India Travel Guide

India has many large and famous Cities - below is a list of the most well-known. Other cities are listed under their specific regional section.

New Delhi - the Capital of Ancient Bharat and Modern India - The political capital of India
Bangalore - The Garden City, Pub City, Silicon Valley of India, Land of Silk, Gold, Sandal Wood, Incense etc..
Chennai (Madras) - Hub of South India, Ranks next only to Bangalore in the software exports in India, City of Temples, Cradle of Karnatic Music and Barathanatiyam, Home of famous Marina Beach, Automobile Capital of India.
Mumbai (Bombay) - The financial capital of India, "Bollywood" (Indian Film Industry's hub)
Kolkata (Calcutta) - Known as City of Joy.
Hyderabad - Pearl city of India, and part of the Silicon Plateau with Bangalore
Pune - Pune is located in Western India and is Maharashtra's cultural capital.
Ahmedabad - a City known as Textile Capital of India, is located in Gujarat, a state in the western part of India.

Indian Geography

Mountains, jungles, deserts and beaches, India has it all. It is bounded to the north, northeast and northwest by the snow-capped Himalayas, the largest mountain range in the world. In addition to protecting the country from invaders, they also fed the perennial rivers Ganga, Yamuna (Jamuna) and Sindhu (Indus) on whose plains India's civilization flourished. Though most of the Sindhu is in Pakistan now, five of its tributaries flow through Punjab. The other Himalayan river, the Brahmaputra flows through the northeast, mostly through Assam.

South of Punjab lies the Aravalli range which cuts Rajasthan into two. The western half of Rajasthan is occupied by the Thar desert. The Vindhyas cut across Central India, particularly through Madhya Pradesh and signify the start of the Deccan plateau, which covers almost the whole of the southern peninsula. It is bounded by the Sahyadri range to the west and the Eastern Ghats to the east. The plateau is more arid than the plains, as the rivers that feed the area, such as the Narmada, Godavari and the Kaveri run dry during the summer. Towards the northeast of the Deccan plateau is what used to be a thickly forested area called the Dandakaranya which covers the states of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, the eastern edge of Maharashtra and the northern tip of Andhra Pradesh. This area is still forested, poverty stricken and populated by tribals. This forest acted as a barrier to the invasion of South India.

India has a long coastline. The west coast borders the Arabian Sea and the east coast the Bay of Bengal, both parts of the Indian Ocean.