Welcome to Tours of South India:

South India is the area encompassing India's states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu as well as the union territories of Lakshadweep and Pondicherry. South India lies in the peninsular Deccan Plateau and is bounded by the Arabian Sea, Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal in the west, south and east respectively. Inhabitants of South India are referred to as South Indians. A majority of South Indians speak one of the five Dravidian languages — Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu and Tulu.

South India consists of the four southern Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu as well as the union territories of Puducherry and the Lakshadweep archipelago. Together with Pondicherry, each South Indian state has an elected state government, while the Lakshadweep islands are centrally administered by the President of India. The modern states of South India were created as a result of the States Reorganisation Act (1956), which established states and union territories based on linguistic boundaries.

The music of South India is known as Carnatic music, which includes rhythmic and structured music by composers like Purandara Dasa, Kanaka Dasa, Tyagaraja, Annamacharya, Muthuswami Dikshitar, Shyama Shastri, Subbaraya Shastri, Mysore Vasudevachar and Swathi Thirunal. South India is home to several distinct dance forms — the Koodiyattam, Bharatanatyam, Kuchipudi, Kathakali, Yakshagana, Theyyam, Ottamthullal, Oppana, Kerala Natanam and Mohiniaattam.

South India has two distinct styles of rock architecture, the pure dravida style of Tamil Nadu and the Vesara style (also called Karnata dravida style) present in Karnataka. The inspirational temple sculptures of Hampi, Badami, Bhattiprolu, Pattadakal, Aihole, Belur, Halebidu, Lakkundi, Shravanabelagola, Mahabalipuram, Tanjore, Madurai and the mural paintings of Travancore and Lepakshi temples, also stand as a testament to South Indian culture.

The main spiritual traditions of South India include both Shaivite and Vaishnavite branches of Hinduism. Shravanabelagola in Karnataka is a popular pilgrimage center for Jains. Ayyavazhi is spread significantly across the southernmost parts of South India. Its followers are more densely populated in South Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Kerala is also home to one of the oldest Jewish communities in the world who are supposed to have arrived in the Malabar coast during the time of King Solomon. The oldest surviving Jewish synagogue in the Commonwealth of Nations is the Paradesi Synagogue in Kochi, Kerala.                                            More...