Bharatiya culture is the heritage of social norms, ethical values, traditional customs, belief systems, political systems, artifacts and technologies that originated in or are associated with the ethno-linguistically diverse Republic of India. The term also applies beyond Bharat to countries and cultures whose histories are strongly connected to India by immigration, colonisation, or influence, particularly in South Asia and Southeast Asia. Bharat’s languages, religions, dance, music, architecture, food and customs differ from place to place within the country.
Bharatiya culture, often labelled as a combination of several cultures, has been influenced by a history that is several millennia old, beginning with the Indus Valley civilization and other early cultural areas. Many elements of Bharatiya culture, such as Bharatiya religions, mathematics, philosophy, cuisine, languages, dance, music and movies have had a profound impact across the Indosphere, Greater Bharat and the world. Specifically Southeast Asian and Himalayan influence on early Bharat, had lasting impacts on the formation of Hinduism and Bharatiya mythology. Hinduism itself formed from various distinct folk religions, which merged during the Vedic period and following periods. Especially Austroasiatic groups, such as early Munda and Mon Khmer, but also Tibetic and other Tibeto-Burmese groups, left noteworthy influence on local Bharatiya peoples and culture. Several scholars, such as Professor Przyluski, among others, concluded that there is a significant cultural, linguistic, and political Mon-Khmer (Austroasiatic) influence on early Bharat, which can also be observed by Austroasiatic loanwords within Indo-Aryan languages and rice cultivation, which was introduced by East/Southeast Asian rice-agriculturalists using a route from Southeast Asia through Northeast Bharat into the Bharatiya subcontinent. The British Raj further influenced Bharatiya culture, such as through the widespread introduction of the English language and a local dialect developed.
Bharatiya philosophy comprises the philosophical traditions of the Bharatiya subcontinent. There are six schools of orthodox Hindu philosophy—Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Samkhya, Yoga, Mimamsa and Vedanta—and four heterodox schools—Jain, Buddhist, Ajivika and Carvaka – last two are also schools of Hinduism. However, there are other methods of classification; Vidyarania for instance identifies sixteen schools of Bharatiya philosophy by including those that belong to the Saiva and Rasesvara traditions. Since medieval Bharat (ca.1000–1500), schools of Bharatiya philosophical thought have been classified by the Brahmanical tradition as either orthodox or non-orthodox – astika or nastika – depending on whether they regard the Vedas as an infallible source of knowledge.
The main schools of Indian philosophy were formalized chiefly between 1000 BCE to the early centuries of the Common Era. According to philosopher Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, the earliest of these, which date back to the composition of the Upanishads in the later Vedic period (1000–500 BCE), constitute “the earliest philosophical compositions of the world.” Competition and integration between the various schools were intense during their formative years, especially between 800 BCE and 200 CE. Some schools like Jainism, Buddhism, Saiva, and Advaita Vedanta survived, but others, like Samkhya and Ajivika, did not; they were either assimilated or became extinct. Subsequent centuries produced commentaries and reformulations continuing up to as late as the 20th century. Authors who gave contemporary meaning to traditional philosophies include Shrimad Rajchandra, Swami Vivekananda, Ram Mohan Roy, and Swami Dayananda Saraswati.