Indian culture gives young children three things they need: calm routines, curious minds and a sense of belonging. Calm: a small daily ritual, done the same way with a parent, gives a child an expected pause in a busy day. Curious: stories make children ask "why", and a child who explains a story herself learns its lesson better than one who is told it. Connected: in studies abroad, children who knew their family's stories and felt good about where they come from showed higher self-esteem and fewer worries. Our tradition already had the tools: stories, shlokas, festivals, rituals. Keep their logic, drop the superstition, and do them with your child, not at her.
In this article
The question my daughter made me ask
I'm Manjunath. Before VedaPlay I was a lead design engineer at VinFast, designing cars. My daughter Jaanvi loved shlokas and stories before she knew her ABCs.
Most people told me that was sweet, and that the real learning would start with letters and numbers. As an engineer I didn't want to accept either view without checking. So I asked a plain question: what does a child actually get from her culture's stories, shlokas and festivals, and what is only missing the old days?
This article is my answer, and the start of a library. Every claim carries a label, so you can see what research shows and what our tradition holds. Our culture is strong enough to stand on what is true.
Why are more children anxious today?
Something has changed in childhood, and the numbers are clear about older children.
The World Health Organization says one in seven young people aged 10 to 19 lives with a mental disorder. Anxiety and depression are the most common.
WHO fact sheet, Mental health of adolescents, 2025.In a US survey of more than 1.7 lakh children aged 3 to 17, anxiety diagnosed by a doctor (as parents reported it) rose from 7.1% to 9.2% between 2016 and 2020. Depression rose from 3.1% to 4.0%. Part of this rise may be because parents and doctors now notice and diagnose more.
Lebrun-Harris et al., JAMA Pediatrics, 2022 (174,551 children).These are mostly older children and teenagers. For children under six, I could find no study showing a rise, and I won't invent one. But anxiety can already be diagnosed in some 3-year-olds, and it often continues to age 6.
Bufferd et al., American Journal of Psychiatry, 2012 (462 children aged 3 to 6).What is causing it? Scientists still disagree. Screens are the popular answer, but the largest analyses find that screen use explains only a small part of the difference in teenagers' wellbeing. Others point to less free play, less sleep and more loneliness. My reading as a parent: there is no single cause. What is clearer is the other side of the question. Some things reliably go with children who cope better, and our tradition was full of them.
Orben & Przybylski, Nature Human Behaviour, 2019 (355,358 teenagers: technology use explained at most 0.4% of the difference in wellbeing). Gray, Lancy & Bjorklund, Journal of Pediatrics, 2023 (a commentary arguing that less independent play is a cause; an idea still being tested).Engineer's note
You can't control every input into a child's life. You can build a safety cushion into the system early. In engineering we call it margin. The first six years are when a child's margin gets built: a calm adult, small daily rituals, stories she loves, and a feeling that she belongs somewhere.
What are the benefits of teaching children Indian culture?
Three, and each one has research behind it.
What does your child need most right now?
Start with calm. One fixed pause a day: the evening lamp, one shloka, the same words every night. Keep it under two minutes. Read the Calm section below.
Start with curiosity. One story, told the same way three nights in a row, ending with "why do you think he did that?". Read the Curious section below.
Start with connection. One family story ("when your Papa was small...") and one festival act she does with her hands. Read the Connected section below.
1. Calm: rituals give a child a steady pause
Walk into any Indian home at lamp-lighting time. The same act, at the same hour, with the same few words. Nobody calls it a way to settle down, but that is what a ritual is: a fixed sequence that tells the body what comes next.
The lamp, the folded hands, one shloka before food or sleep: our homes built small pauses into the day long before anyone measured them. The lamp carries one of our oldest prayers: tamaso ma jyotir gamaya, "from darkness, lead me to light".
Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 1.3.28.A review of 50 years of research linked family routines and rituals with how well children cope and how close families feel. The researchers separate routines (what we do) from rituals (what it means: "this is who we are").
Fiese et al., Journal of Family Psychology, 2002 (a review of 32 studies with uneven methods; a consistent link, not proof of cause).In Slovakia and Vanuatu, 210 schoolchildren aged about 6 to 9 played the same circle-time games for three months. When the games were framed as a ritual ("this is how we do it"), children got better at waiting for a bigger reward than when the same games were framed as plain instructions.
Rybanska et al., Child Development, 2018. One study, school-age children, not yet repeated with toddlers.Engineer's note
A small child can't calm herself yet. She leans on the adult beside her. Slow chanting slows the chanter's own breathing (shown in adults, Bernardi 2001). So when you slow down, she has a calm adult beside her. That is the part you control.
2. Curious: stories make children think
The Panchatantra presents itself as lessons for three princes who would not learn: a frame story with stakes, smaller stories inside it, and animals so nobody feels judged. The design still works today.
Children aged 5 and 6 who were asked to explain parts of a story found its moral, and used it in new situations, better than children who were simply told the moral.
Walker & Lombrozo, Cognition, 2017.In a study of 268 children aged 3 to 7, a story that praised honesty made children more truthful. Stories that punished lying (Pinocchio, The Boy Who Cried Wolf) did not.
Lee et al., Psychological Science, 2014.Children aged 4 and 6 who pretended to be a hero they admired kept working longest on a boring task. Researchers called it the "Batman effect". Pretending to be Hanuman is our own idea from this study; nobody has tested it yet.
White et al., Child Development, 2017 (180 children).In a study of about 6,200 American children, the more curious kindergarteners scored higher in reading and maths, and the link was strongest in poorer families.
Shah et al., Pediatric Research, 2018. A link, not proof of cause.Children as young as four feel awe at vast scenes, and awe makes them want to explore and learn more. The study used nature videos. Linking it to our stories is our reading: they are full of vastness, from Hanuman crossing the ocean to Krishna showing the whole universe in his mouth.
O'bi & Yang, Child Development, 2024 (444 children aged 4 to 9).
So the old way of telling stories turns out to be the right one: tell the story, don't announce the moral, and ask "why do you think Hanuman did that?" Then wait. The waiting is where her thinking happens.
If a story has a scary part (Ravana's ten heads, Narasimha, a demon), tell it in a calm voice and stay on the helper, not the harm: "and Hanuman came to help". For under-4s, skip the frightening details. You are the editor of the story.
Try this with your child tonight
Baby Hanuman saw the rising sun. What did he think it was?
A fruit! He was hungry and leapt to catch it. Now ask her: "Why do you think he was so brave?" and wait for her answer.
When Ganesha and his brother raced around the world, what did Ganesha do?
He walked around his parents and said they were his whole world. Ask her: "Who is your whole world?"
3. Connected: roots give children a place to stand
In a year-long trial, mothers were coached to talk over shared memories with their toddlers: open questions, added detail, following the child's lead. Years later, as teenagers, those children told clearer stories about their own lives and reported fewer emotional problems.
Mitchell & Reese, Journal of Personality, 2022 (115 families, randomised).Children who knew more about their family's history (how their parents met, where grandparents grew up) had higher self-esteem and lower anxiety.
Duke, Lazarus & Fivush, Psychotherapy, 2008 (a small study; a link, not proof of cause).Across 46 studies of children from migrant and minority families abroad, those who felt good about their community and heritage had higher self-esteem and fewer signs of low mood.
Rivas-Drake et al., Child Development, 2014 (meta-analysis; studies in North America).Preschoolers copy the actions of adults they trust very faithfully, even actions with no practical use. Children copy even more faithfully when an act is framed as a ritual, because a ritual means "this is how we do things".
Lyons, Young & Keil, PNAS, 2007; Legare & Nielsen, Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 2015.This last finding is a big part of how values passed down in Indian homes without lectures. Most of our grandmothers never explained gratitude. They lit the lamp every evening, and we watched. The same copying works today. Our children copy our phone habits just as faithfully. Most of us have caught ourselves.
Five things our tradition got right
Take the tradition apart like a machine, and five parts still work. Each one has a modern match. The match is in how it works. It needs no mystical claim.
1. An error check built out of sound. The Vedas were kept alive by memory for thousands of years. Students learned the same verse in several orders (word by word, in pairs, braided forwards and back), so a slip in one order clashed with the others and got caught. Engineers call this a checksum. UNESCO lists Vedic chanting as Intangible Cultural Heritage and names these recitation techniques.
UNESCO, Tradition of Vedic Chanting (proclaimed 2003, inscribed 2008).2. Hear, think, live with it. In the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, the sage Yajnavalkya tells Maitreyi that the Self is to be heard about, reflected on and meditated on (shravana, manana, nididhyasana). Later teachers made it a method of study. I read it as: hear, think, live with it. Modern studies agree that children learn better when they explain things themselves and when practice is spread over days.
Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 2.4.5; Walker & Lombrozo 2017; Vlach, Sandhofer & Kornell, Cognition, 2008 (spacing helped 3-year-olds).3. Learn beside someone you trust. The gurukula's strength was a child living beside one trusted adult doing real work. At home, that means real tasks done side by side.
4. Values without force. Festivals you do with your hands, a lamp lit daily, an elder greeted every morning. Children copy what they watch. Harsh punishment does not make them obey better: a large review linked spanking with harm on most outcomes and no gain in obeying.
Gershoff & Grogan-Kaylor, Journal of Family Psychology, 2016 (75 studies, about 1.6 lakh children).5. A teacher who admits he can be wrong. In the Taittiriya Upanishad the teacher tells his departing students: follow whatever is good in our conduct, and leave the rest. It is the most modern parenting line I have found in any old text.
Taittiriya Upanishad 1.11.2.How do I teach Indian values to my child at home?
Start small, start with yourself, and match it to her age.
15 months to 2 years
Rhythm and gesture. One short shloka at the same moment daily, with her on your lap. Fold hands at the lamp and let her copy. She joins the last word long before she knows the meaning.
2 to 3 years
Short stories told, not read. The same story three nights in a row; on the third night, stop before a key word and let her fill it in. Let her do one small festival act with her hands.
3 to 6 years
The "why" years. Tell the story without the moral and ask "why did he do that?" and "what would you do?". Give one line on why we do each ritual. Let her lead a small part of the puja.
If she isn't interested: stop, and try again next week. Never force it or scold her for it. In a study that followed 101 families for three years, punishing children aged 6 to 9 for not showing thanks went with more worry and low mood later. Interest comes from watching you enjoy it.
Hussong et al., Journal of Family Psychology, 2022 (a link over time, not proof of cause).Tell stories in the language you think in, the one your parents used. Our grandmothers never translated Hanuman into a second language for us.
Tonight
Pick one act you want her to carry for life: the evening lamp, thanking the food, greeting elders. Do it yourself, same time, every day, in front of her. Don't call her to join. Wait for the evening she comes and stands beside you.
Which shlokas should kids learn first?
Short ones, tied to a moment in the day, with one line of meaning she can understand. These are said in many Indian homes. The meaning is the part to say out loud.
Karagre vasate Lakshmi, karamadhye Saraswati, karamule tu Govinda, prabhate karadarshanam.
"Lakshmi lives at the tips of my fingers, Saraswati in my palm, Govinda at the base. In the morning, I look at my hands." Tell her: your hands can do good things today.
Vakratunda mahakaya, suryakoti samaprabha, nirvighnam kuru me deva, sarvakaryeshu sarvada.
"Ganesha, with the curved trunk and big body, bright as a crore suns, please clear the way in everything I do." Tell her: we ask for help before we begin.
Shubham karoti kalyanam, arogyam dhanasampadam, shatrubuddhi vinashaya, deepajyoti namostute.
"Lamp light, you bring goodness, health and plenty, and you take away unkind thoughts. I bow to you." Tell her: light helps us see, and kind thoughts help us live.
The Gayatri mantra comes from the Rigveda (3.62.10). It asks the light of the sun to brighten our understanding. Many families keep it for older children; for a toddler, the three shlokas above are easier to say and to explain.
Read next in this series
- Why are more children anxious today, and what protects them Read
- Shlokas for kids: 12 shlokas for every moment of the day Read
- 10 Indian values and the story behind each Read
- Why do we do puja? The meaning behind 12 everyday rituals Read
- The 10 avatars of Vishnu, explained for kids Read
- Indian festivals explained: the full calendar Read
Questions parents ask
Why should children learn Indian culture and values?
Because the tools inside it (stories, rituals, festivals, shlokas) do three useful jobs in early childhood: they give expected calm moments, they make children ask "why", and they give a sense of belonging. Research on family rituals, story-based learning and family storytelling supports each of these.
Is it good for kids to learn shlokas?
Yes. A short shloka gives a child rhythm, a memory game and a quiet minute with a parent. Say one daily at the same time, and tell her in one line what it means.
Which shlokas are good for toddlers?
Short ones tied to a daily moment: Karagre vasate on waking, Vakratunda mahakaya before starting something, Shubham karoti at lamp-lighting. Say the meaning in one simple line each time.
How can I teach Indian values without being very religious?
Focus on the acts and their meaning: lighting a lamp for light over darkness, thanking the food, greeting elders, sharing prasad. Tell the stories as stories your family loves. Values pass through what she watches you do, with or without a puja room.
At what age should I start telling mythological stories?
From about 15 months, very short and repetitive with sounds and gestures. From 2, simple sequences. From 3, full stories with "why did he do that?" questions. Skip frightening punishment endings for under-4s.
Won't mythology confuse children about what is real?
Young children move between pretend and real all the time, and stories are where they practise ideas they can't test yet. Say "this is a story our family loves" rather than presenting it as history.
Are mythology cartoons on YouTube good for kids?
India's paediatric guideline advises no screens under 2 and at most an hour a day from 2 to 5. A story told by you, with her asking questions, gives her the back-and-forth a video can't. If you do show a cartoon, watch it with her and talk about it after.
We are a nuclear family in a city. Can we still pass on values?
Yes. It runs on imitation plus repetition, and any home can do that: one daily act done in front of her, a story on video call with grandparents, and one festival act she does with her hands.
What is the difference between a ritual and a superstition?
A ritual has a meaning you can explain to a 4-year-old in one line ("we light the lamp to remember that light wins over dark"). A superstition runs on fear ("do this or bad luck comes"). Keep the meaning, drop the fear.
If we want thoughtful adults tomorrow, we must be equally thoughtful about childhood today.
Manjunath · father, ex-VinFast lead design engineer, founder of VedaPlay
Follow the build, and the stories we test at home, on Instagram: @manjunath.build
References
- World Health Organization (2025). Mental health of adolescents, fact sheet.
- Lebrun-Harris LA et al. (2022). Five-year trends in US children's health and well-being, 2016-2020. JAMA Pediatrics 176(7):e220056.
- Bufferd SJ et al. (2012). Psychiatric disorders in preschoolers: continuity from ages 3 to 6. American Journal of Psychiatry 169:1157-1164.
- Orben A, Przybylski AK (2019). The association between adolescent well-being and digital technology use. Nature Human Behaviour 3:173-182.
- Gray P, Lancy DF, Bjorklund DF (2023). Decline in independent activity as a cause of decline in children's mental well-being. Journal of Pediatrics 260:113352.
- Fiese BH et al. (2002). A review of 50 years of research on naturally occurring family routines and rituals. Journal of Family Psychology 16(4):381-390.
- Rybanska V et al. (2018). Rituals improve children's ability to delay gratification. Child Development 89(2):349-359.
- Bernardi L et al. (2001). Effect of rosary prayer and yoga mantras on autonomic cardiovascular rhythms. BMJ 323:1446.
- Walker CM, Lombrozo T (2017). Explaining the moral of the story. Cognition 167:266-281.
- Lee K et al. (2014). Can classic moral stories promote honesty in children? Psychological Science 25(8).
- White RE et al. (2017). The "Batman Effect": improving perseverance in young children. Child Development 88(5):1563.
- Shah PE et al. (2018). Early childhood curiosity and kindergarten reading and math academic achievement. Pediatric Research 84:380-386.
- O'bi A, Yang F (2024). Seeing awe: how children perceive awe-inspiring visual experiences. Child Development 95(4):1271-1286.
- Mitchell C, Reese E (2022). Growing Memories: coaching mothers in elaborative reminiscing. Journal of Personality.
- Duke MP, Lazarus A, Fivush R (2008). Knowledge of family history as a clinically useful index of psychological well-being. Psychotherapy 45(2):268-272.
- Rivas-Drake D et al. (2014). Feeling good, happy, and proud: a meta-analysis of positive ethnic-racial affect and adjustment. Child Development 85(1):77-102.
- Lyons DE, Young AG, Keil FC (2007). The hidden structure of overimitation. PNAS 104(50):19751-19756.
- Legare CH, Nielsen M (2015). Imitation and innovation: the dual engines of cultural learning. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 19(11):688-699.
- Vlach HA, Sandhofer CM, Kornell N (2008). The spacing effect in children's memory and category induction. Cognition 109:163-167.
- Gershoff ET, Grogan-Kaylor A (2016). Spanking and child outcomes. Journal of Family Psychology 30(4):453-469.
- Hussong AM et al. (2022). Journal of Family Psychology 36(1):80-91 (parents' responses to children's gratitude, 101 families, 3 years).
- Indian Academy of Pediatrics (2022). Screen time guidelines for children.
- UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage. Tradition of Vedic chanting (proclaimed 2003, inscribed 2008).
- Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 1.3.28 and 2.4.5; Taittiriya Upanishad 1.11.2; Rigveda 3.62.10.
