North Indian culture

In states like Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh, women usually wear ghaghra and a full sleeved blouse or kurta salwar adorning a coat and an orni (headscarf).

Wheat is usually served in the form of roti or chapatis along with saag, bhaaji, tarkari or saalan (vegetarian curry dishes).

Mughlai cuisine, especially that of Lucknow and Delhi, is known for non-vegetarian dishes with a distinctive aroma, taste and with a different style of cooking.

[9] Milk & its by-products along with Leguminous food products like Lentils & beans are abundantly used in North Indian cuisine.

A variety of desserts can be found in North India, like Jalebi crispy sugary circular dessert also comes in another variant called imarti, lapsi (Indian sweet pudding also known by the name halwa), Rajasthani ghevar & gujia, kheer (Indian Rice pudding), petha, mathura peda, bal mithai (from Kumaon), to name but a few.

[11] Indian classical music has seven basic notes, Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni, with five interspersed half-notes, resulting in a 12-note scale.

Noted representatives of Shastriya Sangeet with a worldwide acclaim are Pandit Ravi Shankar and Ustad Ali Akbar Khan.

Kud dance of Jammu & Kashmir is the way to thank local deities in the night of rainy season with the beats of drum like instrument Narsingha.

This dance form traces its origins to the nomadic bards of ancient northern India, known as Kathaks, or storytellers.

The Mahabodhi Temple complex at Bodh Gaya, Bihar built by Emperor Ashoka in 260 BC, marks the enlightenment of Siddhartha Gautam Buddha.

Khajuraho temple and Buddhist monuments of Sanchi in Madhya Pradesh finds itself in the list of world heritage sites.

Rajput paintings depict a number of themes, events of epics like the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, Krishna's life, beautiful landscapes, and humans.

The sculptures were marked by sharp and beautiful features, graceful and slim bodies, with many folds of transparent drapery and a new style of coiffure.

North India was the birthplace of Kalidasa, who wrote classic Sanskrit plays like Mālavikāgnimitram, Abhijñānaśākuntalam and Vikramōrvaśīyam and poems like Raghuvaṃśa, Kumārasambhava, Ṛtusaṃhāra and Meghadūta in which the use of imagination and similes remains unequaled by any other literary work.

Medieval North India had great literary scholars like Tulsidas, Surdas, Chand Bardai, Amir Khusro whose works Ramcharitmanas, Sur Sagar, Prithiviraj Raso and Khamsa-e-Nizami respectively contributed to the richness of literature.