C IJARW | ISSN (0) - 2582-1008 September 2019 | Vol. 1 Issue. 3 www.ijarw.com TABOOS IN SOUTH ASIAN CULTURES Shibani Paul Assistant professor of Sanaka Educational Trusts Group of Institutions, Durgapur 713212, West Bengal, India ABSTRACT Language is culture specific. Culture happens to connect language in a certain society. Every culture has certain norms which are alleged to be indecorous. Not only culture, every society has languages which are taken to be unsuitable in public ears. While communicating, the words or the action describing the phenomenon are taken to be obscene. Such morphs are termed as "taboo". The South Asian region, when seen in a map gives the shape of inverted triangle. The region extends from the ranges of the Himalayas including the region of India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, and Sri Lanka to the highlands of Tibet. These areas homes the people of diverse cultures. The invasion of the Aryans back in 1800 - 1200 BC brought a huge change in the cultures that were followed previously. Similarly the languages changed drastically. Aryans, froma Sanskrit word Arya, meaning Noble; their cultures were tight binded, orthodox and fast spreading. Every natural phenomenon, animate or inanimate objects, actions or morphs which were unaccepted became a taboo in that culture. This paper deals with all the variety of "taboo" in South Asian Culture. Apart from the cultural taboo, the paper states the linguistic taboo in itself. The paper also deals with the usage of Euphemisms in replacement of these taboo terms. Keyword: Orthodox, taboo, Euphemisms, phenomenon. 1. THE ORIGIN OF THE IDEA OF TABOO The term taboo originated from the Tongan word "TAPU". But there happens to be a false belief about its origin. As linguistically the word takes its root as ta(marked) and bu(especially) from the Tongan morpheme. But from the historical linguistic point of view, the Tongan morpheme structure does not contain the morpheme "bu". Presently the word in Tongan culture means, "Sacred". The denotation of restriction or prohibition from the point of view of law or custom. In English, the word was discovered by James Cook. When he visited Tonga, from them he got the idea of the first usage of the word. He stated "Not one of them would sit down, or eat a bit of anything .... On expressing my surprise at this, they were all taboo ... " Therefore it signifies an idea of forbiddance in Tongan Culture. 2.DEFINITION The term Taboo is Culture specific. It refers to the idea of prohibition or restriction on some idea or utterance or behavior that is very pugnacious. Virtually all the society acquires this kind of constraints. However these customs may vary from cultures to cultures. But the belief is common to all cultures. The belief of protection, which is the basis of the existence of the term taboo. The term has expanded its wings in the sphere of social sciences. Some taboos are involuntarily based on the religious belief; some are based on the moral judgments whereas