Curated category
Former capital cities in India
- JodhpurRao Jodha, a Rajput chief of the Rathore clan, established the city in 1459. He conquered surrounding territory from the Delhi Sultanate to create what…
- ShahjahanabadIn 1648, the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan ordered his chief architect Ustad Ahmad Lahori to construct a new capital city. This project transformed the site…
- JaipurOn the 18th of November 1727, Sawai Jai Singh II laid the cornerstone for a new capital city. He moved his seat from Amber to Jaipur to accommodate a growing…
- BijapurStone tools discovered in the Bijapur district reveal human presence dating back to the Stone Age. This ancient evidence anchors the region's deep history…
- MaduraiThe 3rd century BCE marked the first documented mention of Madurai in Greek accounts. Megasthenes, the ambassador to the Mauryan Empire, referred to the city…
- RajkotIn 1612, Thakur Sahib Vibhoji Ajoji Jadeja established a settlement that would become Rajkot. He received the land as a jagir from his grandfather Jam Sataji…
- AgraThe Yamuna River flows past a city whose name remains a subject of linguistic debate. Some scholars point to the Hindi word agar, meaning salt pan, because…
- PorbandarPorbandar emerged as a seat of power in the mid-16th century under the Jethwa clan of Rajputs. This princely state remained subordinate to the Mughal…
- Fatehpur SikriEmperor Akbar established the capital of the Mughal Empire in 1571 at a place called Sikri. This decision followed the birth of his son Jahangir in the…
- MurshidabadIn the early 1700s, a man named Murshid Quli Khan stood at the center of a crumbling empire. The Mughal Emperor Farrukhsiyar promoted him to the status of a…
- AhmedabadOn the 26th of February 1411, Sultan Ahmed Shah laid the foundation for a new walled city near the banks of the Sabarmati River.
- RajgirThe name Rajgir means royal mountain, yet its ancient identity was Rājagrhā, or house of the king. This city served as the capital for multiple dynasties…
- PuneA copper plate dated 937 CE bears the earliest known reference to this settlement, calling it Punya-vishaya. The word vishaya means land, while Punaka and…
- AhmednagarIn 1494, Ahmad Nizam Shah I chose a battlefield site to establish Ahmednagar. He had just defeated superior Bahamani forces there.
- AurangabadIn 1610, an Ethiopian military leader named Malik Ambar established a new settlement called Khađkī on the site of modern Aurangabad.
- BidarThe name Bidar appears to be derived from the Kannada word bidiru, which means bamboo. This linguistic root suggests a connection to the local flora that…
- BurhanpurIn 1388, Malik Nasir Khan discovered a small settlement on the north bank of the Tapti River. He named this place Burhanpur after the medieval Sufi saint…