Namaste Odia and Kannada languages, or a different greeting word is "āyubōvan" (ආයුබෝවන්) which has the meaning "wishing long life". Namaste Namaste (, Devanagari: नमस्ते, ), sometimes spoken as "Namaskar" and "Namaskaram", is a customary Hindu greeting. The term has origins in the Vedic period on the Indian subcontinent. In the contemporary era, it is found on the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia and among the Hindu diaspora worldwide. It is used both for salutation and valediction. "Namaste" is usually spoken with a slight bow and hands pressed together, palms touching and fingers pointing upwards, thumbs close to the chest. This gesture
Hindi Belt in this broad sense is a linguistic rather than an ethnic concept. This definition of Hindi is one of the ones used in the Indian census, and results in more than forty percent of Indians being reported to be speakers of Hindi, though Hindi-area respondents vary as to whether they call their language Hindi or use a local language name to distinguish their language from Hindi. As defined in the 1991 census, Hindi has a broad and a narrow sense. The name "Hindi" is thus ambiguous. Before being identified as a separate language Maithili was identified as a Hindi dialect.