Curated playlist
Metropolitan cities in India
- JodhpurJodhpur sits near the geographic centre of Rajasthan, surrounded by the stark landscape of the Thar Desert, and its old town is painted almost entirely blue. That is the first thing visitors notice: a city rising from sandstone and scrub,…
- JaipurJaipur is painted pink, and the reason is a guest. In 1876, during the rule of Sawai Ram Singh II, the city was coated in pink to welcome Albert Edward, Prince of Wales. The color stuck. Many of the avenues remain pink to this day, and the…
- MaduraiMadurai is often called "Thoongaa Nagaram", which means "the city that never sleeps". It sits on the banks of the Vaigai River in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, and it has been a major settlement for two millennia. Its documented history…
- RajkotRajkot sits at the geographic heart of the Kathiawar peninsula in Gujarat, and its name carries a quiet ambition: "Raj" for royalty, "Kot" for fort. King's Fort. That name was given by a man named Vibhoji Ajoji Jadeja, who in 1612 carved…
- AgraAgra sits on the banks of the Yamuna river, about 230 km south-east of Delhi, and it holds within its borders a monument that has become a symbol of an entire nation. That monument is the Taj Mahal, a mausoleum built between 1632 and 1648…
- KozhikodeKozhikode sits on the Malabar Coast of Kerala, and for centuries it was the place where the world came to trade. On the 20th of May 1498, Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama stepped ashore here, opening the first sea route between Europe and…
- AhmedabadAhmedabad stands on the banks of the Sabarmati River in western India, and on the 26th of February 1411, a sultan put a stake in the ground at a spot called Manek Burj and declared it the foundation of a new capital city. That sultan was…
- PunePune sits at the confluence of the Mula and Mutha rivers, on the western margin of the Deccan Plateau, 560 metres above sea level. For most of its life in English it was spelled Poona, and that older spelling stuck until 1978. It is the…
- DelhiDelhi loses control of nothing more often than its own name. One legend traces it to Dhillu, a king who built a city here in 50 BCE and called it after himself. Another says the Tomaras coined dhili, the Prakrit word for loose, because the…
- MumbaiMumbai has more billionaires than any other city in Asia. Seven islands once sat here, home to Marathi-speaking Koli fishermen who prayed to a goddess named Mumbadevi. Today those islands have been stitched into one peninsula holding an…
- AurangabadAurangabad sits in the Deccan Traps, a landscape of ancient lava flows, and carries more names than almost any city in India. For most of its modern life it was Aurangabad, named for a Mughal emperor. Before that it was Fatehnagar, then…