Explore the History of India

Move the slider to any year: every polity recorded for that year is drawn. The leading powers of the current chapter are gold, the Republic of India saffron, European colonial holdings red, other South Asian states in muted colours and neighbouring states grey; 48 chapters carry the story. Borders change only where the dataset records a change, and they fade rather than morph between dated polygons. The slider is stretched so that the dense modern centuries get more room than the long ancient ones. Hover a territory for its name, dates and area; click it to open its Wikipedia article.

Boundaries are approximate reconstructions, with uncertainty, disputed claims and differing degrees of control; pre-modern empires ruled through tributary kings and frontier zones rather than fixed lines, and estimates of the size of the Maurya and Gupta empires differ by up to a factor of two. The Vedic age has no reliably mapped states. The dashed line is India’s modern boundary as claimed by the Government of India, for orientation only; hatched areas in Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh and Aksai Chin are claimed by India but administered by Pakistan or China. The last map is dated 2024.