120 Fun Facts About Hinduism

Around 2020, roughly how many followers did Hinduism have, the world's third-largest religion?

Estimates around 2020 put Hinduism at roughly 1.17 billion adherents, about 15 percent of humanity, behind only Christianity and Islam.

What term, meaning 'eternal law', have Hindus used since the 19th century to describe their religion?

Sanatana Dharma, 'the eternal dharma', was taken up by 19th-century Hindus as a self-description; the word 'Hindu' itself began as an exonym, a name given by outsiders.

Hindu texts are classified into Shruti and Smriti. What do the two words literally mean?

Shruti, chiefly the Vedas, is regarded as revealed to the rishis and carries the highest authority.

How many Vedas are there?

There are Four Vedas, each arranged into Samhitas (hymns), Brahmanas, Aranyakas and Upanishads; their oldest layers date from the second millennium BCE.

Which is the oldest known Vedic Sanskrit text, composed mostly between about 1500 and 1000 BCE?

The Rigveda, 1,028 hymns arranged in ten mandalas, is the oldest Vedic text and among the oldest surviving works in any Indo-European language.

How many Muktika Upanishads are there, of which 10 to 13 are counted as Principal Upanishads?

The Muktika canon lists 108 Upanishads, of which the Principal ones such as the Brihadaranyaka and Chandogya are the oldest, dating from the first millennium BCE.

The Bhagavad Gita is an integral part of which epic?

The Gita forms part of the Bhishma Parva, the sixth book of the Mahabharata, and is set on the battlefield on the eve of the Kurukshetra War.

Which Pandava prince hesitates to fight and receives Krishna's teaching in the Bhagavad Gita?

Arjuna, the third Pandava, lays down his bow at Kurukshetra rather than kill his kinsmen; Krishna urges him to do his duty as a warrior.

How many verses does the Bhagavad Gita traditionally contain?

Some old manuscripts may have had 745, but 700 is the accepted standard.

The Ramayana is traditionally attributed to which sage?

Valmiki, honoured as the 'adi kavi' or first poet, is credited with the Sanskrit Ramayana of nearly 24,000 verses in seven kandas; Tulsidas's Ramcharitmanas is a later Awadhi retelling.

Rama, hero of the Ramayana, is which numbered avatar of Vishnu?

Rama is the Seventh of Vishnu's ten principal avatars, coming after Parashurama; he was prince of Ayodhya and spent fourteen years in forest exile with Sita and Lakshmana.

Who kidnaps Sita in the Ramayana?

Ravana, king of Lanka, carried Sita off to his island in a flying chariot after luring Rama away with a golden deer; Hanuman later found her in the Ashoka grove.

What are the four purusharthas, the proper aims of human life?

Dharma, artha, kama and moksha — duty, prosperity, pleasure and liberation — are the purusharthas; dharma is held to be the foremost of them.

What does the word karma literally mean?

Karma literally means Action or deed, from the Sanskrit root kri, 'to do'; the doctrine holds that good and bad actions bring consequences in this life or the next.

What is the Hindu term for the cycle of birth, life, death and rebirth?

Samsara, literally 'wandering through', is the cycle of rebirth driven by one's deeds; release from it, moksha, is the final aim of Hindu life.

In Advaita Vedanta, the individual Self (atman) is held to be identical with what?

Advaita ('non-dual') teaches that atman is Brahman, the ultimate reality, and that their apparent difference is ignorance; dualist Dvaita instead sees Brahman as a Supreme Being separate from individual Selves.

What term for devotion to one god while accepting others is sometimes applied to Hinduism?

Henotheistic is the label Max Müller applied to the Vedic pattern of praising one god at a time as supreme without denying the others; the hymns honour many deities yet hint at one Truth.

What is the innermost sanctum of a Hindu temple, housing the main image, called?

The Garbhagriha, literally 'womb chamber', is the small, usually windowless inner shrine where the temple's principal murti is installed; worshippers approach it through the mandapa hall.

Which denomination of Hinduism has the most followers, around two-thirds of Hindus?

Vaishnavism, devotion to Vishnu and his avatars, is the largest tradition: a 2010 estimate by Johnson and Grim put it at about 641 million Hindus, with Shaivism a distant second.

Shaktism, goddess worship of Devi as cosmic mother, is especially common in which region of India?

Shaktism is strongest in the Northeastern and eastern states like Assam and Bengal, home to the Kamakhya temple near Guwahati and Kolkata's Durga Puja, which ends with idols immersed in rivers.

Which reformer is regarded as founder of the Smarta tradition and its Advaita Vedanta philosophy?

Adi Shankara, the 8th-century philosopher, systematised Advaita Vedanta and is credited with the Smarta panchayatana practice of worshipping five deities on an equal footing.

In the Trimurti, which god is the creator, which the preserver and which the destroyer?

Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva are respectively creator, preserver and destroyer; in practice Brahma has very few temples, the Pushkar shrine in Rajasthan being the best known.

Vishnu is depicted sleeping on the coils of which serpent in the ocean of milk?

Shesha, also called Ananta ('endless'), is the many-headed serpent on whose coils Vishnu reclines as Anantashayana, with Lakshmi at his feet; the name Shesha means 'that which remains'.

What is the collective name for the ten primary avatars of Vishnu?

Dashavatara ('ten avatars') names the ten principal descents of Vishnu, from the fish Matsya to Kalki, the horseman yet to come; regional lists vary over the later entries.

Krishna is worshipped as which numbered avatar of Vishnu?

Krishna is the Eighth avatar in the standard list; born in Mathura to Devaki and Vasudeva, he was raised by Nanda and Yashoda in Gokul, beyond the reach of King Kamsa.

Which of these iconographic attributes belongs to Shiva?

Shiva bears A third eye on his forehead, whose opening is said to have reduced the god of desire to ash; he also wears a crescent moon and the serpent Vasuki.

In what aniconic form is Shiva usually worshipped?

The lingam, a smooth cylindrical pillar usually set in a yoni base, is the aniconic form of Shiva found in the sanctum of most Shiva temples, including the twelve Jyotirlingas.

Brahma's several heads represent what?

Brahma's heads are said to represent The Vedas, one reciting each; he rides a hamsa, a swan or goose, and sits on a lotus.

Ganesha is readily identified by what?

His elephant head and four arms make Ganesha unmistakable; the Shiva Purana tells how Shiva beheaded the boy and replaced the head with an elephant's. He is the remover of obstacles.

Lakshmi is revered chiefly as the goddess of what?

Lakshmi is the goddess of Fortune and wealth, shown seated on a lotus with gold coins pouring from her hand; she is Vishnu's consort and is worshipped especially at Diwali.

Saraswati, goddess of knowledge and music, is typically portrayed in what colour?

White represents sattva, the quality of goodness.

Durga is best known for slaying which buffalo demon?

Mahishasura, the shape-shifting buffalo demon, was slain by Durga, a victory celebrated at Vijayadashami; she is shown riding a lion or tiger with a weapon in each of her many arms.

Kali is the goddess of what?

Kali's name is the feminine of kala, 'time', and she embodies Time or death and destruction; shown dark-skinned with a garland of heads, she is a fierce form of Shiva's consort.

Hanuman is traditionally believed to be the spiritual offspring of which god?

Vayu, god of the wind, is Hanuman's divine father, earning him the names Pavanputra and Maruti; born to Anjana and Kesari, he is counted among the chiranjivis, the immortals.

Which 'festival of colours' celebrates the love of Radha and Krishna at the full moon of Phalguna?

Holi begins with the Holika Dahan bonfire on the full-moon night of Phalguna, around March, and continues next morning with the throwing of coloured powder and water.

Makar Sankranti marks the sun's entry into which zodiac sign?

Makar Sankranti, usually on 14 January, marks the sun's move into Makara, Capricorn, and the start of its northward course, Uttarayana; Gujarat celebrates it with kite-flying.

Navaratri, held in honour of Durga, spans how many nights?

Navaratri means 'Nine nights', each devoted to a form of the goddess; the main Sharada Navaratri in Ashvin (September–October) ends with Vijayadashami, and a Chaitra Navaratri falls in spring.

Which freedom fighter turned Ganesh Chaturthi into a large public celebration in Maharashtra in 1893?

Bal Gangadhar Tilak promoted public Ganesh Chaturthi pandals in Pune and Bombay from 1893 to rally Hindus across caste lines under British rule; the festival ends with murtis immersed in water.

Raksha Bandhan celebrates which relationship?

Raksha Bandhan celebrates the bond of Sister and brother: a sister ties a rakhi thread on her brother's wrist on the full moon of Shravana, and he pledges to protect her.

The Kumbh Mela rotates among Prayagraj, Haridwar, Ujjain and which other city?

Nashik in Maharashtra hosts the mela on the Godavari every twelve years; the sites are said to have caught drops of amrita, the nectar of immortality, spilt during the churning of the ocean.

About how many people attended the Kumbh Mela in 2025, making it the largest gathering in the world?

Uttar Pradesh's government counted some 660 million visits over the 45-day Maha Kumbh at Prayagraj in 2025, against about 240 million in 2019, a tally that includes repeat visitors.

Varanasi, one of the world's oldest continually inhabited cities, sits on which river?

Varanasi, also called Kashi, lies on the left bank of The Ganges, where its ghats draw pilgrims to bathe and to perform rites for the dead.

What is the sacred-thread ceremony that initiates a boy into Vedic study called?

The Upanayana invests a boy with the yajnopavita thread and his first Vedic mantra, traditionally marking entry into the student stage; the 'twice-born' castes take their name from this second birth.

Which sacred syllable, representing Brahman and Atman, has grown to represent Hinduism itself?

Om (Aum) is chanted before and after Vedic recitation and most mantras; the Mandukya Upanishad reads its three sounds as waking, dreaming and deep sleep, with the silence beyond as turiya, the state past all three.

Where on the body is the tilaka mark placed?

The tilaka is worn on The forehead between the brows, the seat of the ajna chakra; its shape marks sect, a U-shaped mark for devotees of Vishnu and three horizontal lines for devotees of Shiva.

What is aarati?

Aarati is A ritual offering of a flame with a song of praise: lamps on a plate are circled before the deity while devotees sing, usually at the close of a puja.

Which four are traditionally called the major paths of yoga?

Bhakti, Karma, Raja and Jnana are the classical paths — devotion, selfless action, meditation and knowledge; the Bhagavad Gita expounds the first, second and last, while Raja yoga is the meditative path of the Yoga Sutras.

Who wrote the Yoga Sutras, the classical text of Hindu yoga?

They define yoga as 'the stilling of the movements of the mind'.

What does the greeting 'Namaste' literally mean?

Namaste joins namas, 'bow' or 'obeisance', with te, 'to you', so it means I bow to you; it is said with the palms pressed together in the anjali mudra.

Which cattle species does Hinduism specifically consider sacred?

Bos indicus, the zebu, the humped cattle native to South Asia, is the cow Hindus hold sacred as a symbol of life and of the earth's bounty; most Hindus who eat meat avoid beef.

What are the four varnas of traditional Hindu society?

Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas and Shudras — priests, warriors and rulers, farmers and merchants, and labourers — are the varnas, which the Purusha Sukta describes as born from the cosmic being's mouth, arms, thighs and feet.

What are the four ashramas, or life stages, of a Hindu?

Brahmacharya, Grihastha, Vanaprastha, Sannyasa are the student, householder, forest-dweller and renunciate stages; an ideal hundred-year life was divided among them, though Sannyasa may be taken up early.

The highest spire of a Hindu temple represents which mountain?

The shikhara or vimana stands for Mount Meru, the golden mountain at the centre of the universe around which the sun and planets circle and on whose summit Brahma dwells.

The Dravida and Nagara temple styles belong respectively to which parts of India?

South and north: the Dravida style with its towering gopuram gateways belongs to the south, as at Madurai's Meenakshi temple, while the curving Nagara spire is typical of the north, as at Khajuraho.

How does the Hindu calendar keep its lunar cycle in step with the solar year?

It inserts an extra full month every 32-33 months, the adhika masa, so that lunar months stay aligned with the seasons; the Vikram Samvat and Shaka calendars both use this scheme.

Which final rite of passage, antyeshti, is performed for adults?

Antyeshti normally means Cremation, the body burned on a pyre lit ideally by the eldest son, with the ashes later immersed in a river; infants and renunciates are often buried instead.

Which Hindu monk opened his 1893 Chicago speech with 'Sisters and brothers of America'?

Swami Vivekananda, chief disciple of Ramakrishna, drew a standing ovation at the Parliament of the World's Religions on 11 September 1893 and then lectured across the United States and Europe.

Which are the six branches of Hindu philosophy that evolved in the classical Gupta 'Golden Age'?

Samkhya, Yoga, Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Mimamsa and Vedanta are the six astika darshanas, each accepting Vedic authority; they took their classical shape during the Gupta 'Golden Age' of roughly 320–650 CE.

Ayurveda describes health as a balance of which three doshas?

Vata, pitta and kapha — loosely wind, bile and phlegm — are the three doshas whose balance Ayurveda treats as health; the tradition's patron deity is Dhanvantari, physician of the gods.

What percentage of the world's Hindus live in India?

Pew's estimates put about 95% of the world's Hindus in India, where they make up about 80 percent of the population; almost all the rest live elsewhere in South Asia.

Which classical grammar by Panini codified Sanskrit, the sacred language of Hinduism?

Panini's Ashtadhyayi, 'Eight chapters', sets out Sanskrit grammar in about 4,000 compact sutras and dates from around the 5th or 4th century BCE.

Which mantra, addressed to the solar deity Savitr, is recited by many Hindus at dawn?

The Gayatri mantra, a verse to the sun deity Savitr attributed to the sage Vishvamitra, is traditionally recited at dawn and taught to boys at their initiation.

The Bhakti movement rose to prominence during which period of Indian history?

Bhakti devotionalism, rooted in the Tamil Alvars and Nayanars, rose to prominence across India in c. 1250–1750 CE through poet-saints such as Kabir, Mirabai, Tulsidas and Chaitanya, under Hindu and Muslim rulers alike.

The word 'Hindu' derives from Sindhu, the Sanskrit name of which river?

Sindhu is the Sanskrit name of The Indus; Persians turned it into 'Hindu' for the land and people beyond the river, and the word gave the province of Sindh its name as well.

Which reformer may have been the first Indian to use the word 'Hinduism', in 1816-17?

Raja Ram Mohan Roy, founder of the Brahmo Sabha, used 'Hindooism' in writings of 1816–17, the earliest known Indian use; by the 1840s Indians were using the word to set themselves apart from Muslims and Christians.

Outside India, which country has the largest Hindu population, at more than 20 million?

Nepal, where over 80 percent of people are Hindu, counted about 23 million Hindus at its 2021 census; Bangladesh is next with some 13 million.

Which Vietnamese people, concentrated in Ninh Thuan Province, largely follow Hinduism?

The Cham, heirs of the medieval kingdom of Champa, follow a Hindu (Balamon) tradition centred on Ninh Thuan, home to the Po Klong Garai temple towers built around 1300.

Which people of Pakistan practise an indigenous religion resembling the ancient Vedic religion?

The Kalash, a few thousand people in three valleys of Chitral, keep a polytheistic faith with animal sacrifice and seasonal festivals; a legend claims descent from Alexander's soldiers.

Which African country is home to the Hindu Monastery of Africa, founded by a native-born swami?

Ghana's Hindu Monastery of Africa was founded in Accra by Swami Ghanananda Saraswati, a Ghanaian convert initiated in India, and serves a community of several thousand indigenous Hindus.

In which Portuguese colony did a 1560 inquisition persecute Hindus?

The Goa Inquisition, set up in 1560 and not finally abolished until 1812, punished Hindus for practising their rites, destroyed temples and drove many to flee the territory.

Which English word for an unstoppable force comes from a Hindu deity whose giant chariots are pulled through Puri?

Juggernaut is an early English rendering of Jagannath, whose festival cars at Puri are so heavy that, once rolling, they are hard to stop or steer. Europeans were long fascinated by tales of pilgrims crushed beneath them.

Which monument, the largest religious complex in the world, was built in the 12th century as a temple to Vishnu?

Angkor Wat was raised by the Khmer king Suryavarman II, and after later rulers turned to Buddhism it was gradually converted into the Buddhist temple it is today. Its first name may have honoured Vishnu's sacred dwelling.

Which physicist learned Sanskrit to read the Bhagavad Gita and recalled a verse of it at the first atomic bomb test?

Robert Oppenheimer named the Gita among the books that most shaped his philosophy of life. He kept returning to it while running Los Alamos and read from it at a memorial service for President Roosevelt.

Which figure revered by another world religion appears in many Hindu lists of the ten avatars of Vishnu?

The Buddha is often counted ninth of the ten, though some traditions reject that and give the place to Balarama, the brother of Krishna.

Which Indonesian island is the only province of its Muslim-majority country where most people are Hindu?

Bali is about 86 percent Hindu, and it marks its new year, Nyepi, with a day of silence so complete that the island's only airport stays closed.

The swastika, a good-luck sign in Hinduism long before the Nazis took it, is named from Sanskrit for what?

Well-being is the root sense: the Sanskrit svastika means 'conducive to well-being'. Hindus draw the sign on doorways and on the opening page of account books.

In the Ramayana, what does Hanuman carry back from the Himalayas when he cannot pick out the right healing herb?

A whole mountain is his answer: Hanuman grows to giant size, rips the peak from the earth and flies it to the battlefield to save the wounded brother of Rama.

In which American city was the Hare Krishna movement, formally called ISKCON, founded by an Indian monk in 1966?

New York is where the monk, Prabhupada, arrived in 1965, aged 69, after crossing from Kolkata on a cargo ship with little more than a few trunks of books.

Which small animal serves as the mount of Ganesha, the Hindu god worshipped as the remover of obstacles?

A mouse, called Mushaka, carries him, and Ganesha is often shown riding on or attended by one. Some writers read the little animal as desire brought under control.

Which politician, sworn in as an MP on the Bhagavad Gita, became the first Hindu prime minister of the United Kingdom?

Rishi Sunak, born in Southampton to Indian parents who had moved to Britain from East Africa, took office in October 2022 and was also the first British Asian to hold the post.

Which five-day Hindu festival of lights sees homes and temples lit with rows of small oil lamps called diyas?

Diwali falls around a new-moon night in October or November, and its main day is an official holiday as far from India as Fiji, Guyana, and Trinidad and Tobago.

Which instrument is Krishna usually shown playing, said to have enchanted the gopis, the cowherd girls of his youth?

A flute, the bamboo bansuri, is his emblem, and he is usually pictured holding it to his lips beneath a crown of peacock feathers.

Which flower, shown as the seat of deities such as Lakshmi and Brahma, is also the national flower of India?

The lotus opens clean above the mud it grows from, which made it an emblem of purity. One image shows Brahma seated on a lotus that rises from the navel of Vishnu.

Which Sanskrit term for non-violence toward all living beings did Mahatma Gandhi carry into Indian politics?

Ahimsa comes from a root meaning to strike, turned into its opposite by a prefix. Jain monks and nuns take it furthest, going out of their way not to hurt even small insects.

Which Sanskrit word for a revered spiritual teacher is now used in English for an expert in any field?

Guru means more than teacher in Indian traditions: a counsellor who shapes a disciple's values and way of life. Hindus honour their teachers each year at the festival of Guru Purnima.

Which colour, worn by Hindu ascetics as a sign of renunciation, forms the top band of the flag of India?

Saffron is held to be the colour of sunset and of fire, standing for sacrifice, light and the quest for salvation, which is why holy men wear it.

Unlike Christianity and Islam, Hinduism grew from many roots and so lacks which feature of those two faiths?

A single founder is absent because Hinduism is a fusion of many Indian traditions with diverse roots, which is also why scholars struggle to give the religion one definition.

Which Sanskrit word meaning 'wheel' names the energy centres that yoga traditions picture along the spine?

Chakra systems differ in their counts, and the best-known set of seven, rising from the base of the spine to the top of the head, is the one described in a 1919 book, The Serpent Power.

Which country, whose kings take the regnal name Rama, has a national epic, the Ramakien, based on the Ramayana?

Thailand's best-known version was compiled under King Rama I, who wrote part of it himself, and his son Rama II reworked sections of it for the khon dance-drama.

Which common name for a Hindu temple appears in the official name of the Neasden temple in London, opened in 1995?

Mandir is the everyday word, and the Neasden mandir, built entirely by traditional methods and materials, has been described as Britain's first authentic Hindu temple.

What kind of animal is Nandi, the mount of Shiva whose seated stone figure faces the shrine in his temples?

A bull is his form, and Nandi is said to have earned his place as both mount and gatekeeper of Shiva through severe penance. That is why his statue sits watching the shrine.

Which eagle-like king of the birds carries Vishnu and lends his name to the national airline of Indonesia?

Garuda is cast as the enemy of every serpent, and it was President Sukarno who suggested naming the airline after him.

Which goddess, the consort of Shiva, is the mother of both Ganesha and the war god Kartikeya?

Parvati is the daughter of Himavan, the Himalayas in person, and her birth is told as a cosmic plan to draw the ascetic Shiva into marriage and household life.

Which Vedic king of the gods, a deity of rain and thunder, wields the vajra and rides the mighty Airavata?

Indra is the most mentioned deity in the earliest hymns, the subject of about a quarter of them, and scholars set him beside thunder gods such as Thor and Zeus.

Which Vedic fire god is called the mouth of the gods because he carries burnt offerings up to them?

Agni is the witness at Hindu weddings, where the couple seal their vows by circling a fire, and he is present in every lamp lit for worship.

Which Hindu god, said to be the first mortal to die, judges the souls of the departed and rides a buffalo?

Yama won his throne by finding the way to the next world before anyone else, and he is pictured as a dark figure with a noose or mace for catching souls.

Which avatar of Vishnu, neither man nor beast, killed a demon king at twilight on a palace threshold?

Narasimha, the man-lion, was shaped to slip past a boon that made the demon Hiranyakashipu nearly invulnerable, and he tore the tyrant apart to save the young devotee Prahlada.

What animal form does Vishnu take as Matsya, the first of his ten avatars, to save Manu from a great flood?

A fish is the form: Matsya starts as a tiny creature that Manu protects and grows huge enough to rescue him, a tale often set beside the flood myths of other cultures.

Which avatar of Vishnu is still to come, foretold to arrive on horseback with a fiery sword and end the present age?

Kalki is the tenth and final avatar, and his arrival is meant to close the Kali Yuga, the last and darkest age of the cycle, and open the most virtuous one.

In Hindu myth, the gods and demons churn the ocean of milk together in order to win which nectar of immortality?

Amrita surfaced only after a poison strong enough to destroy creation, which Shiva swallowed to protect the worlds, leaving his throat blue.

On which battlefield, today a pilgrimage city in Haryana, does Krishna deliver the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita?

Kurukshetra means the field of the Kurus, and the Gita opens there with two armies of cousins, the Pandavas and the Kauravas, drawn up and waiting for war.

Which sage, whose name means 'compiler', is said to have dictated a vast Hindu epic to Ganesha as his scribe?

Vyasa had to narrate without a single pause, the condition his scribe set, while Ganesha in turn had to understand every verse before writing it down.

Which princess of Panchala, said to be born fully grown from a sacrificial fire, marries all five Pandava brothers?

Draupadi is later hauled before the rival court, where a prince tries to strip her, but her honour is saved when the cloth of her garment keeps unwinding without end.

The Pandava king Yudhishthira stakes and loses his kingdom, his brothers and himself in a rigged contest of what?

Dice were thrown against him by Shakuni, a master of the game playing on behalf of a jealous cousin, and the loss drives the Pandavas into exile.

Which city on the Sarayu river in Uttar Pradesh is revered as the birthplace of Rama and capital of Kosala?

Ayodhya is counted first among the seven most important pilgrimage cities of Hinduism, and Jain texts name it as the birthplace of five of their own great teachers.

Which younger half-brother of Rama gives up palace life to follow him and Sita into forest exile in the Ramayana?

Lakshmana is said in one tradition to have asked the goddess of sleep to keep him awake through the whole exile, so his wife Urmila slept in his place for all those years.

Which autumn festival sees clay images of Durga carried in procession and immersed in rivers or the sea?

Dussehra, also called Vijayadashami, celebrates the victory of good over evil, and across northern India towering effigies packed with fireworks are burnt that evening.

Which festival marks the birth of Krishna with midnight vigils and human pyramids reaching for a hanging pot of curd?

Janmashtami crowds watch teams climb into human towers to smash the hanging pot, recalling the child Krishna, who raided his neighbours' butter and curd.

Which Tamil harvest festival, held in mid-January, is named after a dish of rice boiled with milk and jaggery?

Pongal means boiling over, and families cheer as the pot of rice and milk spills over its rim. A later day of the festival is given to bathing and garlanding the cattle.

Which harvest festival of Kerala welcomes the yearly return of the banished demon king Mahabali to his people?

Onam recalls how Vishnu, as the dwarf Vamana, asked the generous king for three paces of land, covered his whole realm in two and took the third on the king's own head.

Which country's Batu Caves, guarded by a 43-metre statue of Murugan, are the focus of the Tamil festival of Thaipusam?

Malaysia's cave shrine lies a short way north of Kuala Lumpur, and the festival has been celebrated there since 1892, the year after the temple was completed.

Which unclimbed Tibetan peak beside Lake Manasarovar do Hindus revere as the home of Shiva?

Kailash is sacred in several faiths at once, so pilgrims walk a circuit around its base instead of going up, and China prohibits climbing it.

Which temple group in Madhya Pradesh, built by the Chandela dynasty, is famed for its erotic carvings?

Khajuraho owes its fame to those scenes, yet sexual themes cover less than a tenth of the sculpture, and the site mixes Hindu shrines with Jain ones.

Which 13th-century temple on the Odisha coast was built in the shape of a giant stone chariot for the sun god?

Konark was the Black Pagoda to European sailors, because its great tiered tower looked dark from the sea, and its chariot has immense carved wheels and a team of stone horses.

What name is given to the image of Shiva as cosmic dancer, best known from the Chola bronzes of Tamil Nadu?

Nataraja dances inside a ring of fire, crushing underfoot a dwarf demon who stands for ignorance while one raised hand holds a small hourglass-shaped drum.

Which Sanskrit word names the act of Hindu worship in which light, flowers and food are offered to a deity?

Puja can honour more than gods: the same word covers rites that welcome a special guest or mark an event, and it roughly translates as reverence or homage.

What name is given to food first offered to a deity in a Hindu temple and then shared out among the worshippers?

Prasada is treated as a blessing handed back by the deity, which is why it is given out to every devotee alike, whoever they are.

Which herb, a kind of basil planted in the central courtyard of many Hindu homes, is revered as a form of Lakshmi?

Tulsi, or holy basil, is honoured as an earthly form of the goddess, and its leaves are a recommended offering in the worship of Vishnu and of Krishna.

Which official name for India, set beside 'India' in its constitution, is traced by tradition to a legendary emperor?

Bharat is a coequal name of the country under Article 1 of its constitution. Hindu texts link it to Bharata, son of King Dushyanta, while Jain tradition names another Bharata.

What name is given to the towering, ornate gateway of temples such as the Meenakshi Temple in Madurai?

Gopuram towers are essentially hollow gateways, yet they often rise higher than the shrine itself. The designer of Tamil Nadu's state emblem said its tower is the Meenakshi Temple's west gopuram.