Culture
Bapu's paintings, Nanduri Venkata Subba Rao's Yenki Paatalu (Songs about a washerwoman called Yenki), mischievous Budugu (a character by Mullapudi), Annamayya's songs, Aavakaaya (a variant of mango pickle in which the kernel of mango is retained), Gongura (a chutney from Roselle plant), Atla Taddi (a seasonal festival predominantly for teenage girls), the banks of river Godavari, and the Dudu basavanna (the ceremonial ox decorated for door-to-door exhibition during the harvest festival Sankranthi) have long defined Telugu culture. The village of Durgi is known for stone craft, producing carvings of idols in soft stone that must be exhibited in the shade because they are prone to weathering. Kalamkari is an ancient textile art form dating back to the Indus Valley Civilization. Andhra Pradesh is famous for doll making. Dolls are made from wood, mud, dry grass, and lightweight metal alloys. Tirupathi is famous for redwood carvings. Kondapalli is famous for mud toys with rich colors. The village of Etikoppaka, located in Visakhapatnam district, produces lacquered toys. Nirmal paintings are expressive and are usually painted over a black background. Story telling in Andhra Pradesh is an art form in itself. Folk dances unique to Andhra Pradesh include Yaksha ganam, Burra katha (usually done by three people, telling stories using three different musical instruments), Jangama kathalu, Hari kathalu, Chekka bajana, Urumula natyam (usually done at festivals, where a group of people dance in circles with loud music), and Ghata natyam (performances done with earthen pots over one's head).
Andhra Pradesh has many museums, the Salar Jung Museum in Hyderabad, which features a varied collection of sculptures, paintings, and religious artifacts, including the Archaeological Museum at Amaravati near Guntur City that features relics of nearby ancient sites, and the Visakha Museum, in Visakhapatnam, which displays the history of the pre-Independence and thotla konda which depicts the age old budhist stupa's and cultural style, Madras Presidency in a rehabilitated Dutch bungalow. Victoria Jubilee Museum in Vijayawada has a good collection of ancient sculptures, paintings, idols, weapons, cutlery and inscriptions. Other ancient sites include dozens of ancient Buddhist stupas in Nagarjunakonda which is now an island in Nagarjuna Sagar, an artificial lake that formed after the construction of Nagarjuna Sagar Dam. The Island has a large museum that houses many Buddhist relics.
Just like in other parts of the country, many festivals are celebrated in Andhra Pradesh, which include - Ugadi, Sankranthi, Dasara, Varalakshmi Vratham, Vinayaka Chavithi, Deepavali, Batukamma, Rakhi poornima, Christmas, Sri Rama Navami, Bonalu, Maha Shivaratri, Nagula Chaviti, Holi, Eid ul-Fitr, Eid ul-zuha, Muharram, Milad-un-Nabi etc.
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Famous quotes containing the word culture:
“A culture may be conceived as a network of beliefs and purposes in which any string in the net pulls and is pulled by the others, thus perpetually changing the configuration of the whole. If the cultural element called morals takes on a new shape, we must ask what other strings have pulled it out of line. It cannot be one solitary string, nor even the strings nearby, for the network is three-dimensional at least.”
—Jacques Barzun (b. 1907)
“To assault the total culture totally is to be free to use all the fruits of mankind’s wisdom and experience without the rotten structure in which these glories are encased and encrusted.”
—Judith Malina (b. 1926)