India Facts

The Taj Mahal took 20 years and 20 thousand men to finish!

Despite being the birthplace of Buddhism, India today has less than 1% Buddhist population, a dramatic decline that occurred over the past thousand years.

According to legend, kung fu has Indian roots—the monk Bodhidharma allegedly brought martial techniques from India to China's Shaolin Temple in the 6th century. While historians have debunked this story, India's Kalaripayattu is one of the world's oldest martial arts, dating back over 3,000 years.

Each year, the number of births in India is comparable to the entire population of Australia.

It is a recognized practice in some communities in Southern India for a man to marry his elder sister's daughter, a form of cross-cousin marriage, though its prevalence is declining.

An Indian man known as "Snake Manu" can put small snakes, including deadly cobras, into his mouth and pass them out through his nose.

Roughly a quarter of the world's people live in China.

Ancient India developed the decimal place-value number system around 500 CE, and mathematician Brahmagupta formally defined zero as a number in 628 CE.

At 17 years old, an Indian man named Jadav Payeng started planting trees on a barren sandbar. At age 47, he lives in his own 1360 acre forest which now houses rhinos, tigers, deer, apes and elephants.

India has a Bill of Rights for cows.

India was the world's largest economy before British colonization, accounting for about 27% of global GDP in 1700—more than all of Europe combined.

In Turkish, the bird we call a Turkey is called "Hindi" ("from India"). In India, it's called "Peru." In Arabic, the bird is called "Greek chicken"; in Greek it's called "French chicken"; and in French it's called "Indian chicken." The bird is indigenous to none of these places.

In some tribal communities in India, people perform ceremonial 'marriages' to dogs as part of traditional rituals to ward off curses or evil spirits!

In India, Pajamas are accepted as standard daytime wearing apparel.

In what country will you find the most Universities? India.

In India, pickled ginger, minced mutton, and a cottage cheese like substances are popular pizza toppings.

Emperor Ashoka of India, who ruled from 268-232 BCE, underwent a dramatic transformation after converting to Buddhism. He issued edicts carved into rocks and pillars across his empire that promoted animal welfare, limited executions, established hospitals for humans and animals, and advocated religious tolerance - making him one of the most progressive ancient rulers.

Indian housewives hold 11% of the World’s gold. That is more than the reserves of USA, IMF, Switzerland and Germany put together.

India's richest person, Mukesh Ambani, built a $1 billion home. It has 27 habitable floors, including six parking floors with a capacity to hold up to 168 cars. 600 staff maintain the home.

In 2011, a male tiger in India adopted a litter of orphaned cubs, taking on the role of ‘mother’. Wildlife officials say such behavior had never been observed before.

There's a Mumbai-based pizzeria that now delivers pizza by drone.

The water between India and Sri Lanka is only 3-30 feet deep and was purportedly passable on foot until 1480 AD when a cyclone moved some sand around.

A man named Ziona Chana lives in a 100 room, four storey house set amidst the hills of Baktwang village in the Indian state of Mizoram and has the world's biggest family with 39 wives, 94 children, 14 daughters-in-law and 33 grandchildren.

Dashrath Manjhi carved a road through a rocky hill in Bihar, India, using only a hammer and chisel - alone - for 22 years. When he finished in 1982, the journey from his village to the nearest town dropped from 55 km to 15 km. He started because his wife, Falguni, died in 1959 after a fall on the ridge path left her unable to reach a doctor in time. The road is still used today.