India is known for its diversity whether it is in culture, religions, beliefs, or places to travel around. The lush green mountains of the South and the beautiful scenery of the east are full of wonders. India is filled with beautiful landscapes and is a treat to the eyes. Gandhi Ji once said, “Soul of India lives in its villages,” and anyone who has ever been to a village will agree to this. India’s economy is mainly based on agriculture, and thousands of towns are a part of this. Each town has a story of its own filled with a mystery which will leave you curious. Lakhs of tourists visit India every year but fail to explore these unsung and not-so-popular places, which are a wonder of their own. We have researched a few of these unique Indian villages, which would make you pack your backpacks right now and explore them at the very moment.
1. Mattur Village, Karnataka –
Mattur, located in the southern part of the district of Shivamogga, a state of Karnataka, is the Sanskrit village of India. Even though the local language of Karnataka is Kannada, most of the people here converse in fluent Sanskrit every day. Most people claim Sanskrit to be a dead language but, this place is the only one that has managed to keep its old tradition alive. Most of the families in this village are highly educated and boast about having at least one IT engineer in their family. A lot of people have gone abroad for further studies as well. Children are taught in Sanskrit in schools and at home. They are willing to teach Sanskrit to anyone who wants to learn it. We hope learning Sanskrit is a part of your bucket list by now.
2. Rongdoi Village, Assam –
Would you believe me if I told you marriage is a solution to everything? You would probably think I am joking, crazy, both, or just a typical Indian. India’s economy relies on agriculture. Good agriculture would lead to more money, and it’s always a good thing. Good harvesting requires timely rainfall. This village in Assam has its idea of causing rainfall and surprising its marriage. The plot twist is a marriage between frogs and not humans (You can rest your eyebrows for now). The villagers marry off wild frogs with all the proper traditions and customs to please the God of rainfall. Marriage between frogs sounds exciting. But, we don’t know, and we are just guessing. So, you need to head to Rangdoi and check it out and let us know for sure.
3. Shani Shingnapur Village, Maharashtra –
I read a story of a village as a kid where villagers used to keep their doors open in trust that no one would ever steal, and anyone who did steal faced severe punishment. The story turned out to be realistic after all. People of Shani Shingnapur do not close their doors or put locks on their doors because they believe that the Shani God watches over them and their belongings. Some of them even do not have a door to their house. There is a saying that anyone who tries to steal, put locks on their door will face 7.5 years of bad luck. It seems somewhat bizarre but, there have been numerous incidents of people facing bad luck after trying to steal or installing doors in their houses.
4. Barwaan Kala Village, Bihar-
Indians are known for organizing big fat weddings. However, this village never got a chance to explore this occasion, with more than 100 unmarried bachelors, it is also called the town of available people. The village falls within a deep forest, making it not a tourist-attractive place. It is also challenging to construct roads here as construction projects on forest land are a handful of tasks. So this place needs fuel of its own. Any ladies out there ready to explore this place?
5. Shetpal Village, Maharashtra –
You can be assured of one thing forever; if I ever encounter a cobra, I am running for my life and not have a beer and chill with it. But, unfortunately, this seems to be the opposite for the people of Shetpal. King cobra is seen more as a family member and has its place in every house. They enter and leave the house at their own will, and no one is afraid of them, nor do they kill them. But, surprisingly, there haven’t been any significant incidences of cobra bites in this village. At this point, we are confused about whether chilling with them is a good idea or running from them. Let us know if you crack the code.
6. Kuldhara Village, Rajasthan –
Kuldhara is one of the prosperous villages in Rajasthan. However, it is not more than a deserted, abandoned area at the moment. It was said that Salim Singh, the diwan of the village, was madly in love with the daughter of the village chief. So he resorted to brutal acts among the villagers to have her. So one night, all the villagers fled at once and cursed the village before leaving. No one saw them leave, and no one knew where they went. It was like the entire village disappeared one night. To date, no one has been able to settle in the town. It is rumoured that ghosts of villagers roam around the place at night. Every evening the villagers close the gates. Anyone up for a bone-chilling adventure?
7. Mayong Village, Assam –
Mayong is known as the black magic capital of India. This is because the village attracts people curious about learning black magic. Many people do not believe in black magic, but people of this village believe in black magic and practice witchcraft. The people even celebrate black magic in the form of festivals. There are no records as to how this tradition originated. However, it is passed down to generations and holds a lot of prominences today. The people of this village have a good share of knowledge about Ayurveda and use it to cure many diseases in the town. Is this the place J.K. Rowling wrote about?
8. Hiware Bazar Village, Maharashtra –
Farmers committing suicide is not unknown. Hundreds of farmers commit suicide in a month due to the unavailability of the proper resources. Hiware Bazar is a village in Maharashtra that records the highest number of millionaires and rarely any poor farmer. The change came through when the elected leaders encouraged the farmers to invest in rainwater harvesting and cattle farming.
9. Kodinhi Village, Kerala –
Kodinhi in Kerala is one of the unique villages in Kerala, which has 400 pairs of twins within 2000 families. Crazy right? Scientists have conducted research and are trying to discover the reason behind this, but, till now, there is no valid explanation for it. The villagers have agreed that this strange phenomenon has attracted the attention of many people from around the world. No other place in India has a twin population this high.
10. Marottichal Village, Kerala –
Change is difficult in any form. It isn’t easy to get out of your comfort zone and take the first step towards betterment. Marottichal in Kerala suffered from the problem of alcohol addicts. With the determination to give up on this addiction, the alcoholics asked the excise officials to close down the liquor breweries. One of the villagers extremely passionate about chess, Unnikrishnan, suggested the alcoholics divert their attention toward chess. He decided to learn and teach it to the villagers. The result turned out to be pretty good. Almost 90% of the population knows to play chess irrespective of gender and age.
11. Punsari Village, Gujarat –
The first image that comes to your mind after hearing about the village is probably the mud-houses, lack of infrastructure, and a lot more. This village has amenities ranging from CCTV cameras installed at strategic points to a well-maintained drainage system. In addition, this entire village is WIFI enabled, has accidental coverage of 1lakh and 25000 for any medical causes. Every home owns a toilet, solar-powered street lights, an independent bus service, and the availability of clean drinking water at a very minimal cost. This village is a tough competition to all the urban cities regarding its amenities and infrastructure. I think it would be a good time to switch.
12. Mawlynnong Village, Meghalaya-
Kerala is known for its beauty and greenery and is also called God’s own country. It looks like a small village in Meghalaya is a tough competition. Mawlynnong village in Meghalaya is known as God’s garden. Discover India awarded Mawlynnong as the cleanest village in Asia. This small village has achieved the dream of many, be it 100% literacy rate, women empowerment, and cleanliness. Mawlynnong is mainly inhabited by the Khasi tribe, the famous tribe that has broken down the patriarchal rule of society. The children inherit their mother’s surname, and the wealth passes down from the mother to the family’s youngest daughter.
13. Korlai Village Raigad, Maharashtra-
Marathi is the primary language of Maharashtra. Korlai is a small village in Maharashtra where everyone speaks Portuguese. Korlai is also known as “Kristi” (Christian). Weird enough? Everyone can speak fluent Portuguese, but the people here eat Portuguese food.
You will be greeted here in Portuguese. That kind of makes sense, keeping in mind they use it on a day-to-day basis. If that’s not enough, even the children’s names are in Portuguese. Another thing added to your bucket list?
14. Malana Village, Himachal Pradesh-
Malana is located at the peak of the Himalayas and is surrounded by cliffs and snow-capped mountains. There is a big claim that the people of Malana have descended from Alexander the great’s army but, there is no objective evidence backing it.
The different physical features and the language of the local tribes support these claims. For example, they speak Kanashi, considered sacred and not taught to outsiders. The weird part is no one says that language in the entire world.
The road to Malana isn’t straightforward. Located at the peak of mountains, the streets aren’t precisely commutable. Numerous things make this place so distinct from other villages in the Himalayas. Touching outsiders is a strict taboo; all marriages must occur inside the town. The distinguishable light brown hair, light brown eyes, long noses, wheatish or a golden brown complexion of skin were all part of it.
The Himalayas people are usually very chatty with loads of stories to share, but outsiders aren’t traditionally welcome in Malana, and long conversations with the locals are typically infrequent.
15. Piplantri Village, Rajasthan-
The birth of a girl child meant bad news for the people of Piplantri in the Rajsamand district of Rajasthan. This was mainly due to the dowry system prevalent in the village.
It was all the same until Shyam Sundar Paliwal came into play and encouraged the villagers to plant trees after a girl child’s birth and encouraged them to nurture them for 18 years so that they could arrange enough money for the wedding.
Paliwal took the help of the government to support this cause. Every time a girl child is born, 111 trees are planted by her parents, relatives, and grandparents. Village Panchayat, elderly ladies, grandmothers, aunts, etc., take care of the trees from time to time.
This scheme is known as the Bhamashah scheme, and it was started to bring financial inclusion and empowerment to women. As a result, the families were not worried about the dowry anymore as they knew the trees they planted would take care of the dowry expenses when their daughter was of age to get married.