Indian Fairs and Festivals: Religious and Sociocultural

India is vast land of joy, merrymaking with different colours–multiracial, multireligious and multilingual with varied cultural diversity, no doubt with unity at the core. Besides primordial religions, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism are the major religions of Indian origin, whereas Islam and Christianity have a large number of followers in India. Thus, India represents a unique blend of socio-religious and cultural synthesis. Amidst the plenty of literature is available on Indian fairs and festivals, this modest attempt aims at presenting kaleidoscopic view of Indian fairs and festivals. We have grouped the information in three parts. Part first present religious festivals wherein prominent festivals are presented in alphabetical order of names. The second part highlights prominent sociocultural festivals while the last part deals with major fairs of India. Glossary of religious terms is an added feature. Each festivals is given probable elaborate treatment. Main reasons behind the origin, myths and legends thereabout, manners and methods of celebrations etc. are also given. This will certainly prove inspiring and informative to all inquisitive readers.