Founded in 1727 by Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II as one of India's first planned cities, laid out on Vastu Shastra principles. Its pink-painted buildings gave it the nickname ‘Pink City.’

Delhi has served as the capital of several historical empires, from the Delhi Sultanate through the Mughals to British India. The Red Fort was the seat of Mughal power for over 200 years.

Capital of the Mughal Empire under Akbar and Jahangir, Agra reached its architectural peak when Shah Jahan built the Taj Mahal as a tomb for his wife Mumtaz Mahal.

One of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, Varanasi (Kashi) has been a center of Hindu learning and pilgrimage on the Ganges for millennia.

Founded in 1577 by the fourth Sikh Guru, Guru Ram Das, around a sacred pool. The Golden Temple built at its center makes Amritsar the spiritual home of Sikhism.

Capital of the Kingdom of Mysore under the Wodeyar dynasty for centuries, the city is famed for its Dussehra celebrations and Indo-Saracenic architecture.

Founded in 1591 by Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah, Hyderabad later became the seat of the Nizams, among the wealthiest rulers in the world, blending Deccani, Persian, and Qutb Shahi influences.

One of the oldest cities in Tamil Nadu, sitting on the Thamirabarani river, taking its name from the Nellaiappar Temple.

Known in antiquity as Pataliputra, Patna was the capital of the Mauryan and Gupta empires, one of the largest cities in the ancient world under Chandragupta Maurya.

Rose to prominence as the seat of the Peshwas, prime ministers of the Maratha Empire, in the 18th century. Shaniwar Wada was their fortified residence.

Founded by Brahma Deo Rai of the Kalachuri dynasty, which ruled the region historically known as Dakshina Kosala. Raipur became the capital of Chhattisgarh when the state was carved out of Madhya Pradesh on November 1, 2000.

One of the busiest ports on the Indian Ocean trade route through the Mughal era, Surat became the site of the British East India Company's first Indian trading factory in 1608. It later grew into a major center for textiles and diamond polishing, earning it the names "Silk City" and "Diamond City."

Kozhikode (Calicut) was the seat of the powerful Zamorin dynasty and a key node in the Indian Ocean spice trade for centuries. In 1498, Vasco da Gama landed at nearby Kappad beach, opening the first direct sea route between Europe and India.

Puri is one of Hinduism's Char Dham pilgrimage sites, home to the Jagannath Temple built in the 12th century under the Eastern Ganga dynasty. It hosts the annual Rath Yatra chariot festival, one of the largest religious processions in the world.

Founded in 1568 by Kalyan Chand of the Chand dynasty, Almora was the seat of the Kumaon kingdom into the late 18th century, later held by Gorkha forces until the British took it in the 1814 Anglo-Gorkha War. Set on a Himalayan ridge, it remains the cultural capital of Kumaon.

Panaji appears in an 1059 CE Kadamba-dynasty copper plate; its fort was stormed by the Portuguese in 1510. After an epidemic devastated Old Goa, the Portuguese rebuilt around Panaji as the new capital of Portuguese India in the 18th century, and it has been Goa's state capital since 1987.

Present-day Srinagar traces to Parvarapura, founded in the 6th century by King Pravarasena II at the base of Hari Parbat. Sultanate rulers built the Jamia Masjid in 1402, and Mughal emperors later laid out the Shalimar and Nishat gardens along the lake.

Ruled by the Pallavas, Cholas, and Pandyas before French trader François Martin founded a settlement in 1674, Puducherry stayed France's chief Indian colony until administration passed to India in 1954. Poet-freedom fighter Subramania Bharati lived here in exile from 1908 to 1918.

Imphal was the seat of the Meitei Ningthouja dynasty kings for centuries, centered on Kangla Fort, until the British took control after the 1891 Anglo-Manipur War. In 1944 it was the site of the Battle of Imphal, where Allied forces halted Japan's attempted invasion of India.

Guwahati, on the banks of the Brahmaputra, was known in antiquity as Pragjyotishpura and served as capital of the ancient Kamarupa kingdom. It is today Assam's largest city and the gateway to Northeast India, home to the Kamakhya Temple, one of the subcontinent's oldest Shakti Peetha shrines.

Tirupati grew around the Tirumala Venkateswara Temple, one of the world's most-visited religious sites, with inscriptions and endowments dating to the Pallava, Chola, and Vijayanagara periods.

Gwalior grew around its hilltop fort, ruled successively by the Tomars, Mughals, and the Maratha Scindia dynasty. It is the seat of the Gwalior Gharana of Hindustani classical music and home to Tansen's tomb; UNESCO named it a "City of Music" in 2023.

Ranchi grew into a colonial administrative hub after the South-West Frontier Agency set up headquarters here in 1833, and later served as Bihar's summer capital. It became Jharkhand's capital when the state was carved out on November 15, 2000, and is nicknamed the "City of Waterfalls" for cascades like Hundru Falls on its outskirts.

Kurukshetra, also called Dharmakshetra, is named after King Kuru and revered as the battlefield of the Mahabharata war, where Krishna delivered the Bhagavad Gita to Arjuna at Jyotisar. It remains a major pilgrimage site anchored by Brahma Sarovar, one of Asia's largest man-made sacred ponds.

The Kullu valley appears in the Ramayana, Mahabharata, and Puranas, and the Chinese monk Xuanzang described it around 634-635 CE as a fertile valley ringed by mountains and monasteries. In 1650, the idol of Raghunath was brought from Ayodhya and enshrined here, and it still anchors Kullu's famous Dussehra festival today.

An 8th-century sun temple built under the Karkota king Lalitaditya Muktapida and later destroyed by Sultan Sikandar Shah Miri, its ruins near Anantnag became the stage for Haider's "Bismil," filmed among the same stones. The town's own name traces to a spring described in the ancient Nilamata Purana.

Built to commemorate King George V's 1911 landing and completed in 1924, the Gateway of India stands where seven fishing islets were reclaimed into one city after the British took control in 1661. Mumbai grew into one of the Arabian Sea's largest ports once the Suez Canal opened in 1869.

Mainpuri sits in the ancient Dakshina Panchala region and the Braj cultural belt associated with Krishna, later held by Chauhan Rajputs who fled Delhi after 1192. It became a center of revolutionary activity in 1918, when Ram Prasad Bismil organized the Mainpuri Conspiracy and printed his pamphlet-poem "Mainpuri Ki Pratigya."