Aadivamsha

The Ages

Seven Ages, One Unbroken Line

Choose an age to see where its cities, courts and ruling lines stood. Select a place to read its story. Turn the land to see how rivers and mountains shaped them all.

Raising The Land

In Full

What Were The Ages Of India’s Royal History?

The house follows seven ages, from about 3300 BCE to today. The map marks places of reference and draws no boundaries, because the reach of every power shifted within its own age.

c. 3300 – 1300 BCE

The First Cities

The Harappan Age

Long before any dynasty left its name, the people of the Indus and its neighbouring rivers built planned cities of fired brick, with drains, granaries, reservoirs and a system of weights shared across a thousand miles. No palace and no royal tomb has been found among them. The first inheritance of the subcontinent is a civilisation that needed no known king.

Who Ruled: No ruling line is recorded. The script is still unread, so how these cities governed themselves remains an open question.

MehrgarhOn the Kachi plain at the foot of the Bolan Pass, in Balochistan, people were growing barley and wheat and herding cattle by about 7000 BCE. Its mud-brick houses and granaries are among the oldest in South Asia. Burials hold beads of shell and lapis and teeth drilled with a bow drill, the earliest dentistry yet known. The cities of the Indus grew from this long farming tradition.
HarappaHarappa gave the civilisation its name when it was excavated from the 1920s. It lies in Punjab, Pakistan, beside an old course of the Ravi. At its height, between about 2600 and 1900 BCE, it spread over more than 150 hectares, with walled mounds, workshops for beads and shell and long brick halls once read as granaries. Its seals and weights showed that the Indus cities shared one script and one standard of measure.
Mohenjo-daroOn the Indus in Sindh, Mohenjo-daro was among the largest cities of its time, perhaps home to forty thousand people. Its lower town was laid out on a grid, with covered drains beneath brick-paved streets. The citadel mound holds the Great Bath, a tank made watertight with bitumen. The bronze dancing girl and the stone figure called the priest-king were found here. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
GanweriwalaIn the Cholistan desert of Pakistani Punjab, near the dry bed of the Hakra, lies a mound nearly as large as Harappa. It sits about midway between Harappa and Mohenjo-daro, which has led some to suggest it was a third great centre. Only surface surveys have been made. Until it is excavated, its place among the Indus cities remains an open question.
KalibanganOn the bank of the Ghaggar in northern Rajasthan, Kalibangan holds an early town and a later Harappan city with a citadel and a grid of streets. Beneath it lies the earliest ploughed field yet found, its furrows crossing at right angles as fields in the area are still sown. Rows of fire altars on the citadel point to rites whose meaning is not known.
RakhigarhiIn Hisar district of Haryana, the seven mounds of Rakhigarhi make it one of the largest Harappan sites known. Excavations have found paved drains, a bead workshop and a cemetery. DNA recovered from a woman buried here around 2500 BCE has been studied for what it tells of the ancestry of the Indus people, a subject on which scholars continue to differ.
DholaviraOn Khadir island in the Rann of Kutch, Dholavira was built of stone. Its people cut a chain of reservoirs into the rock and channelled seasonal streams to fill them, a remarkable answer to a dry land. Near its north gate lay a signboard of ten large Indus signs, the longest such inscription found. It was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2021.
LothalNear the head of the Gulf of Khambhat in Gujarat, Lothal is known for a long brick basin that many read as a tidal dockyard and some as a reservoir. The town worked carnelian and agate into beads that travelled far and a seal of a kind used in the Persian Gulf was found here. A museum on the site holds its finds.

c. 1500 – 322 BCE

The Vedic Age

Janapadas And Mahajanapadas

As the hymns of the Vedas were composed and carried east, clans settled into kingdoms along the Ganga and the Yamuna. By the sixth century BCE sixteen great states, the Mahajanapadas, held the north, some ruled by kings and some by assemblies. Here the oldest royal lines of memory take shape: the Kurus of the Mahabharata, the Ikshvakus of Kosala and the Janakas of Videha. Here too the Buddha and Mahavira taught.

Ruling Lines: Kuru · Panchala · Ikshvaku Of Kosala · Janaka Of Videha · Magadha · Vajji Assembly · Avanti · Gandhara

HastinapuraOn an old bank of the Ganga in Meerut district, Hastinapura is remembered in the Mahabharata as the capital of the Kurus. Excavations in the 1950s found Painted Grey Ware and signs of a great flood, after which tradition holds the capital moved to Kaushambi. Jain tradition honours the town as the birthplace of three Tirthankaras.
IndraprasthaThe Mahabharata tells of a city the Pandavas built on the Yamuna. Tradition has long placed it at the Purana Qila in Delhi, where excavations have found Painted Grey Ware and an unbroken sequence of later cities. A village called Indarpat stood inside the fort until the twentieth century. Whether the epic city and the site are one is still debated.
AhichchhatraNear Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh, the walled city of Ahichchhatra was the northern capital of Panchala. The Mahabharata says Drona took this half of the kingdom from Drupada. Its ramparts enclose a great triangle of ruins and coins and terracottas from many centuries have been found there. The Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang visited it in the seventh century.
ShravastiCapital of Kosala on the Rapti, Shravasti was among the six great cities of the Buddha's time. He is said to have spent more rainy seasons here than anywhere else, at the Jetavana monastery given by the merchant Anathapindika. King Prasenajit ruled here. Its ruins at Saheth-Maheth, near the border with Nepal, are a place of pilgrimage.
AyodhyaOn the Sarayu, Ayodhya is held in tradition to be the seat of the Ikshvaku line and the birthplace of Rama, whose story the Ramayana tells. Jains revere it as the birthplace of five Tirthankaras. Excavations have shown settlement reaching back into the first millennium BCE. It remains among the most visited cities of pilgrimage in India.
MithilaThe land of Videha, between the Ganga and the Himalayan foothills, was ruled by the Janakas, among them the king remembered in the Upanishads for his debates with the sage Yajnavalkya. In the Ramayana, Sita is the daughter of King Janaka. Tradition places their capital at Janakpur, now in Nepal. Mithila keeps a language, a school of painting and a culture of its own.
VaishaliVaishali was the chief city of the Vajji confederacy, in which clans such as the Licchavis governed through an assembly. It is often named among the earliest republics. Mahavira was born nearby and the Buddha preached here and announced his coming passing. Ashoka raised a pillar at Kolhua and its lion capital is still in place.
RajagrihaRinged by five hills, Rajagriha, today's Rajgir, was the first capital of Magadha under Bimbisara and Ajatashatru. Its cyclopean wall of unmortared stone runs for some forty kilometres. The Buddha often stayed on the Vulture Peak and the first Buddhist council met nearby after his death. The capital of Magadha later moved to Pataliputra.
KashiKashi, or Varanasi, on the Ganga was the capital of a Mahajanapada and has been lived in for at least three thousand years. It is sacred to Shiva and its ghats see pilgrims, cremations and morning prayers each day. The Buddha gave his first sermon at Sarnath, close by. It remains a centre of Sanskrit learning, of music and of silk weaving.
KaushambiOn the Yamuna near Prayagraj, Kaushambi was the capital of Vatsa, ruled in the Buddha's time by King Udayana, the hero of later plays and tales. Its great earthen ramparts still stand. The Buddha visited and monasteries grew here. An Ashokan pillar from Kaushambi was later moved to the fort at Prayagraj.
ChampaChampa, near Bhagalpur in Bihar, was the capital of Anga and a river port on the Ganga. Traders sailed from here to the east and the name Champa was later carried to Southeast Asia. Anga was absorbed by Magadha under Bimbisara. Jain tradition honours Champa as the place where Vasupujya, the twelfth Tirthankara, lived and attained liberation.
UjjayiniOn the Shipra, Ujjayini was the capital of Avanti, ruled in the Buddha's time by King Pradyota. It lay on the great road from the Ganga plain to the western ports. Later it became a Mauryan seat, a city of astronomers and the setting of Kalidasa's verse. Its Mahakaleshwar temple and the Kumbh Mela keep it at the heart of pilgrimage.
ViratanagaraBairat, in the Jaipur district of Rajasthan, is identified with Viratanagara, the capital of the Matsya kingdom. The Mahabharata tells that the Pandavas spent the last year of their exile here in disguise at the court of King Virata. Two Ashokan edicts were found nearby, with the remains of a round Buddhist shrine of the third century BCE.
TakshashilaNear Rawalpindi in Pakistan, Takshashila was the chief city of Gandhara. Students came here to study medicine, law and the Vedas and tradition links it with Panini and Chanakya. It saw the Persians, Alexander, the Mauryas, the Indo-Greeks and the Kushans in turn. Its three city sites are a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

c. 322 BCE – 550 CE

Mauryas And Guptas

The Classical Empires

Guided by Chanakya, Chandragupta Maurya joined most of the subcontinent under one throne at Pataliputra and his grandson Ashoka set his edicts in stone from Afghanistan to Karnataka. After the Mauryas came the Shungas, the Satavahanas of the Deccan and the Kushans of the north-west, while the Cheras, Cholas and Pandyas held the Tamil south. Under the Guptas, from the fourth century CE, came the age of Kalidasa and Aryabhata, of the decimal system and, under their Vakataka allies, of the paintings at Ajanta.

Ruling Lines: Maurya · Shunga · Satavahana · Kushan · Gupta · Vakataka · Chera · Chola · Pandya · Pallava

PataliputraFounded as a fort by Ajatashatru where the Son met the Ganga, Pataliputra became the capital of the Nandas, the Mauryas and later the Guptas. The Greek envoy Megasthenes described its timber palisade and great palace. Remains of a pillared hall have been found at Kumrahar. The city lives on as Patna, the capital of Bihar.
TakshashilaUnder the Mauryas, Takshashila was the seat of the north-western province, where Ashoka served as viceroy before he became king. Tradition holds that Chanakya taught here and that Chandragupta was his pupil. The Dharmarajika stupa is linked with Ashoka. Buddhist monasteries later spread across the surrounding hills.
UjjayiniUjjayini was the Mauryan capital of the west, where Ashoka too served as a prince. In the Gupta age it became a second court and tradition sets Kalidasa and the legendary King Vikramaditya here. Indian astronomers counted their prime meridian through Ujjayini, an idea kept alive by the observatory Jai Singh II built there in the eighteenth century.
TosaliNear Bhubaneswar, Tosali was the Mauryan seat of Kalinga after Ashoka's conquest around 261 BCE. The bloodshed of that war, in which he records a hundred thousand killed, turned him towards dhamma. At Dhauli he had his edicts carved, adding two meant only for Kalinga and an elephant cut from the rock looks out over the plain.
GirnarAt the foot of Girnar hill near Junagadh, one granite boulder carries three ages of writing. Ashoka's fourteen rock edicts were cut here in the third century BCE. Around 150 CE the Saka ruler Rudradaman added an inscription in Sanskrit on the repair of the Sudarshana lake and Skandagupta added his own in the fifth century. The hill above is sacred to Jains and Hindus.
SanchiOn a hill near Vidisha, Ashoka built a brick stupa that the Shungas enlarged and cased in stone. Its four gateways, carved in the first century BCE with scenes from the lives of the Buddha, are among the finest early Indian sculpture. Monasteries and temples were added for over a thousand years. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
SarnathOutside Varanasi, in the deer park at Sarnath, the Buddha gave his first sermon. Ashoka raised a pillar here crowned by four lions, which the Republic adopted as its emblem in 1950 and the wheel beneath them stands on the national flag. The Dhamek stupa and ruined monasteries mark the site and the museum keeps the lion capital.
MathuraOn the Yamuna, Mathura is honoured as the birthplace of Krishna and was a trading city on the northern road. Under the Kushans it was a southern capital and its workshops made some of the first images of the Buddha in the red sandstone of Sikri. Jain and Hindu sculpture flourished alongside. The Government Museum at Mathura holds much of this work.
PurushapuraPurushapura, today's Peshawar, was the capital of the Kushan emperor Kanishka in the second century CE. He is said to have built a stupa here that travellers described as the tallest in the land. Gandhara art, joining Greek and Indian forms, flourished across the valley and Kanishka is remembered as a patron of Buddhism.
PratishthanaPaithan on the Godavari was the capital of the Satavahanas, who ruled the Deccan for about four centuries around the turn of the era. Their coins carry portraits and the names of their queens and their reign saw the rock-cut halls of Nashik and Karle. Paithan is still known for its silk saris woven with gold.
AjantaIn a horseshoe gorge of the Waghora river, about thirty caves were cut in two phases, the later under the Vakataka court in the fifth century. Their wall paintings of the Jataka tales and of court life are among the greatest survivals of ancient Indian painting. Forgotten for centuries, they were found again by a British officer in 1819. They are a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
NalandaFounded in the fifth century under the Gupta king Kumaragupta, Nalanda grew into a great monastic university. Xuanzang studied here in the seventh century and described thousands of teachers and students. Patronage continued under Harsha and the Palas until it was ruined around 1200. Its excavated remains are a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
KanchipuramKanchipuram was the seat of the early Pallavas, whose grants in Prakrit and Sanskrit appear from the third and fourth centuries CE. Samudragupta's pillar at Prayagraj names Vishnugopa of Kanchi among the southern kings he met. The city was a centre of learning for Buddhists, Jains and Hindus alike.
UraiyurNear Tiruchirappalli on the Kaveri, Uraiyur was the capital of the early Cholas known from Sangam poetry. The poems remember Karikala, the king credited with building the Kallanai embankment across the Kaveri. Uraiyur was famed for its cotton cloth and Puhar at the mouth of the river served as the Chola port.
VanjiThe Cheras ruled the western coast and its hills. Many scholars identify their capital Vanji with Karur on the Amaravati in Tamil Nadu and others with a site near Kodungallur in Kerala. The question is still open. Sangam poems praise the Chera kings and Roman coins found at Karur speak of the trade in pepper and beads.
MaduraiOn the Vaigai, Madurai was the Pandya capital and, by tradition, the seat of the Tamil Sangam, the assemblies of poets whose works survive as the oldest Tamil literature. Greek and Roman writers knew the Pandyas for their pearls. The Meenakshi temple at its heart was rebuilt and enlarged in later centuries.

c. 550 – 1526 CE

The Regional Kingdoms

Temples, Forts And Sea Routes

No single throne held the land in these centuries and its culture was the richer for it. Harsha ruled from Kannauj. The Pratiharas, Palas and Rashtrakutas contested the north. The Cholas sent fleets across the Bay of Bengal. Rajput lines raised the forts of Chittor, Ajmer and Gwalior. The Hoysalas, Kakatiyas and Eastern Gangas built in stone and Vijayanagara rose on the Tungabhadra. From 1206 the Sultans of Delhi added a new court and a new architecture.

Ruling Lines: Pushyabhuti · Pratihara · Pala · Rashtrakuta · Chalukya · Pallava · Chola · Pandya · Hoysala · Kakatiya · Eastern Ganga · Chandela · Paramara · Chauhan · Guhila Of Mewar · Solanki · Tomar · Yadava · Delhi Sultanate · Vijayanagara · Ahom

KannaujOn the Ganga, Kannauj was Harsha's capital in the seventh century and Xuanzang attended his great assembly there. For the next three centuries the Pratiharas, Palas and Rashtrakutas contended for it, in what historians call the tripartite struggle. Under the Gahadavalas it remained a great city. It is known today for perfume still distilled in copper stills.
DelhiIn 1206 Qutb-ud-din Aibak founded the Delhi Sultanate and five dynasties ruled from here until 1526. The Qutb Minar and the Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque mark its beginning. Delhi grew through a succession of cities: Siri, Tughlaqabad, Jahanpanah and Firozabad. Before the Sultans, the Tomars and Chauhans held the fort of Lal Kot.
AjmerFounded by the Chauhans in the twelfth century beneath Taragarh hill, Ajmer was the capital of Prithviraj Chauhan. The Adhai Din ka Jhonpra stands on the site of an earlier college. The shrine of the Sufi saint Moinuddin Chishti, who died here in 1236, draws pilgrims of every faith. Pushkar lies just beyond the hills.
ChittorgarhChittor stands on a long mesa above the plain and was the capital of Mewar for centuries. It was besieged three times, in 1303, 1535 and 1568 and each is remembered with sorrow and pride. The Vijay Stambha raised by Rana Kumbha in the fifteenth century and the palaces and shrines within the walls survive. It is one of the Hill Forts of Rajasthan on the UNESCO list.
GwaliorThe fort on its sandstone rock has been held by many, among them the Kachchhapaghatas, the Tomars, the Mughals and the Scindias. Man Singh Tomar built its tiled palace around 1500 and made his court a centre of music, where the dhrupad style took shape. Rock-cut Jain colossi line the slopes and the Teli ka Mandir is among its oldest temples.
KhajurahoBuilt by the Chandelas between about 950 and 1050, Khajuraho once had some eighty-five temples, of which around twenty-five remain. The Kandariya Mahadeva and Lakshmana temples rise like mountain ranges and are carved with gods, dancers, musicians and lovers. Hindu and Jain temples stand side by side. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
DharDhar was the capital of the Paramaras of Malwa. Its most remembered king, Bhoja, ruled in the eleventh century and is credited with works on poetry, architecture and medicine. The Bhojshala here is linked by tradition with his school of Sanskrit learning. Its history and present use are disputed.
Anhilwara PatanFounded in the eighth century, Anhilwara Patan was the capital of Gujarat under the Chaulukyas, also called Solankis. Their reign saw the Sun Temple at Modhera and the marble temples of Dilwara. Queen Udayamati built the Rani ki Vav, a stepwell of seven storeys carved with hundreds of figures, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Patan is still known for its Patola silk.
GaudaGauda, on the Ganga near Malda, served as a capital of Bengal under the Palas and the Senas. The Palas, from the eighth to the twelfth centuries, patronised Nalanda and Vikramashila and a school of bronze and manuscript painting. Under the later Sultans of Bengal, Gauda became a great brick city whose mosques and gates still stand.
KonarkOn the Odisha coast, King Narasimhadeva I of the Eastern Gangas built the Sun Temple around 1250. It was designed as the chariot of the sun god, with twenty-four carved wheels drawn by seven horses. The main tower has fallen, but the assembly hall stands and the wheel of Konark appears on Indian currency. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
DevagiriThe Yadavas built Devagiri on a conical hill near Aurangabad, with moats, tunnels and a rock face cut sheer. In 1327 Muhammad bin Tughluq renamed it Daulatabad and ordered the court of Delhi to move there, a move soon reversed. The Chand Minar was added later. The fort is counted among the strongest in the Deccan.
ManyakhetaMalkhed, in Kalaburagi district, was the capital of the Rashtrakutas from the ninth century. At their height they reached from the Ganga plain to the far south and the Arab traveller Sulaiman counted their king among the great rulers of the world. Their court patronised Kannada and Sanskrit literature and the Kailasa temple at Ellora was cut under their rule.
WarangalThe Kakatiyas ruled the eastern Deccan from Warangal in the twelfth to fourteenth centuries. Its fort had rings of stone and earthen walls and four carved stone gateways, the Kakatiya Kala Thoranam, still stand. Queen Rudramadevi ruled here in her own name. Nearby is the Ramappa temple, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
BadamiVatapi, today's Badami, was the capital of the early Chalukyas from the sixth century. Its sandstone cliffs hold cave temples to Shiva, Vishnu and the Jain Tirthankaras. Pulakeshin II, who turned back Harsha at the Narmada, ruled here. Nearby Aihole and Pattadakal hold some of the earliest stone temples in India.
HampiOn the Tungabhadra, the city of Vijayanagara was founded in 1336 by the brothers Harihara and Bukka. Under Krishnadevaraya it was among the richest cities in the world, by the accounts of visitors from Portugal and Persia. After the battle of 1565 it was sacked and abandoned. Its ruins spread across a landscape of boulders and are a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
HalebiduDwarasamudra, now Halebidu, was the capital of the Hoysalas in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The Hoysaleswara temple is wrapped in friezes of elephants, lions, horsemen and the epics, carved in soapstone. With Belur and Somanathapura it forms the Hoysala temples on the UNESCO list. The city was sacked by the armies of the Delhi Sultanate in 1311.
KanchipuramUnder the Pallavas of the seventh and eighth centuries, Kanchipuram became a city of temples. The Kailasanatha temple, built under Rajasimha, is among the earliest structural temples in the south. Their port at Mamallapuram holds the Shore Temple and the rock-cut rathas. Kanchipuram silk is still woven here.
ThanjavurThanjavur was the capital of the Cholas under Rajaraja I, who completed the Brihadishvara temple in 1010. Its tower rises some sixty-six metres. His son Rajendra sent a fleet to Southeast Asia and built a new capital at Gangaikonda Cholapuram. The temple walls list the dancers, musicians and lamps it supported. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
MaduraiThe Pandyas rose again in the thirteenth century and became the leading power of the far south under Jatavarman Sundara Pandya. Marco Polo visited their coast and described its pearls and its trade in horses. In 1311 the armies of Malik Kafur reached Madurai and a short-lived sultanate followed.
CharaideoThe Ahoms came into the Brahmaputra valley under Sukaphaa in 1228 and made Charaideo their first capital. They ruled Assam for nearly six hundred years and kept chronicles called buranjis. Charaideo holds their maidams, the earthen burial mounds of the royal family, named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2024.

1526 – 1757

The Mughal Age

An Empire And Its Peers

Babur’s victory at Panipat in 1526 opened two centuries in which the Mughal court at Agra, Fatehpur Sikri, Lahore and Delhi set the measure of power and of taste. It did not rule alone. The Rajput houses of Amber, Marwar and Mewar met it as allies and as adversaries. The Bundelas built at Orchha. The Deccan sultanates and then the Marathas under Shivaji, held the south-west. The Ahoms turned the empire back in Assam and the Sikhs, the Wodeyars and the Nayakas kept courts of their own.

Ruling Lines: Mughal · Kachwaha Of Amber · Sisodia Of Mewar · Rathore · Bundela · Hada Of Bundi · Bhati Of Jaisalmer · Maratha · Adil Shahi · Qutb Shahi · Wodeyar · Nayaka · Ahom · Zamorin · Sikh

PanipatNorth of Delhi on the old highway, Panipat saw three battles that changed India. In 1526 Babur defeated Ibrahim Lodi here with field guns and founded the Mughal empire. In 1556 Akbar's army defeated Hemu. In 1761 Ahmad Shah Durrani defeated the Marathas. It is known today as a town of weavers.
AgraAgra on the Yamuna was the capital of Akbar, who rebuilt its fort in red sandstone. Shah Jahan built the Taj Mahal here as the tomb of Mumtaz Mahal, completed around 1653. The fort, the Taj and the tomb of Itimad-ud-Daulah trace the course of Mughal building. The fort and the Taj Mahal are UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
Fatehpur SikriAkbar built Fatehpur Sikri in the 1570s near the shrine of the Sufi Salim Chishti, who had foretold the birth of his son. Its palaces, the Diwan-i-Khas and the Buland Darwaza were built of red sandstone and Akbar's court held debates among the faiths here. The city was left about fifteen years later. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
DelhiShah Jahan moved his capital to Delhi and in 1648 completed the walled city of Shahjahanabad with the Red Fort and soon after the Jama Masjid. Chandni Chowk ran from the fort gate. The Red Fort was the seat of the later Mughals and, since 1947, the place where the Prime Minister speaks on Independence Day. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
LahoreLahore served as a Mughal capital under Akbar and was much loved by Jahangir, who is buried across the Ravi at Shahdara. The Lahore Fort, the Shalimar Gardens and Aurangzeb's Badshahi Mosque belong to this age. The fort and gardens are a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Lahore is today in Pakistan.
AmberAmber, on a ridge above the Maota lake, was the seat of the Kachwahas before Jaipur was founded. Raja Man Singh, a general of Akbar, began its palace in the late sixteenth century and later rulers added the Sheesh Mahal. The alliance of Amber with the Mughals shaped the empire. It is one of the Hill Forts of Rajasthan on the UNESCO list.
UdaipurFounded by Maharana Udai Singh II in 1559, Udaipur became the capital of Mewar after the fall of Chittor in 1568. His son Maharana Pratap fought Akbar's army at Haldighati in 1576 and Mewar came to terms with the Mughals only in 1615. The City Palace grew over four centuries along the eastern shore of Lake Pichola.
JodhpurRao Jodha founded Jodhpur in 1459 beneath Mehrangarh, a fort on a sheer cliff above the Thar. The Rathores of Marwar served the Mughals as commanders and fought them in the long war that followed Aurangzeb's seizure of Marwar in 1679. The palaces of Mehrangarh now hold a museum of arms, paintings and palanquins.
BikanerRao Bika, a son of Rao Jodha, founded Bikaner in the desert in 1488. Raja Rai Singh, a general of Akbar, built the Junagarh fort, which was never taken. The court kept a fine school of miniature painting and a large archive. The Karni Mata temple at Deshnoke is tied to the founding of the state.
JaisalmerRawal Jaisal founded Jaisalmer in 1156 on Trikuta hill and the Bhatis ruled it until 1949. Its yellow sandstone fort is one of the few in the world in which people still live. Merchants grew rich on the caravan trade across the Thar and built carved havelis below. It is one of the Hill Forts of Rajasthan on the UNESCO list.
BundiBundi, in a gorge of the Aravallis, was the seat of the Hada Chauhans. Its palace climbs the hillside and holds the Chitrashala, rooms painted in blue and green with scenes of court and of Krishna. Bundi gave its name to a school of painting and its stepwells, among them Raniji ki Baori, are among the finest in Rajasthan.
OrchhaRudra Pratap Singh made Orchha the Bundela capital in 1531, on a bend of the Betwa. Under Bir Singh Deo, a friend of Jahangir, the Jahangir Mahal and the Chaturbhuj temple were raised. The Raja Mahal holds murals of the epics and the cenotaphs of the kings stand along the river. Orchha is on UNESCO's tentative list.
RaigadRaigad, a hill fort in the Sahyadris above the Konkan, is where Shivaji was crowned Chhatrapati in 1674. It served as the capital of the Maratha state. Shivaji died here in 1680 and his samadhi stands on the summit. The fort's market street and palace ruins can still be walked.
BijapurBijapur, now Vijayapura, was the capital of the Adil Shahi sultans from 1490 until 1686. The Gol Gumbaz, tomb of Muhammad Adil Shah, has one of the largest domes in the world and a whispering gallery. The Ibrahim Rauza is among the most graceful tombs of the Deccan. Aurangzeb took the city in 1686.
GolcondaGolconda, west of Hyderabad, was the fortress of the Qutb Shahi sultans from 1518 to 1687. Diamonds from the Krishna valley were traded here, the Koh-i-Noor among them by tradition. A handclap at its gate can be heard at the summit. Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah founded Hyderabad nearby in 1591 and built the Charminar.
MysoreThe Wodeyars ruled Mysore from the fourteenth century. Raja Wodeyar took Srirangapatna in 1610 and began the Mysore Dasara there. In the eighteenth century power passed for a time to Haidar Ali and Tipu Sultan. After 1799 the Wodeyars were restored, with their capital at Mysore.
MaduraiAfter Vijayanagara, the Nayakas ruled Madurai from 1529. Tirumalai Nayaka, in the seventeenth century, built his palace and enlarged the Meenakshi temple with painted gopurams and a hall of a thousand pillars. The Nayaka court patronised poetry and music in Telugu and Tamil. Their rule lasted until 1736.
CalicutCalicut, today Kozhikode, was the port of the Zamorins, who grew rich on the trade in pepper and spices with Arabia and China. The fleets of Zheng He called here in the fifteenth century. In 1498 Vasco da Gama landed nearby, opening the sea route from Europe and the Zamorins fought the Portuguese for a century after.
AmritsarGuru Ram Das founded Amritsar around a sacred pool in about 1577. Guru Arjan built the Harmandir Sahib in its midst and installed the Adi Granth there in 1604 and Guru Hargobind raised the Akal Takht facing it. Rebuilt and gilded under Maharaja Ranjit Singh, the Golden Temple feeds tens of thousands each day at its langar.
GarhgaonGarhgaon was the Ahom capital from the sixteenth century. From here the Ahoms held out against the Mughals and in 1671 their general Lachit Borphukan defeated a Mughal fleet at Saraighat on the Brahmaputra. The Kareng Ghar palace stands nearby and the Rang Ghar, the royal pavilion of games, at Sivasagar.
MurshidabadMurshid Quli Khan moved the capital of Bengal to Murshidabad in 1717. Under the Nawabs it grew rich on silk and trade. Siraj-ud-Daulah ruled from here until Plassey in 1757. The Hazarduari palace, built in the 1830s, now holds a museum of arms, paintings and court objects.

1757 – 1947

The British Period

The Raj And The Princely States

After Plassey in 1757 the East India Company and from 1858 the British Crown, came to rule about three-fifths of the subcontinent directly. The rest remained with more than five hundred princely states, bound to the Crown by treaty and ranked by gun salute, from Hyderabad and Mysore to estates of a few villages. Their courts became patrons of music, craft and scholarship and tried some of the first experiments in modern government. From them come most of the royal houses known today.

Ruling Houses: Asaf Jahi Of Hyderabad · Wodeyar Of Mysore · Gaekwad Of Baroda · Scindia Of Gwalior · Dogra Of Jammu And Kashmir · Holkar Of Indore · Kachwaha Of Jaipur · Rathore Of Jodhpur · Sisodia Of Udaipur · Travancore · Begums Of Bhopal · Bhonsle Of Kolhapur · Patiala · Bundela Of Orchha · Koch Of Cooch Behar · Manipur · Tripura

PlasseyAt Plassey, a mango grove on the Bhagirathi, the forces of the East India Company under Robert Clive defeated Siraj-ud-Daulah, Nawab of Bengal, on 23 June 1757. The battle was decided less by arms than by the defection of Mir Jafar. It gave the Company the revenues of Bengal and is often taken as the beginning of British rule in India.
CalcuttaThe Company's settlement on the Hooghly, founded in 1690, became the capital of British India and remained so until 1911. Fort William, Government House and the Writers' Building marked its power. Calcutta was also the cradle of the Bengal Renaissance, of Rammohun Roy, Vidyasagar and the Tagores. It is now Kolkata, capital of West Bengal.
BombaySeven islands given to the English Crown by Portugal in 1661, as part of a royal dowry, became Bombay. Land was reclaimed to join them and the port grew on cotton and trade. Victoria Terminus and the University buildings stand from the nineteenth century. The Indian National Congress first met here in 1885. It is now Mumbai.
MadrasFort St George, built in 1644, was the first English fortress in India and the seat of the Madras Presidency. The city grew around it and around far older places such as Mylapore and Triplicane. St Mary's church inside the fort is among the oldest Anglican churches in Asia. It is now Chennai, capital of Tamil Nadu.
New DelhiAt the Delhi Durbar of 1911, King George V announced that the capital would move from Calcutta to Delhi. Edwin Lutyens and Herbert Baker designed the new city on Raisina Hill and it was inaugurated in 1931. The Viceroy's House is now Rashtrapati Bhavan. The Chamber of Princes met in Delhi from 1921.
LucknowLucknow was the court of the Nawabs of Awadh from 1775. They built the Bara Imambara and the Rumi Darwaza and fostered poetry, kathak and a celebrated cuisine. The Company annexed Awadh in 1856 and the siege of the Residency in 1857 was among the central events of the great rising. Lucknow is now capital of Uttar Pradesh.
LahoreMaharaja Ranjit Singh made Lahore the capital of the Sikh Empire in 1799 and held the Punjab until his death in 1839. After two Anglo-Sikh wars the British annexed it in 1849. Lahore became the capital of the Punjab province, with its museum, colleges and Mall. In 1947 it went to Pakistan.
HyderabadThe Asaf Jahi Nizams ruled Hyderabad from 1724 and it became the largest of the princely states, with its own currency, railway and army and a salute of twenty-one guns. Osmania University was founded in 1918 with Urdu as its language of teaching. Hyderabad joined India in 1948.
MysoreRestored in 1799, the Wodeyars ruled Mysore under the Crown and from 1881 the state was a model of administration. Under Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV and his dewan M. Visvesvaraya it built the Krishnaraja Sagar dam, an early hydroelectric works at Shivanasamudra and a university. The Amba Vilas palace was rebuilt after a fire in 1897.
BarodaThe Gaekwads ruled Baroda from the eighteenth century. Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad III, who reigned from 1875 to 1939, made primary education free and compulsory, built libraries and a bank and supported B. R. Ambedkar's studies abroad. The Laxmi Vilas Palace, finished in 1890, is among the largest private homes in the world.
GwaliorThe Scindias, Maratha generals, took Gwalior in the eighteenth century and made it a state of twenty-one guns. Jayajirao Scindia built the Jai Vilas Palace in 1874, its durbar hall hung with two great chandeliers. The court supported music and the Gwalior gharana is among the oldest schools of khayal singing.
SrinagarBy the Treaty of Amritsar in 1846, Gulab Singh of the Dogra house acquired Kashmir and founded the state of Jammu and Kashmir, with Srinagar as its summer capital and Jammu as its winter seat. The Dogras ruled until 1947, when Maharaja Hari Singh acceded to India. Srinagar lies on the Jhelum beside the Dal lake.
IndoreIndore was the seat of the Holkars, Maratha rulers of Malwa. Ahilyabai Holkar, who ruled from 1767 to 1795 from Maheshwar on the Narmada, is remembered for the temples, ghats and rest houses she built across India. The capital moved to Indore in 1818. The Rajwada, a palace of seven storeys, stands at the heart of the old city.
JaipurSawai Jai Singh II founded Jaipur in 1727 on a grid planned with the architect Vidyadhar Bhattacharya. He built the Jantar Mantar observatory, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, as is the walled city. Its buildings were washed pink in 1876 for the visit of the Prince of Wales. Jaipur is now the capital of Rajasthan.
JodhpurThe Rathores of Marwar made a treaty with the Company in 1818. Maharaja Umaid Singh began the Umaid Bhawan Palace in 1929, in part to give work in a time of famine. Finished in 1943, it remains a royal residence, a museum and a hotel. Jodhpur gave its name to a style of riding breeches.
UdaipurMewar made a treaty with the Company in 1818 and its ruler held the senior place among the Rajput houses. The City Palace grew along Lake Pichola and the Lake Palace on Jag Niwas island became famous across the world. Maharana Bhupal Singh brought Mewar into the Union of Rajasthan in 1948.
BhopalFrom 1819 to 1926 Bhopal was ruled by four women in succession: Qudsia Begum, Sikandar Begum, Shah Jahan Begum and Sultan Jahan Begum. They built the Taj-ul-Masajid, schools and a railway and Sultan Jahan Begum was the first chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University. Bhopal is now the capital of Madhya Pradesh.
TrivandrumTrivandrum was the capital of Travancore from 1795. Its rulers served the Padmanabhaswamy temple as servants of the deity and held the state in his name. Travancore was known for its schools and its literacy and the Temple Entry Proclamation of 1936 opened its temples to all Hindus. It is now Thiruvananthapuram.
KolhapurKolhapur was ruled by a line descended from Shivaji. Shahu Maharaj, who reigned from 1894 to 1922, reserved half of the posts in his government for backward classes in 1902 and made primary education free. He supported Ambedkar's early work. The New Palace, built in the 1880s, now holds a museum.
PatialaPatiala was the foremost of the Phulkian Sikh states of the Punjab. Maharaja Bhupinder Singh, who reigned from 1900 to 1938, led the Chamber of Princes and Indian cricket. The Qila Mubarak and the Moti Bagh palace stand in the city, which gave its name to a turban, a salwar and a measure.
TikamgarhIn 1783 the Bundela rulers moved the capital of Orchha State to Tikamgarh, while Orchha remained their ancestral seat. The state held a salute of fifteen guns and was part of the Bundelkhand Agency. Its rulers supported Hindi letters and built schools and waterworks. After independence the state joined the Indian Union and became part of Vindhya Pradesh.
Cooch BeharCooch Behar was ruled by the Koch dynasty from the sixteenth century. Maharaja Nripendra Narayan built its palace in 1887 in the style of the Italian Renaissance and married Suniti Devi, daughter of the reformer Keshab Chandra Sen. The state joined India in 1949 and became part of West Bengal in 1950.
ImphalManipur kept its kingdom and its court at Imphal under the Crown after the Anglo-Manipur War of 1891. Its classical dance and the game of polo, which British officers learned here and carried across the world, are among its gifts. Manipur joined India in 1949.
AgartalaThe Manikya kings of Tripura ruled one of the oldest lines in India. Maharaja Radhakishore Manikya built the Ujjayanta Palace in 1901 and his court befriended Rabindranath Tagore. Tripura joined India in 1949 and the palace now houses the state museum.

1947 – Today

The Republic

The Living Houses

Between 1947 and 1949 the princely states joined the new nations and in 1971 India ended the privy purses and royal titles by constitutional amendment. The thrones were gone. The houses were not. Many became keepers of palaces opened as museums, of temples and festivals that still wait on them, of crafts, kitchens and archives. What they carry now belongs to everyone and it is this living inheritance that Aadivamsha exists to follow.

What Endures: Palace Museums · Festivals · Temple Custodianship · Craft Patronage · Archives

New DelhiNew Delhi has been the capital of independent India since 1947. In 1971 Parliament ended the privy purses and royal titles by the twenty-sixth amendment to the Constitution. Palaces built here for the princes, Hyderabad House and Baroda House among them, now serve the government and the Viceroy's House is Rashtrapati Bhavan.
JaipurThe City Palace in Jaipur is part home and part museum. The family lives in the Chandra Mahal, while the courtyards, armoury and textile galleries are open to all. The Rambagh and Jai Mahal palaces became hotels. Jaipur's crafts, from blue pottery to the cutting of gems, still find their patrons here.
UdaipurThe house of Mewar keeps the City Palace through a charitable foundation, which runs the City Palace Museum and its archives. The Lake Palace and Shiv Niwas were opened as hotels. The foundation also gives annual awards for service to society, to history and to the arts.
JodhpurMehrangarh is cared for by a trust founded by the house of Marwar in 1972. Its museum holds arms, paintings, textiles and palanquins and the fort hosts a festival of folk music each autumn. Umaid Bhawan Palace remains the family home, part museum and part hotel.
BikanerJunagarh fort holds a museum of the desert kingdom and Bikaner is home to the Rajasthan State Archives, among the richest records of the princely states. The Lalgarh Palace is part home, part museum and part hotel. The camel corps raised by the state, the Ganga Risala, is remembered in today's army.
GwaliorJai Vilas Palace remains the home of the Scindia family and part of it is a museum. Among its pieces is a silver train that once carried food and drink around the dining table. The Scindia School, founded in 1897, still teaches inside the walls of Gwalior Fort.
OrchhaIn Orchha's Ram Raja Temple, Rama is worshipped as a reigning king. Tradition holds that Queen Ganesh Kunwari brought the image from Ayodhya and that it would not leave the palace where it was first set down. Each day the king receives a guard of honour. The temple is the living heart of the town.
RamnagarAcross the Ganga from Varanasi, Ramnagar Fort is the seat of the house of Kashi. Each autumn the house hosts a Ramlila of about a month, performed across the town with each episode in its own place and the Maharaja attends on an elephant. UNESCO recognises the Ramlila as intangible cultural heritage.
VadodaraLaxmi Vilas Palace remains the home of the Gaekwads. The Maharaja Fateh Singh Museum on its grounds holds paintings by Raja Ravi Varma made for the court. The Maharaja Sayajirao University, founded in 1949, carries the name of the ruler who made education his cause.
KulluAt the Kullu Dussehra the house of Kullu serves Raghunath, whose image was brought from Ayodhya in the seventeenth century. Gods from hundreds of villages are carried in palanquins to the Dhalpur ground to attend him. The festival begins as Dussehra ends elsewhere and lasts a week.
PuriAt the Rath Yatra in Puri, the Gajapati king sweeps the chariots of Jagannath with a golden broom before they are drawn. The rite, chhera pahanra, shows the king as the first servant of the god. Vast crowds gather each year for the journey of the three deities to the Gundicha temple.
JagdalpurThe Bastar Dussehra in Jagdalpur lasts seventy-five days and honours the goddess Danteshwari rather than Rama. It is held by the house of Bastar together with the tribes of the region, whose headmen have their own roles in the rites. A two-storeyed chariot is built anew each year.
HyderabadChowmahalla Palace, the seat of the Nizams, was restored and opened to the public and received a UNESCO Asia-Pacific award for conservation in 2010. Falaknuma Palace on its hill was restored and opened as a hotel. The jewels of the Nizams are held by the Government of India.
KolhapurThe New Palace in Kolhapur is still the family's home and its ground floor holds the Shahu Chhatrapati Museum. The house carries on the work of Shahu Maharaj through education and social causes. The Ambabai temple, sacred to Mahalakshmi, stands at the heart of the old city.
MysuruAt Mysuru Dasara the Wodeyar house holds its private durbar on the golden throne in the palace. The city celebrates for ten days and on Vijayadashami a procession carries the goddess Chamundeshwari on an elephant. Amba Vilas Palace is lit with nearly a hundred thousand bulbs on festival nights.
ThiruvananthapuramThe house of Travancore serves the Padmanabhaswamy temple as servants of the deity, under the title Padmanabhadasa. In 2011 vaults beneath the temple were opened and found to hold great treasure. After a judgement of the Supreme Court in 2020, the house keeps its role in the temple's care.
ImphalKangla, on the Imphal river, was the seat of the kings of Manipur for centuries. It was handed back to the people of Manipur in 2004 and is held sacred. The Shree Govindajee temple beside the royal palace is served by the house and Manipuri dance is still performed there.