal Temple for Ashadhi Ekadashi on 25 July

Dehu on 7 July, Alandi on 8 July, Pune on 9 July and the river Chandrabhaga on 25 July. A route-by-route account of how the Varkari pilgrimage ran this year, who it honours, and what the record says about its beginnings.

Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams Served More Than 9 Crore Free Meals in the First Nine Months of 2026, and the Temple's Inscriptions Record Food Endowments Back to the 1400s

A hill shrine with records from the Pallava period, a board formed in 1933, a free kitchen with three sites, and a laddu with a registration number. Each is set out here with its own source.

Garba of Gujarat Became India's 15th UNESCO Intangible Heritage Element in December 2023, and Vadodara Has Since Danced It With More Than 46,000 People at Once

From a perforated clay pot in a courtyard to a ground holding more than 46,000 dancers: what UNESCO's decision records, what scholars add about the pot and the word, and who makes the costumes.

Nashik-Trimbakeshwar Hoists Its Simhastha Flag on 31 October 2026, Haridwar Opens Its Kumbh on 14 January 2027 and Ujjain on 27 March 2028, the Next Three Kumbh Melas After Prayagraj

Three state governments have fixed calendars for the festival UNESCO listed in 2017. A guide to the rotation, the sites, the legal body in Nashik and what Haridwar and Ujjain are building.

Durga Puja in Kolkata Joined UNESCO's Intangible Heritage List on 15 December 2021, After a Nomination File That Counted About 5,000 Pujas in the City

From the clay of Kumartuli to the dhunuchi pots of Navami, this is what the Government of India's file documents, how neighbourhood pujas began, and what a 2019 study measured.

Diwali Runs Five Days From Dhanteras to Bhai Dooj, and UNESCO Put Deepavali on Its Heritage List on 10 December 2025

One festival, five days, and at least six accounts of why the lamps are lit. Here is what each day is for, who keeps it, and what the Government of India and UNESCO have on record.

Kedarnath, Badrinath, Gangotri and Yamunotri Drew About 51 Lakh Pilgrims in 2025, and the 900 km Road to Them Has Been Shaped by Two Supreme Court Orders on Width

Four temples at 3,000 to 3,600 metres, one compulsory registration portal and a road argued over in court. What devotees hold about the shrines, how the crowds are counted, and what the 2013 flood and the slope cutting have left on record.

Prayagraj's 2025 Maha Kumbh Logged 66 Crore Bathers in 45 Days, a Total Officials Tie to Camera Counts and Independent Outlets Question

A tent city on 4,000 hectares and more than 16,000 trains stood behind a 66 crore headline. What is documented about the count, the city and the night of 29 January, and what is still disputed.

Hanuman Could Not Work Out Which Herb Was Which, So He Carried Off the Entire Mountain

Lakshmana was dying, the right herb grew on a Himalayan peak, and Hanuman could not tell one plant from another. What he did next says a great deal about why so many prayers in India are addressed to him.

The Bhagavad Gita Is 700 Verses in 18 Chapters Inside the Mahabharata, and Eight Major Commentators, From Shankara to Radhakrishnan, Have Read Its Three Paths in Different Ways

Shankara stressed knowledge, Ramanuja and Madhva devotion, Tilak action, and Gandhi action without hunger for its reward. A map of the Gita's chapters and of the teachers who have argued over them since the eighth century.

Puri Rebuilds Three Chariots of 16, 14 and 12 Wheels Every Year, and the 2026 Rath Yatra Began on 16 July in Heavy Rain

Three wooden chariots go up from April and come down after the festival, every year. What the state and the temple administration have recorded about the rites, the carpenters, the crowds and the temple's disputed builder.

Valmiki Gives Rama's Army Five Days to Build Ram Setu, and Surveys Have Spent Decades Measuring the Limestone Shoals Where Devotees Place It

The epic counts the building of the bridge day by day. The shoals keep a different record, in survey borings, satellite lasers, a withdrawn 2007 affidavit and a court file that is still open.

Tulsidas Began the Ramcharitmanas in Awadhi on Ram Navami 1574, and Gita Press Has Printed Over 108 Million Copies of His Works

He said he first heard the story as a small child from his teacher, then set it down in the speech of the street. More than four centuries on, Ramnagar still stages it over 31 nights, and Gandhi ranked it first among devotional books.

Karna: The Warrior Who Fought His Own Brothers and Never Knew

Born to a queen, raised by a charioteer, cursed twice, and tricked out of the armour that kept him alive. In the Mahabharata, Karna fought his own brothers, and learned the truth too late.

Krishna: The Many Faces of a God

He is the mischievous child who steals butter, the flute-player who enchants the gopis, the strategist of the Mahabharata, and the god who speaks the Bhagavad Gita. How does one figure hold so many faces at once?

The Mahabharata: The Poem That Claims to Contain the World

Two sets of cousins, a rigged game of dice, and a war that eighteen days could not contain. An introduction to the Mahabharata, the longest epic ever composed and the poem that claims to hold the whole of human life.

The Villain of the Ramayana Was Also a Scholar, a Musician, and a King

In the epic he abducts Sita and is destroyed by Rama. The same epic makes him a master of the four Vedas, a devotee of Shiva, and a mighty king. This is the fuller Ravana, and why a few towns honor him.

Rama and the Price of Being the Ideal Man

He surrendered a throne on a day's notice, fought a war to recover his abducted wife, and then faced choices readers have wrestled with ever since. The story of the man held up as perfect.

The Ramayana: The Story a Civilisation Has Never Stopped Telling

By tradition it began with a cry of grief at a riverbank. Two thousand years on, the story of Rama, Sita, and Ravana is still recited, danced, carved in stone, and lit up in a hundred million doorways. An introduction to the Ramayana.

Adi Shankara Wrote the Earliest Complete Commentaries That Survive on the Brahma Sutras, the Gita and Ten Upanishads, and Four Monasteries Tradition Credits to Him Teach His Advaita Today

From Kalady on the Poorna river to the Sharada seat in Kashmir and the samadhi at Kedarnath: his texts, his teaching of non-duality, the monasteries in four directions, and what the sources say about his dates.

Kabir, the Fifteenth-Century Weaver of Banaras, Has Verses in the Guru Granth Sahib, a Sacred Book of His Own in the Bijak, and a Hindu Samadhi and a Muslim Mazar Side by Side at Maghar

A weaver's couplets are sung in gurdwaras, in Kabir Panth monasteries and on Rajasthan's Kabir Yatra. Here is what the manuscripts show, where scholars disagree on his dates, and what stands at Maghar.

Mirabai of Merta Left a Mewar Court to Sing to Krishna, and the Bhaktamal Had Named Her Among the Great Devotees by About 1600

A Rathor princess married into the Sisodia court at Chittorgarh and kept her devotion to Giridhar. The songs that carry his name travelled with ascetics and singers for generations before most were written down.

Guru Nanak, Born in 1469, Founded the First Sikh Community at Kartarpur and Left 974 Hymns in a 1,430-Page Scripture

A village revenue official's son who worked in a governor's granary became the founder of a faith of 2.08 crore people in India. Here is what each early source says about him, and where they part ways.