Whenever we hear the word “love stories” we start imagining a romantic story of a novel or a movie. But some stories are eternal! They live with us from era to era, inspiring us to do what we do with love. India is a land of rich culture and heritage where many love stories sprout. Some such Indian love stories are etched in our hearts, and they encourage our love present-day love stories. They’re the examples we make or take when thinking about our contemporary relationship patterns. But what really, is a love story?
What is a Love Story?
Love… Love isn’t always about feeling the butterflies. Love is calm. Love is comfortable. We could sit in silence with them for the rest of our life. At the end of the day, in fact, at the end of all our days, we just want to come home to someone who looks at us and smiles as if we are their entire universe. That’s what love is all about- finding someone who will not only water the flowers in our soul but also teach us how to water them ourselves.
When someone talks about love, we always think about that one person who means everything to us. Does this happen to you too? What happens when we mix red and blue color. There will be a new color. Red and blue both sacrificed their color to form a new color and this is how we can get a pure color of love. There is no “I” or You” in love. There are only “We” and “Ours.” So we need to sacrifice “I” or “Me” and take up the habit of “We” and “Our.” Then see where love takes us and how beautiful the love journey is.
Love is the most adored relationship we can cherish. This is the country where Lord Krishna’s name is taken with Radha. They didn’t have any relation. But for ages, their names were united in eternity. That’s because love is fostered between them. Sadly, people still consider love wrong, despite praying to Radha and Krishna together.
Love is that feeling where the mind feels happy. Some say that love is against our culture. Seriously? Even those poor souls don’t know that love IS our culture. Love is to be together for life. The real action starts when love inspires others to do something in life.
This is what these Indian love stories teach us about love. Some of these Indian love stories have are ones that people cannot forget even today. The classical love stories from Indian history and folklore are both passionate and sensuous. To show you the real power of love, we bring you some Indian love stories that are famous and inspiring.
10 Most Famous and Inspiring Indian Love Stories
1. Radha-Krishna
Radha Krishna is one soul divided by names. Radha is inseparable from Krishna, making their love story one of the most loved of the Indian love stories.
Radha Krishna is a name that cannot be taken without each other. These two names are always spoken in a single breath as if they are one. Without Radha, Krishna is incomplete and without Krishna, Radha can never be complete. Doesn’t it say a lot about the kind of eternal love these two shared? They immortalized their love stories in time and gave a new definition to the meaning of true love.
When Lord Krishna used to play his flute, Radha would get mesmerized at the moment and would leave everything to dance around him. If you love your partner then be devoted towards them just like Radha was towards Lord Krishna.
Even during times of war, Krishna kept his flute was by his side. Hobbies and passions can bring new life into us when we are overwhelmed. Lord Krishna was an embodiment of love and justice. He fought against his people to establish the rule of law and Justice. Radha is not just Krishna’s lover but is divine energy that reaches straight to the heart. So, it would be wrong to call them lovers. Radha’s love was selfless, which is exemplary. These two share unconditional love. This is purely an Indian mythological love story that cannot be explained in words.
2. Shiv-Parvati
A divine Indian mythological love story of Shiva and Parvati is one of the most beautiful Indian love stories. We are often hurt by our past experiences and we try to shield our emotional feelings to protect ourselves. The same method was implemented by Shiva when he lost his beloved Sati. Sati was Shiva’s first wife. After the death of Sati, Shiva sat for meditation for many years.
Parvati, a young beautiful girl visited Shiva at the place where Shiva was meditating. Like most other Indian love stories, it all started with one-sided feelings. Parvati was truly, madly, and deeply in love with Shiva. During Shiva’s meditation, Parvati realized that she was the incarnation of Shiva’s first wife, Sati. As said, lovers are made in heaven. Parvati’s perseverance indicates that if they are determined, they surely will achieve their goals.
Shiva finally realized that Parvati was his Shakti, his power. She had always been by his side, encouraging and assisting him in his activities. Shiva and Parvati supported each other in their thick and thin. They even argued like every couple, only to reconcile and grow fonder of each other.
3. Heer-Ranjha
This is one of the most popular tragic romance Indian love stories in Punjab. Heer and Ranhja fell in love at first sight. Heer saw Ranjha’s beautiful eyes and fell in love with him, almost instantly. Heer had a face like the full moon. He was a beautiful girl from a rich family class and Ranjha was a middle-class poor boy. Due to the family status, Heer’s father refused to accept Heer and Ranjha’s love. His father enforced Heer to marry someone else. At the wedding ceremony, Heer refused to say” I do,” claiming loudly that she had been promised to Ranjha and that their union had been blessed by heaven and the saints.
Despite marrying another man, Heer and Rankha did not give up on each other. On the day of the wedding, Heer’s uncle poisons her food to punish her for loving a low-caste boy. Hearing this news, Ranjha rushes to Heer’s but he is too late for she is already dead by then. Heartbroken, Ranjha eats the remaining poisoned food and dies by her side. Heer and Ranjha were buried together in a tomb.
4. Bajirao-Mastani
Of the many Indian love stories, the one between Bajirao and Mastani is known to all because of the movie that depicted their love. Mastani was often referred to as Bajirao’s concubine or mistress. However, she was his lawfully wedded wife. Mastani was not only a good singer and dancer but skilled in horse riding, spear throwing, and swordsmanship. She also accompanied Bajirao on his military campaigns. Bajirao’s love for his half-Muslim wife, Mastani, and neglect of Kashibai angered his mother Radha Bai.
Because of his family’s intolerance of Mastani, Bahara built a separate residence for Mastani. Mastani lived at Bajirao’s palace for some time at the corner called Mastani Mahal built a few kilometers away from Shaniwar Wada. According to popular folklore, Mastani committed suicide after hearing about Bajirao’s death, by drinking poison from a ring which she was wearing. She was also held captive and so was her son. The story gained much popularity when Indians saw Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone replicate this love story on the big screen.
5. Salim-Anarkali
Anarkali, whose title means pomegranate blossom, which also means a title bestowed for her beauty, was famed for her dancing skills as well as for her serene beauty. According to this legendary story, Saleem, the son of the great Mughal emperor Akbar, fell in love with Anarkali. But she was merely a dancing girl and keeping any relations with them was strictly prohibited by society. Regardless, they both began to see each other and the matter was kept quiet.
However, Prince Salim informed his father of his intention to marry Anarkali and make her the Empress. Akbar forbade Saleem from seeing her again. This led to an argument and Salim decided to launch an attack on his father. But the mighty emperor’s gigantic army was too much for the young Prince to handle. He was defeated and was sentenced to death. However, Anarkali intervened and asked the emperor if she could give up her life to save Prince Salim, and Akbar agreed.
She was taken to Lahore in Pakistan where people dug a large ditch. She was strapped to a board of wood and lowered in it by Akbar’s soldiers. They closed the top of the large hole with a brick wall and buried her alive. However, there is also another account of this story which States that the emperor Akbar helped anarchy escape from the ditch through a series of underground tunnels with the help of her mother under the condition that Anarkali would leave the Mughal Empire and never return.
But after Akbar’s death, Salim called her back and gave her another identity of Nur Jahan, and soon after that, they got married. When talking about the greatest of Indian love stories, not talking about this story of love, sacrifice, barriers, and happy endings is impossible.
6. Vikram Batra-Dimple
Among the other eternal Indian Love stories is one that recently won and moved several hearts. We salute the sacrifice of Captain Vikram Batra for his nation. His stories of selfless service have Indians and Pakistanis alike. The Pakistan Army honored him with the title of Shershah twenty-one years ago on July 7th. The Kargil hero, Vikram Batra laid down his life by trying to save his fellow officers, his courage and self-sacrifice have inspired and made soldiers undivided by borders both ahead in respect.
But there is another story of this brave captain that often is eclipsed by tales of supreme sacrifice and a romance that promises a lifetime of togetherness. Sadly, it all became a lifetime of memories for his fiancee, Dimple.
They met in 1995 at Punjab University. Before the war broke out in 1999 the two young friends were studying for an MA degree in English where their friendship blossomed to love. In 1996, Vikram Batra was selected into the Indian Military Academy. He had to move to Dehradun. His then-girlfriend Dimple Chima feared that the distance would compromise their relationship but Batra promised that they would get married soon. That was not to be. Dimple Chima has not spent a day in the last twenty-one years without remembering Vikram.
She recalls the memories he gave her. Even in the movie Shershah, we see how Vikram took out a blade, cut his finger, and marked her forehead with his blood indicating the sindoor of a married woman. She said she teased him a lot for being filmy after that. She was his fiancee perhaps in the eyes of society but for Vikram, she was already his world and for her he was everything. On July 7th, 1999 captain Vikram Batra would leave his world behind. Dimple lives on as his widow eve today.
7. Shah Rukh-Gauri
There is no introduction for this famous Indian couple. Shah Rukh Khan first fell for Gauri when he was merely eighteen years old. He bumped into Gauri at a party when she was fourteen. From chasing her to Mumbai at an age with no mobile phones to growing into a beautiful family with three children, the couple has lived it all. Of course, it wasn’t easy, initially, because they were concerned about their different religious backgrounds. It all worked out beautifully with them respecting each other’s faith and teaching their children to do the same.
Shah Rukh-Gauri’s story is among those Indian love stories that prove how barriers are only as we see them. Religion is not a concern for people to come together and that only love wins in the end.
8. Dilip Kumar-Madhubala
An unfulfilled one among the Indian love stories, Dilip Kumar and Madhubala’s love story isn’t unknown to many. If someone is above all the Khan’s of Bollywood, then it’s Mohammed Yusuf Khan who we all recognize as the Bollywood superstar, Dilip Kumar. His legendary love story with Madhubala started during the shooting of the 1957 film “Tarana.” They fell in love as though hit by Cupid’s arrow. The two couldn’t keep away from each other. And one day Dilip Kumar received a letter from Madhubala with a rose and asked him to accept this rose if he loves her.
Dilip Kumar had already accepted the love in his heart but it then became official. Sadly, the relationship couldn’t see its happy ending due to misunderstandings in the family. Madhubala cried a lot after their breakup according to reports. Dilip Kumar asked her to leave her father and marry him but Madhubala insisted on Dilip Kumar apologizing to her father and hugging it out. It was the ego that destroyed their love but her father never asked her to break the engagement whenever she demanded an apology from him. Soon after, Madhubala married Kishore Kumar but died three years after their marriage at the age of 36.
Dilip Kumar now lives with his wife, Saira Banu, who doesn’t leave his side! True love ultimately finds us, and these Indian love stories are a solid example of that!
9. Hrishi-Vihn
India’s first gay marriage surely got its name recorded in the various inspiring Indian love stories a few years ago. This is truly loving without gender or caste. Hrishi, an IIT graduate, met Vinh through an online dating site in 2016. When Hrishi’s parents knew about their son being gay, they refused to accept knowing that would tarnish their respect in society. But this fearless couple never gave up and fought against the Indian typical thoughts. They also took part in the Gay Pride Parade that took place in San Francisco in 2007.
The couple got engaged in December 2017. Soon after the supreme court agreed to reconsider section 377 of the Indian penal code, the world witnessed India’s first gay marriage in Maharashtra. Hrishi and Vihn teach one the value of love above all and how one should stand up for what they want for as long as it keeps them happy. Among the many Indian love stories, this one is special because it creates history.
10. Shannon-Seema
Shannon-Seema have proved that love exists in all shapes, sizes, colors, genders, and lasts across all borders. Shannon and Seema met each other at a fitness center where they fell in love with each other at the first sight. These two beautiful ladies were so in love with each other that they decided to get married. They both fought against society’s issue with sexual orientation and went ahead to solemnize their love for each other. The wedding took place in July 2013.
In their wedding photos, Their eyes and smile show no hint of shame, fear or regret as they go on with the wedding ceremonies as for the traditional Hindu rituals, complete with taking rounds around the holy fire and the sindoor ceremony. They respect each other’s traditions and even dress accordingly, creating an aura of mutual respect besides just love.
Wait for someone who loves you differently, just like the people in these true Indian love stories. Wait for the one who can see the fire in your soul, the child in your laughter, and the ocean in your heart. The best love is unexpected. You don’t just choose someone and hope that it works out. No, this is different. You meet by fate and it’s an instant connection.
These Indian love stories have a great impact on people because we aim to recreate a similar kind of magic in our love stories. Love is the source of joy, and these love stories prove the same. They also draw insights into the value of sacrifice, togetherness, and selflessness.
Aren’t these Indian love stories oh so romantic? Can you think of any more stories? I’m sure there are! List them in the comment section below.
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