100 Fun Facts About Indian States

Which state was officially called Madras State until it was renamed on 14 January 1969?

Tamil Nadu, 'Tamil country', took its new name in 1969, yet its capital went on being called Madras for another 27 years and became Chennai only in 1996.

Which state, India's least populous, was the first to convert all its farmland to organic farming?

Sikkim decided in 2003 to go fully organic and finished the switch in 2016, the first Indian state to do so. With about 610,000 people at the 2011 census, it has fewer residents than many Indian cities.

Which state, the smallest by area, rose from union territory to India's 25th state in May 1987?

Goa stayed Portuguese for 14 years after the rest of India became independent, until Indian troops ended more than four centuries of colonial rule in December 1961. Statehood followed on 30 May 1987.

Which official name did Port Blair, capital of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, receive in 2024?

Sri Vijaya Puram became Port Blair's official name on 13 September 2024, a change the government framed as freeing the city from colonial imprints. It remains the territory's capital and largest city.

Which state, split from Punjab on linguistic lines in 1966, surrounds Delhi on three sides?

Haryana came into being on 1 November 1966 under the Punjab Reorganisation Act. Because it wraps Delhi to the north, west and south, much of the state sits inside the National Capital Region.

Which big cat, surviving in the wild only around Gir National Park, is the state animal of Gujarat?

The Asiatic lion has been confined to Gir National Park and its surroundings since the turn of the 20th century, and its Indian population numbered just 411 in 2010 before rising steadily.

Which state, India's second most populous at the 2011 census, was created when Bombay State was split on 1 May 1960?

Maharashtra was born on 1 May 1960 when the Bombay Reorganisation Act divided Bombay State between Marathi and Gujarati speakers, and the date is still kept as Maharashtra Day. Its 2011 population passed 112 million.

Which state, formed in 2014, celebrates Bathukamma, a nine-day festival in which Telugu women build towers of flowers?

Telangana's women stack seasonal flowers into a cone, circle it singing, then set it afloat on a pond. The festival became a badge of the region's identity during the campaign for a separate state.

Which Uttar Pradesh city, founded by Akbar as Ilahabas, dropped the name Allahabad in October 2018?

Prayagraj became the official name on 16 October 2018, restoring the ancient Prayag, 'place of sacrifice', at the river confluence where the Kumbh Mela gathers. Akbar had renamed it when he built his great fort there.

Which language did Nagaland's assembly declare the state's official language in 1967?

English has been the language of government and schooling since 1967 in a state whose 17 major tribes each have a tongue of their own, yet in the market nearly everyone falls back on Nagamese, an Assamese-based creole.

Which state, carved out of Bihar in November 2000, has a name meaning 'the land of forests'?

Jharkhand, 'the land of forests', came into being on 15 November 2000, the birth anniversary of Birsa Munda, the tribal leader who rose against the British in the 1890s. Ranchi is its capital.

Which state, carved from Madhya Pradesh in 2000, is named, by popular theory, for thirty-six forts?

Chhattisgarh gained statehood on 1 November 2000 with Raipur as its capital, and chhattis garh means thirty-six forts, though historians note that the 36 forts have never been identified.

Which species, the tallest of all flying birds, is the state bird of Uttar Pradesh?

The sarus crane stands up to 1.8 m tall, and because many Indians hold it sacred and leave it unharmed, it lives at ease among farmers' flooded rice fields. Most of India's sarus cranes live in Uttar Pradesh's wetlands.

Which 'City of Lakes', the capital of Madhya Pradesh, suffered the Union Carbide gas leak of 1984?

Bhopal's Union Carbide plant leaked methyl isocyanate in December 1984, killing thousands. For most of the century before 1926 the princely state had been ruled by a line of women, the Begums of Bhopal.

Which capital of Bihar occupies the site of Pataliputra, seat of the Maurya and Gupta empires?

Patna began as Pataligrama, a riverside village that King Ajatashatru fortified to face his rivals across the Ganges. The stronghold grew into Pataliputra, from which the Maurya and Gupta emperors ruled.

Which union territory, formed from Leh and Kargil districts in late 2019, was set up without an elected assembly?

Ladakh is run by a centrally appointed Lieutenant Governor, with elected hill councils in Leh and Kargil but no assembly of its own. In September 2025 protests demanding statehood turned deadly in Leh.

Which capital of Uttar Pradesh, the 'City of Nawabs', became the seat of the rulers of Awadh?

Lucknow rose when the fourth Nawab moved his court there from Faizabad in 1775. The British annexed Awadh in 1856, and a year later the city became one of the main centres of the great uprising against them.

Which union territory of four former French enclaves keeps French as an official language?

Puducherry unites four unconnected coastal enclaves, Pondicherry, Karaikal, Mahe and Yanam, that France handed to India de facto in 1954 and formally in 1962. Tamil is official, with Telugu in Yanam and Malayalam in Mahe.

Which state, formed from two hill districts of Assam on 21 January 1972, took Shillong as its capital?

Meghalaya, 'the abode of clouds', was formed from the united Khasi and Jaintia Hills and the Garo Hills, and Shillong, until then the capital of Assam, became its capital instead.

Which planned city replaced Ahmedabad as the capital of Gujarat in 1970?

Gandhinagar, 'Gandhi's city', was named in memory of Mahatma Gandhi, who was born in Gujarat. Built from scratch to take over from Ahmedabad, it was laid out by two Indian town planners who had trained under Le Corbusier.

Which union territory of 36 islands, run as a single district, has its capital at Kavaratti?

Lakshadweep means 'a hundred thousand islands', a generous name for 36 specks of coral of which only ten are inhabited. The whole territory is run as one district from Kavaratti.

Which hill state, India's 18th, gained full statehood on 25 January 1971 with Shimla as its capital?

Himachal Pradesh took as its capital the hill town from which the British had once governed all India: from the 1860s the viceroy and his government moved up to Shimla every summer.

Which state, a kingdom until its 1949 merger with India, is credited with giving polo to Europeans?

Manipur's horseback game, sagol kangjei, was picked up in the 1850s by British tea planters in neighbouring Cachar, and from there it spread across British India and beyond. The kingdom's ruler signed the merger in 1949.

Which state, India's 23rd, won statehood in 1987 under a peace accord with Laldenga's rebel front?

Mizoram's rebel front began as a relief society during the famine of 1959, took up arms in 1966 and made peace twenty years later. Its leader, Laldenga, became the new state's first chief minister.

Which festival unique to Assam comes three times a year, in April, in autumn and in January?

Bihu follows the rice year: the April festival greets the sowing season, the autumn one is the sombre, thrifty Bihu kept while stores run short, and January's is the harvest feast.

Which animal, whose Kaziranga population is the world's largest, is the state animal of Assam?

The Indian rhinoceros was hunted almost to extinction by the early 1900s, yet under protection Kaziranga's herd alone had grown to 2,413 by the 2018 census, about two-thirds of all those alive.

Which classical dance takes its name from a village in the Krishna district of Andhra Pradesh?

Kuchipudi began as dance-drama staged by all-male troupes from its home village, with men taking the women's parts as well. Women were brought into it only in the 20th century.

Which two-day kite-flying festival fills Gujarat's skies each January around Makar Sankranti?

Uttarayan turns Gujarat's rooftops into a battlefield: flyers coat their strings in glue and ground glass to slice rivals' kites out of the sky, a habit deadly enough that sales of the string have been banned.

Which city in the Kashmir Valley, famed for the houseboats of Dal Lake, serves as a summer capital?

Srinagar is capital only in summer: under the Darbar Move, a custom begun in the 1870s, the whole government shifts to Jammu for the winter and back, its files hauled in hundreds of trucks. Paused in 2021, it resumed in 2025.

Which union territory, stripped of its assembly in 1956, regained one under the 69th Amendment?

Delhi lost its first assembly in 1956, when it came under direct central rule. The 69th Amendment gave it a new one, elected in 1993, but kept police, land and public order in the centre's hands.

Which town is the capital of the union territory formed in 2020 from two ex-Portuguese territories?

Daman stayed Portuguese until Indian forces took it in December 1961. Its inland partner, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, had thrown the Portuguese out in 1954 and run its own affairs for seven years.

Which planned city is the shared capital of two states?

Chandigarh was built after 1947, to Le Corbusier's plan, to replace Lahore, the Punjab capital lost to Pakistan. When Punjab was later split in two, both halves kept the city as their capital, and it is run as a union territory.

Which ancient language did Uttarakhand make its second official language in 2010, a first among states?

Sanskrit became Uttarakhand's second official language in 2010, yet hardly anyone grows up speaking it: only about 25,000 people in all India named it as their mother tongue at the 2011 census.

Which Rajasthan folk dance, begun by the Bhil tribe to worship Saraswati, was later embraced by Rajputs?

Ghoomar takes its name from ghoomna, the twirl of the dancers' long skirts, and by custom a new bride dances it on being welcomed into her husband's home.

Which Bihar festival has devotees offer arghya to the sun at dusk and again at the following dawn?

Chhath honours the sun god Surya and the goddess Chhathi Maiya over four days of ritual bathing and fasting, during which devotees go without even water and stand in a river or pond to make their offerings.

Which Guwahati suburb became Assam's capital after Shillong passed to a newly created state?

Dispur brought Assam's government back to Guwahati after almost a century away: the British had governed Assam from there until 1874, when they moved their headquarters up to Shillong.

Which critically endangered bird, the godawan, down to perhaps 150 birds by 2018, is the state bird of Rajasthan?

The great Indian bustard sees well to the sides but poorly straight ahead, so the heavy birds fly into power lines. In 2024 a breeding centre in Rajasthan hatched its first chick by artificial insemination.

Which Punjabi women's folk dance, built on clapping and sung bolis, is often called the counterpart of bhangra?

Giddha is part dance, part mimicry: the women act out scenes from their own village lives, and the verses they sing tell of marriage and in-laws.

Tigers get the fame, but which smaller wild cat of the Sundarbans is West Bengal's state animal?

The fishing cat lives up to its name: unlike most cats it swims readily, with partly webbed front toes and a head built for diving after its prey.

Which state did the 1956 States Reorganisation Act create by joining Travancore-Cochin to the Malabar district of Madras?

Kerala was assembled on 1 November 1956 to unite India's Malayalam speakers, and in 1957 its voters elected one of the first communist governments anywhere to win power at the ballot box.

Which deer, whose Hindi name means 'twelve-horned', is the state animal of Madhya Pradesh?

A barasingha stag's antlers may carry anything from ten to twenty points. Its hard-ground form had fallen to 66 animals at Kanha by 1970, but protection rebuilt the herd until deer could be moved to stock other reserves.

Which raptor, known locally as the baz, is the state bird of Punjab?

The northern goshawk, the baz, was chosen because Sikhs link the hawk with Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth Guru, who is believed to have kept a white one.

Which Tibeto-Burman language is one of Tripura's three official languages alongside Bengali?

Kokborok, the language of the Tripuri people, was treated as a commoners' dialect under Tripura's own kings and gained official status only in 1979. It is now taught in the state's schools.

Which state, the former North-East Frontier Agency, has a name meaning 'province of the dawn-lit mountains'?

Arunachal Pradesh earns its name: villages on its eastern edge, such as Dong, catch India's first sunlight each day. The old frontier agency became a union territory in 1972 and a state on 20 February 1987.

Which city was the capital of Andhra State from its creation in 1953 until the 1956 reorganisation?

Kurnool was the seat of the first state India drew along language lines: Andhra State was conceded after Potti Sriramulu fasted to death demanding a home for Telugu speakers. Hyderabad took over in 1956.

Which language of the Jammu region became one of Jammu and Kashmir's five official languages in 2020?

Dogri, spoken by some 2.6 million people, once had a script of its own, reworked on a maharaja's orders for official papers. It never caught on, and the language is now written in Devanagari.

Which common bird, the same species chosen by Delhi, is the official state bird of Bihar?

The house sparrow is Bihar's state bird, and Delhi adopted the same species in 2012 to promote its conservation as numbers fell in Indian cities.

Under Article 3 of India's Constitution, which body can create a new state or redraw a state's borders?

Parliament needs only a simple law, and the state affected is merely asked for its views: in 2014 a new southern state was carved out although its parent assembly had voted the bill down.

Which dance of a Rajasthan snake-charming community joined UNESCO's intangible heritage list in 2010?

Kalbelia dancers come from a community of snake handlers who lost that trade after India's Wildlife Act of 1972. Their dance, which recalls the old occupation, has become one of the main ways they earn a living.

Which city, home of the Indian Military Academy, became Uttarakhand's temporary capital in 2000?

Dehradun was meant as a stopgap: campaigners for the new hill state had wanted its capital up at Gairsain, midway between its two regions. Twenty years on, in 2020, Gairsain was at last named the summer capital.

How many states did India have once Jammu and Kashmir became a union territory in October 2019?

28 states were left once Parliament split the old state into two union territories, a change that took effect on 31 October 2019. Rajasthan is the largest of the states by land area.

Which state, formed in 1956 by joining Malabar to Travancore-Cochin, elected a communist government the very next year?

Keralam, known as Kerala until its official renaming in August 2026, voted in E. M. S. Namboodiripad's ministry, one of the earliest communist governments anywhere to win power at the ballot box.

Which classical dance-drama of the Malabar Coast, long performed only by men, paints the faces of noble heroes green?

Kathakali make-up follows a set code, so the audience can tell gods, demons and sages apart at a glance, and a red-streaked beard signals an evil nature.

Which temple town's yearly chariot procession for the god Jagannath gave the world the word juggernaut?

Puri hauls huge temple chariots through its streets each year, and old travellers' claims that pilgrims threw themselves under the wheels gave the word its sense of an unstoppable force.

Which Punjab city, founded by the Sikh guru Ram Das, holds both the Golden Temple and Jallianwala Bagh?

Amritsar means 'pool of nectar', after the sacred tank of water that surrounds the shrine. The town was once called Ramdaspur, for its founder.

Which leader, honoured by the world's tallest statue, brought hundreds of princely states into independent India?

Vallabhbhai Patel's statue in Gujarat stands 182 metres tall, a height chosen to match the number of seats in the Gujarat Legislative Assembly.

Which town in the Khasi Hills holds the all-time records for most rainfall in a single month and year?

Cherrapunji, also called Sohra, set both records in 1860 and 1861, yet nearby Mawsynram averages more rain and is usually named the wettest place on Earth.

Which costly spice is grown around Pampore in the Kashmir Valley, which supplies about 90% of India's crop?

Saffron is the dried crimson stigmas of a crocus flower, and gathering them by hand is why the finest grades sell for thousands of dollars a kilogram.

Which river island in Assam became the first island in India to be designated a district, in 2016?

Majuli is recognised by Guinness World Records as the largest inland river island in the world, hemmed in by rivers to its north and south.

Which Uttar Pradesh city on the Ganges, sacred to Hindus, is among the oldest continually inhabited in the world?

Varanasi, also known as Benares or Kashi, lies just southwest of Sarnath, where the Buddha gave his first teaching after attaining enlightenment.

Which West Bengal hill station, famed for its tea, is reached by a UNESCO-listed narrow-gauge mountain railway?

Darjeeling began as a British summer retreat, and by the late 19th century the little steam line was carrying holidaymakers up the slopes and tea chests down.

Which state, known as Mysore State until 1973, grows about 70% of India's coffee?

Karnataka took its present name seventeen years after the Kannada-speaking districts of the neighbouring states were added to Mysore in 1956.

Which state, heartland of the Kalinga that Ashoka conquered, began in 1936 as a province drawn on language lines?

Odisha was spelled Orissa until 2011, and the carnage of the Kalinga War there in 261 BCE is said to have deeply affected Ashoka.

Which arid region, also called the Great Indian Desert, lies mostly in Rajasthan and stretches into Pakistan?

The Thar is the most widely populated desert in the world, home to about 83 people per square kilometre, and the Aravalli Range marks its eastern edge.

Which town at the southern tip of mainland India looks out on a rock memorial to Swami Vivekananda?

Kanyakumari is bordered by the sea on three sides, so visitors can watch the sun both rise and set over the water.

Which Buddhist caves, hidden by jungle until a British tiger-hunting party found them in 1819, hold ancient murals?

Ajanta has 30 caves, cut into a 75-metre wall of rock as monasteries and worship halls between the second century BCE and about 480 CE.

Which Uttarakhand town, where the Beatles studied meditation in 1968, is called the Yoga Capital of the World?

Rishikesh earned the nickname by hosting the International Yoga Festival every March since 1999, three decades after the band stayed at the Maharishi's ashram.

Which ancient Buddhist seat of learning in Bihar, a UNESCO site, was burned by Bakhtiyar Khalji's troops around 1200?

Nalanda is often described as the world's first residential university, though some scholars say that comparing it to a modern university is imprecise.

Which official, appointed by the President of India, serves as the constitutional head of an Indian state?

The Governor takes decisions on the advice of the chief minister and the council of ministers, a role much like the one the President plays for the country as a whole.

Which mountain range, also called the Sahyadri, was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2012 for its biodiversity?

The Western Ghats run 1,600 km down the coast and block the monsoon winds blowing in off the Arabian Sea, which is why the shore below them is so wet.

Which Gujarat district, the largest in India by area, holds a seasonal salt marsh that dries to a snow-white crust?

Kutch means something that is by turns wet and dry, which suits the Rann: it floods in the rains and dries to white salt flats before the next monsoon.

Which river, the second longest in India after the Ganges, rises near Nashik and flows east to the Bay of Bengal?

The Godavari starts just 80 km from the Arabian Sea yet runs the other way, crossing the whole peninsula for 1,465 km before it reaches salt water.

Which tiger reserve, founded in 1936 as Hailey National Park, was the first national park in India?

Jim Corbett, the hunter, naturalist and author it honours, played a leading role in setting the reserve up, and it was briefly called Ramganga National Park before taking his name.

Which West Bengal festival, marking a goddess's victory over the demon Mahishasura, was inscribed by UNESCO in 2021?

Durga Puja runs for ten days, the last five the most prominent, and closes when the images of the goddess are carried off and immersed in water.

Which ten-day harvest festival marks the legendary King Mahabali's yearly return, with boat races and flower carpets?

Onam recalls a generous king who was banished to the netherworld by Vamana, an avatar of Vishnu, and is allowed back once a year to visit his people.

Which Gujarat circle dance, performed on the nine nights of Navaratri, was recognised by UNESCO in December 2023?

Garba dancers ring an object of veneration, often an image of the goddess Amba, and big crowds form concentric circles that can turn in opposite directions.

Which Madhya Pradesh temple group, built by the Chandela dynasty about 1,000 years ago, is famed for erotic carvings?

Khajuraho's erotic scenes are in fact only a few among its many sculptures, and the temples joined the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1986.

Which Bihar town marks the spot where the Buddha is said to have attained enlightenment?

Bodh Gaya drew Emperor Ashoka in about 250 BCE, some 200 years after the event, to found a monastery and shrine beside the sacred fig known as the Bodhi Tree.

Which town north of Delhi was the site of three pivotal battles, fought in 1526, 1556 and 1761?

Panipat's first two battles created and then confirmed the Mughal Empire, while the third saw Ahmad Shah Durrani's Afghans decisively defeat the Marathas.

Which Delhi landmark, begun in 1199 by the founder of the Delhi Sultanate, is the tallest brick minaret in the world?

Qutb Minar stands 72.5 metres tall, and after lightning damaged its top storey in 1369 the sultan Firuz Shah Tughlaq replaced it and added one more.

Which Uttarakhand peak, the highest mountain lying entirely within India, was once thought the tallest in the world?

Nanda Devi held that title until computations in 1808 showed that Dhaulagiri was higher. One taller Indian peak exists, but it straddles the border with Nepal.

Which Gujarat coastal village was the end point of Gandhi's 24-day, 387-kilometre Salt March in 1930?

Dandi is where Gandhi broke the salt laws on the morning of 6 April 1930, setting off civil disobedience by millions of Indians.

Which Rajasthan city, circling Mehrangarh Fort, is nicknamed the Blue City for the colour of its old town?

Jodhpur is named after Rao Jodha, the Rathore chief who founded it in 1459 as the capital of the kingdom of Marwar.

Which colonial prison in the Andaman Islands, nicknamed Kala Pani, had seven wings radiating from a central tower?

Cellular Jail lost four of those wings: Japanese forces dismantled two in the Second World War to build bunkers, and two more made way for a hospital in the 1950s.

Which bird gives its name to the Nagaland gathering held from 1 to 10 December and called the Festival of Festivals?

The hornbill appears in the folklore of most of the state's ethnic groups, so one large, colourful forest bird could stand for all of them at a shared celebration.

Which 13th-century temple on the Bay of Bengal coast was built as a giant stone chariot for the sun god Surya?

Konark was known to European sailors as the Black Pagoda, because its great tiered tower appeared black, and its chariot has immense carved wheels and horses.

Which ruined city near the Tungabhadra River was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire until its sack in 1565?

Hampi is estimated to have been the second-largest city in the world by 1500, after Beijing, and probably the richest in India.

Which brackish lagoon on India's east coast, the world's second-largest coastal lagoon, shelters Irrawaddy dolphins?

Chilika is the Indian subcontinent's largest wintering ground for migratory birds, and in 1981 it became one of India's first two Ramsar wetlands.

Which Arunachal Pradesh monastery, founded in 1680–81 at the wish of the 5th Dalai Lama, is the largest in India?

Tawang also sheltered the 14th Dalai Lama for a few days in 1959, just after he fled Tibet and crossed into India.

Which strip of West Bengal, about 20 km wide at its narrowest, is nicknamed the Chicken's Neck?

The Siliguri Corridor is bordered by Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh, and it is the land bridge that connects India's northeastern states with the rest of the country.

Which activist's death after a 58-day hunger strike in 1952 pushed Nehru to create a state for Telugu speakers?

Potti Sreeramulu is revered as Amarajeevi, the 'Immortal Being', and Gandhi once said that eleven more followers like him would win freedom from British rule in a year.

Who headed the three-man commission whose 1955 report led India to redraw its states along language lines?

Fazl Ali was a judge who in 1951 had become the first to retire from the Supreme Court of India, and his panel spent two years on the study before it reported.

Which town on the Hooghly River, a French enclave until 1950, voted in a 1949 referendum to join India?

Chandannagar's referendum found that 98.5% of residents wished to become part of India, and the town was once known as Farasdanga, the 'land of the French'.

Which dance from Assam's Vaishnavite monasteries was recognised in 2000 as one of the classical dances of India?

Sattriya began inside the one-act plays written by the polymath Sankardev some 500 years ago, and it lives on in sattras, communities of live-in devotees of the sect he established.

Which southernmost tip of Indian territory, on Great Nicobar Island, subsided over four metres in the 2004 earthquake?

Indira Point was renamed in the mid-1980s for the prime minister Indira Gandhi, who had visited its lighthouse in February 1984.

Which semi-domesticated bovine of the northeastern hills is the state animal of both Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland?

The mithun, also called the gayal, is living wealth: among the Galo people a family's riches are measured by how many of the animals it owns.

Which dam across the Mahanadi River, inaugurated by Nehru in 1957, is the longest earthen dam in the world?

Hirakud was built to control flooding in the river's delta as well as for irrigation and power, and with its dykes it stretches for 25.8 km.

Which lake on the basalt of the Deccan Plateau, both salty and highly alkaline, fills a crater made by a meteorite?

Lonar turned from green to reddish-pink within two or three days in June 2020, and scientists dispute its age, with estimates running from about 52,000 to 570,000 years.

Which freshwater lake in India's northeast holds floating mats of vegetation called phumdis, one a national park?

Loktak's largest phumdi covers 40 square kilometres and carries Keibul Lamjao, the only floating national park in the world and the last natural refuge of the sangai deer.

Which Andhra Pradesh island is home to the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, the main spaceport of India's space agency ISRO?

Sriharikota's launch site was simply the Sriharikota Range, or SHAR, until 2002, when it was renamed for a former ISRO chairman but kept the old acronym.