Culture of Uttar Pradesh

Culture is defined as the characteristics and knowledge of a particular group of people, encompassing language, religion, cuisine, social habits, music and arts in a society, where they live.

The Culture of Uttar Pradesh is an Indian Culture which has its roots in the Hindi and Urdu literature, music, fine arts, drama and cinema.

In UP, you will find 'Ramayana' and 'Mahabharata' epics humanity. Besides that you will find Buddha and Mahavira, the 24th Jain Tirthankar centres also. Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh, has several beautiful historical monuments such as Bara Imam Bara and Chhota Imam Bara.

Language:

Hindi is the common state-language of Uttar Pradesh. While standard Hindi (Khari boli) is the official language, several important regional Hindi also spoken in the state and among these are: Awadhi, Bhojpuri, Braj, Bagheli and Bundeli.

Dance & Music:

Uttar Pradesh is the place where Kathak, one of the six foremost classical dances of India, flourished. It is a classical dance form, involving gracefully coordinated movements of feet along with entire body.

Besides Kathak, there are some other famous Folk dances like Raslila, Swang, Ramlila (a dramatic enactment of the entire Ramayana), Nautanki, Naqal (mimicry) and Qawwali.

The region's folk heritage includes songs called rasiya (known especially in Braj), which celebrate the divine love of Radha and Shri Krishna.