108 Fun Facts About India

What is the capital of India?

New Delhi exists because George V announced in December 1911 that British India's capital would leave Calcutta; the planned city took two decades to build and was inaugurated in 1931.

India is the seventh-largest country by area; which country ranks sixth?

Australia is sixth, with more than twice India's area, yet India has roughly fifty times as many people; Argentina, in eighth place, is the next country below India.

On what date did India gain independence from Britain?

15 August 1947 was Lord Mountbatten's choice: the last viceroy picked the second anniversary of Japan's surrender in the Second World War. 26 January 1950 became Republic Day.

Which river gives India its name?

The Greeks called the river Indos; ironically most of the Indus now flows through Pakistan. The constitution's other name for the country is Bharat.

Which ancient urban culture flourished in the subcontinent around 2500-1900 BCE?

The Indus Valley Civilisation laid out Mohenjo-daro and Harappa on street grids with elaborate drains, yet its script has never been deciphered, so its people's own words remain unread.

Which state, capital Hyderabad, left Andhra Pradesh in 2014?

Telangana became India's 29th state on 2 June 2014, after a campaign that peaked when K. Chandrashekar Rao began a fast unto death in 2009; he became its first chief minister.

Which is India's most populous state, with almost 200 million people at the 2011 census?

Uttar Pradesh counted almost 200 million people in 2011, about a sixth of India, so it sends 80 members to the Lok Sabha, far more than any other state.

Which language's planned 1965 phase-out from Indian government business was shelved after protests in the south?

English was meant to serve the central government for only 15 years after the constitution took effect in 1950; as the deadline neared, protests in Madras state won assurances that it would stay.

India's founding legal charter, in force since 26 January 1950, holds which world record?

The longest written national constitution: it originally ran to 395 articles and 22 parts, took nearly three years to draft, and was hand-lettered by calligrapher Prem Behari Narain Raizada.

Which symbol of Gandhi's movement did the Ashoka Chakra replace on India's flag?

A spinning wheel, the charkha, stood for Gandhi's drive to make Indians self-reliant by spinning their own cloth; the assembly swapped it for Ashoka's 24-spoke wheel weeks before independence.

Who presented Gandhi with the 1921 flag design that grew into India's national tricolour?

Pingali Venkayya showed Gandhi a red and green flag at Vijayawada in 1921; Gandhi had a white band added for India's other communities, and the design grew into the national flag.

What is the national animal of India?

Bengal tiger: it took the title from the Asiatic lion in the early 1970s; one reason given was that tigers ranged across many Indian states while the lion survived only in Gujarat's Gir forest.

Which bird is India's national bird?

The Indian peafowl was chosen over the great Indian bustard; ornithologist Salim Ali argued the title was meant to rally protection for a threatened bird and called the peacock's selection misconceived.

India's national anthem, 'Jana Gana Mana', was composed by whom?

Rabindranath Tagore wrote 'Jana Gana Mana' in 1911; his 'Amar Shonar Bangla' later became Bangladesh's anthem. The separate national song is Bankim Chandra Chatterjee's 'Vande Mataram'.

In 1913 the poet of Gitanjali became the first non-European to win which honour?

The Nobel Prize in Literature honoured Gitanjali in the poet's own translation; he later gave up his British knighthood in protest at the 1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacre.

Shah Jahan built the Taj Mahal as a tomb for whom?

His wife Mumtaz Mahal died in 1631 giving birth to their fourteenth child; Shah Jahan began her white-marble tomb the next year and was eventually laid to rest beside her.

The Taj Mahal stands on the bank of which river, which also flows through Delhi?

The Yamuna separates the tomb from the Mehtab Bagh, a 'moonlight garden' matching the Taj's gardens in width and alignment; excavations there dispelled the myth that Shah Jahan planned a black marble twin on that bank.

Who founded the Mughal Empire after defeating the Sultan of Delhi at the First Battle of Panipat in 1526?

Babur, a descendant of both Timur and Genghis Khan, founded the dynasty in 1526 and wrote a candid memoir, the Baburnama; the Mughal court language was Persian.

Which emperor, the son who deposed Shah Jahan, pushed the Mughal Empire to its greatest extent?

Aurangzeb confined his father in Agra in 1658, then spent more than two decades at war in the Deccan; the conquests stretched the empire across almost the whole subcontinent at ruinous cost.

Emperor Ashoka renounced war in remorse after his bloody conquest of which region?

Kalinga, on today's Odisha coast, fell around 260 BCE; Ashoka's own edict counts 100,000 killed and 150,000 deported, and says the suffering turned him towards the teaching of dhamma.

Gandhi's 1930 Salt March ran from Ahmedabad to which coastal village?

Dandi, on the Gujarat coast, where on 6 April 1930 he scooped salt from the shore to break the law behind the British monopoly; the walk from Sabarmati Ashram took 24 days.

Gandhi's birthday, 2 October, is observed worldwide as what?

The International Day of Non-Violence dates from 2007, when India put the resolution to the UN General Assembly backed by 140 co-sponsoring countries; in India the date is the holiday Gandhi Jayanti.

Before returning to India, Gandhi spent 21 years practising law and organising protest in which country?

South Africa, from 1893 to 1914: thrown off a train at Pietermaritzburg in 1893 for refusing to leave a first-class carriage, he stayed on to campaign against racial discrimination.

Who was India's first prime minister?

Jawaharlal Nehru marked independence with his 'Tryst with Destiny' speech, then led the Congress party to victory in the first three general elections and died in office in 1964.

Diwali, the festival of lights, is traditionally linked to the homecoming of which figure to Ayodhya?

Rama's return to Ayodhya after 14 years of exile is one of several stories behind the lamps; in another popular tradition, Diwali marks Krishna's killing of the demon Narakasura.

Holi, India's festival of colours, marks the arrival of which season?

Spring: Holi falls on the full moon of Phalguna, usually in March, as winter ends; the night before, bonfires called Holika Dahan burn to mark good over evil.

Holi's association with Radha and Krishna makes which region its spiritual heartland?

Braj, the region around Mathura and Vrindavan where Krishna is said to have grown up; in its town of Barsana women famously chase men with sticks in the 'Lathmar Holi'.

Which Indian shrine runs a volunteer kitchen serving about 100,000 free meals a day?

The Golden Temple's langar seats everyone together on the floor, a Sikh practice meant to set aside distinctions of religion, caste and wealth; volunteers cook and serve the meals.

Which gathering, rotating among Prayagraj, Haridwar, Nashik and Ujjain, is the world's largest?

Kumbh Mela means the festival of the sacred pitcher: pilgrims bathe at river sites where, in Hindu legend, drops of the nectar of immortality fell, and UNESCO listed it in 2017.

Bollywood is the nickname for India's film industry in which language?

Hindi films made in Mumbai are only one branch of Indian cinema: Tamil films come from Chennai's 'Kollywood' and Telugu films from studios in Hyderabad.

India's highest film award is named after which director of the 1913 Raja Harishchandra?

Dadasaheb Phalke decided to put Hindu legends on screen after watching a film about the life of Christ; with women unwilling to act on camera, a young male actor played his first queen.

Satyajit Ray's 1955 debut Pather Panchali was the first film of which celebrated series?

The Apu Trilogy began on a shoestring: Ray gave up his record collection and his wife pawned her jewellery to keep Pather Panchali shooting, until the West Bengal government put up the money to finish it.

India won its first Cricket World Cup in 1983 under which captain?

Kapil Dev kept India in the tournament with 175 not out after a collapse to 17 for 5 against Zimbabwe; in the final his side were all out for 183 and still beat the West Indies, the defending champions.

Sachin Tendulkar retired in 2013 with how many international centuries?

100 took a year to complete: after the 99th in March 2011, the last came against Bangladesh in March 2012, in a match India lost. The total was 51 Test centuries and 49 in one-day internationals.

At which ground in England did India play its first Test match, in June 1932?

Lord's saw a late change of leader: the tour captain, the Maharaja of Porbandar, and his deputy both stood down on the eve of the match, making C. K. Nayudu India's first Test captain. England won.

In 2023 Chandrayaan-3 made India the first country to land a spacecraft where?

Near the Moon's south pole, a hard target: Russia's Luna-25 had crashed days earlier, and India's own Chandrayaan-2 lander was lost in 2019. The draw is water ice that could supply future crews.

What did ISRO's Mangalyaan probe achieve in 2014 that no other nation had?

Reached Mars orbit at the first attempt: Mangalyaan arrived on 24 September 2014, and Narendra Modi had quipped that the whole mission cost less than Hollywood spent making the space film Gravity.

India's first satellite, launched by the Soviet Union in 1975, was named after which ancient astronomer?

Aryabhata argued around 500 CE that the stars only seem to move because the Earth spins on its axis; India put his name on its first satellite almost 1,500 years later.

A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, India's 11th president, was popularly known by which nickname?

The Missile Man of India, for leading the Agni and Prithvi programmes: he spent four decades at DRDO and ISRO, helped run the 1998 Pokhran-II nuclear tests, and died giving a lecture at IIM Shillong in 2015.

Which Indian mathematician spotted that taxi number 1729 is the smallest sum of two cubes in two ways?

Srinivasa Ramanujan, ill in hospital, set G. H. Hardy straight: 1729 is 1³ + 12³ and also 9³ + 10³. Largely self-taught, he had come to Cambridge after posting Hardy his theorems in 1913.

The 7th-century mathematician Brahmagupta is famed for setting out rules of arithmetic for which number?

Zero is treated as a number in its own right in Brahmagupta's treatise of 628, with rules for adding, subtracting and multiplying it; he stumbled on division, ruling that zero divided by zero is zero.

Chess descends from which game that emerged in ancient India?

Chaturanga, whose name means 'four divisions' of the army - infantry, cavalry, elephants and chariots - which became pawn, knight, bishop and rook; it reached Persia as chatrang.

Which mountain on India's border with Nepal is the third-highest in the world?

Kangchenjunga, at 8,586 metres, was first climbed in 1955 by a British team that stopped a few yards short of the top, out of respect for the Sikkimese, who hold the summit sacred.

Mawsynram and Cherrapunji, rivals for the title of wettest place on Earth, both lie in which Indian state?

Meghalaya, the 'abode of clouds', is India's wettest state: Cherrapunji long held the wettest-place title and still owns the record for a single year, set in 1860-61, but nearby Mawsynram now averages more rain.

The Sundarbans delta, shared with Bangladesh, is home to the world's largest what?

Mangrove forest, about 10,000 square kilometres of it across India and Bangladesh; the trees act as a shelter belt, shielding millions of people inland from cyclones and tidal surges.

India's financial capital and Bollywood's home officially dropped which former name in 1995?

Bombay, the name the city carried through the British colonial period, gave way to Mumbai in 1995, yet the old name survives in its institutions: the High Court is still the Bombay High Court.

India's first passenger train, in 1853, ran 34 km from Mumbai to which neighbouring town?

Thane: on 16 April 1853 a train of 14 carriages left Bori Bunder to a 21-gun salute, hauled by three locomotives and carrying some 400 invited guests.

Unveiled in 2018 as the world's tallest statue, Gujarat's 182-metre Statue of Unity depicts whom?

Sardar Patel, India's first deputy prime minister, persuaded hundreds of princely states to join the new nation, the unity the statue's name honours; it stands facing the Sardar Sarovar Dam.

Which Indian city is nicknamed the 'Pink City' for its terracotta-coloured old town?

Jaipur's old city is said to have been painted pink, a colour of hospitality, to welcome the Prince of Wales in 1876, and its avenues have stayed that way. Jodhpur is the Blue City and Jaisalmer the Golden City.

Which staples of Indian cooking today only reached India after the Portuguese arrived?

Chilli, potato and tomato are all New World crops that Portuguese traders brought after 1498; before then Indian heat came from black pepper and long pepper.

Which curry did Britain's foreign secretary Robin Cook call 'a true British national dish' in a 2001 speech?

Chicken tikka masala, Cook argued, shows how Britain absorbs outside influences: chicken tikka is an Indian dish, and the masala sauce was added because the British like their meat served in gravy.

Which state is India's largest by area?

Rajasthan, at about 342,000 square kilometres, took the title only in 2000, when Madhya Pradesh lost its south-east to the new state of Chhattisgarh; the Thar Desert covers much of its west.

Which neighbouring country is separated from India by the Palk Strait?

Sri Lanka may once have been within walking distance: the chain of shoals called Adam's Bridge is said to have been passable on foot until storms breached it in the 15th century.

What is the southernmost tip of mainland India called?

Kanyakumari, formerly Cape Comorin, faces a memorial built in 1970 on a rock just offshore, where the monk Swami Vivekananda is said to have meditated and attained enlightenment.

Which Indian state markets itself to tourists as 'God's Own Country'?

Kerala's slogan is credited to adman Walter Mendez, said to have coined it in 1989 for the state tourism department; in August 2026 the state's official name became Keralam, as it is called in Malayalam.

India's 1974 nuclear test is known by which name?

Operation Smiling Buddha was presented as a peaceful nuclear explosion, but it alarmed other nuclear exporters into forming the Nuclear Suppliers Group to control the trade.

Which Indian city is nicknamed the 'Silicon Valley of India' for its IT industry?

Bengaluru's software boom had older roots: an aircraft works opened there around the Second World War, and from the 1950s the state invested heavily in public-sector industry and education. Infosys and Wipro came later.

Which jurist, born into a caste then treated as untouchable, chaired the committee that drafted India's constitution?

B. R. Ambedkar was segregated and humiliated for his caste as a schoolboy; the constitution he steered through the assembly abolished untouchability in its Article 17.

Which everyday English word comes from a Hindi instruction to press and knead the muscles?

Shampoo meant a massage when it entered English in 1762. The word only came to mean washing the hair about a century later.

Which board game began in ancient India as Moksha Patam, a lesson in virtue and vice?

Snakes and Ladders used ladders for virtues and snakes for vices on a journey through life. It reached Britain in the 1890s, and Milton Bradley later sold it as Chutes and Ladders.

Operation Flood, the 'White Revolution' launched in 1970, made India the world's largest producer of which food?

Milk production rose until India passed the United States as the world's top producer in 1998. A national grid linked village dairies to more than 700 towns and cities.

Which diamond, surrendered to Queen Victoria in 1849 by Punjab's boy maharaja, is displayed at the Tower of London?

Koh-i-Noor is Persian for 'Mountain of Light'. India, Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan have all claimed ownership, while Britain maintains it was acquired legally by treaty.

Which isolated tribe on an Andaman island is shielded by an Indian law banning travel within five kilometres?

The Sentinelese have had minimal contact with outsiders and are usually hostile to anyone who lands. India keeps a constant armed patrol in the surrounding waters to prevent intrusions.

Ravi Shankar, a major influence on Beatles guitarist George Harrison, was a virtuoso of which stringed instrument?

Sitar sounds entered Western pop when Harrison bought one and played it on the Beatles' 'Norwegian Wood'. Shankar went on to perform at Woodstock in 1969.

In which sport did India's men win six consecutive Olympic gold medals between 1928 and 1956?

Field hockey has brought India a record eight Olympic golds in the men's event. Pakistan ended the streak by beating India in the 1960 final in Rome.

Gir National Park in Gujarat shelters the world's only wild population of which big cat?

The Asiatic lion ranged from Saudi Arabia and Turkey to central India until the 19th century. Its numbers have climbed steadily since a count of just 411 animals in 2010.

Which ancient Indian practice has been honoured with its own United Nations international day every 21 June since 2015?

Yoga got its day after 177 nations co-sponsored India's proposal, a record for a resolution of its kind. The date was picked as the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere.

Which planned city, designed by Swiss-French architect Le Corbusier, serves as the capital of both Punjab and Haryana?

Chandigarh belongs to neither state: it is a union territory in its own right. It was built after Partition left Punjab's old capital, Lahore, in Pakistan.

Which river, the most sacred to Hindus, was declared India's 'National River' in 2008?

The Ganges, alone among India's rivers, holds the title. It came with a basin authority given greater powers to protect the water from pollution.

Which mountain range along India's northern edge takes its name from the Sanskrit for 'abode of snow'?

Himalayas joins the Sanskrit hima, 'frost' or 'cold', with alaya, 'dwelling'. The range was pushed up when the Indian tectonic plate collided with Eurasia.

Which Indian state, the country's smallest by area, was ruled by Portugal for about 450 years until 1961?

Goa stayed Portuguese for fourteen years after the British left, until India annexed it in December 1961. Its Bom Jesus Basilica and old churches are a World Heritage Site.

Which Hindu holy city, long known as Benares, is famed for riverside ghats where the dead are cremated?

Varanasi is one of seven holy cities said to grant moksha. In Hindu tradition, a person who dies there is freed from the cycle of death and rebirth.

Which port city on the Hooghly River served as the capital of British India until 1911?

Kolkata was spelled Calcutta in English until 2001, when the official name changed to match Bengali pronunciation. It is the capital of West Bengal.

Which desert, straddling the border of India and Pakistan, is the most densely populated in the world?

The Thar, also called the Great Indian Desert, holds about 83 people per square kilometre. Most of its people live by herding animals, limited farming and handicrafts.

At which Mughal-era landmark does India's prime minister raise the flag and address the nation every Independence Day?

The Red Fort was commissioned by Shah Jahan when he moved the Mughal capital from Agra. The prime minister raises the tricolour at its main gate, then speaks from the ramparts.

Who was the last British Viceroy of India, overseeing the 1947 handover of power and Partition?

Louis Mountbatten brought the date of partition forward from June 1948 by ten months. He then stayed on as independent India's first governor-general.

Who became India's first female prime minister in 1966 and later ruled by decree during the 1975 Emergency?

Indira Gandhi was no relation to Mahatma Gandhi: the surname came from her husband, Feroze. Two of her own bodyguards assassinated her in 1984.

Which Mughal emperor founded the city of Fatehpur Sikri and hosted debates there among scholars of many faiths?

Akbar opened his Ibadat Khana, or House of Worship, to people of all religions and even atheists. He ended the debates in 1582 after they turned bitter.

Which Portuguese explorer opened the first sea route from Europe to India, landing near Calicut in 1498?

Vasco da Gama rounded the Cape of Good Hope, then crossed the Indian Ocean from Malindi in Kenya. His violence towards local traders later brought commerce on the Malabar Coast to a standstill.

Robert Clive's 1757 victory over the Nawab of Bengal at which battle began East India Company rule in India?

Plassey was won by bribery as much as by fighting: Clive paid off Mir Jafar, the Nawab's commander-in-chief, and promised to make him Nawab instead.

In which public garden in Amritsar did troops under Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer fire on a peaceful crowd in 1919?

Jallianwala Bagh was full of protesters and pilgrims at the annual Baisakhi fair. Dyer blocked the exit and kept his troops firing even as people tried to flee.

Gandhi's 'Do or Die' speech of 1942 launched which mass campaign demanding an immediate end to British rule?

Quit India was met with mass arrests: the colonial government jailed tens of thousands of leaders and kept them imprisoned until 1945.

Which nationalist leader, known as Netaji, revived the Indian National Army with Japanese support during World War II?

Subhas Chandra Bose built the force from Indian prisoners of war captured by Japan at Singapore. He died of burns after his plane crashed in Taiwan in 1945.

Which queen of Jhansi became a leading figure of the 1857 rebellion and died in battle at Gwalior?

Lakshmibai had seen the East India Company annex Jhansi under its Doctrine of Lapse, after it refused to recognise her adopted son as heir.

Which ruler, nicknamed the Tiger of Mysore, pioneered iron-cased rocket artillery against British forces?

Tipu Sultan adopted the tiger as the emblem of his rule. His rockets flew against the British at the Battle of Pollilur and the Siege of Srirangapatna.

Chandragupta founded which empire around 320 BCE, later ruled by his grandson Ashoka?

The Maurya Empire lasted until 185 BCE. Under Ashoka it briefly controlled the major cities and trade arteries of the whole subcontinent except the deep south.

Which ancient Buddhist monastery-university in Bihar taught pilgrims like China's Xuanzang before it burned around 1200?

Nalanda had a renowned library, a key source of the Sanskrit texts that pilgrims carried to East Asia. A fire blamed on the troops of Bakhtiyar Khalji is cited as the leading cause of its demise.

At which pilgrimage site in Bihar is the Buddha said to have attained enlightenment under a tree?

Bodh Gaya grew up around the Mahabodhi Temple complex, which holds the Bodhi Tree and the Vajrasana, or 'diamond throne'.

Which Sanskrit epic, about ten times the length of the Iliad and Odyssey combined, contains the Bhagavad Gita?

The Mahabharata runs to about 1.8 million words. It is traditionally ascribed to the sage Vyasa, who also appears in the story as a major figure.

Hindi, Marathi and Nepali are all written in which script, recognisable by the line running along the top?

Devanagari is the fourth most widely adopted writing system in the world, used for more than 120 languages. Its 48 primary characters are written from left to right.

Which Dravidian language, attested since about 300 BCE, was the first to be declared a classical language of India?

Tamil won the status in 2004 after a political campaign backed by several Tamil associations. It is also an official language of Singapore.

Which composer, nicknamed the 'Mozart of Madras', won two Academy Awards for his Slumdog Millionaire music?

A. R. Rahman took Best Original Score and Best Original Song, for 'Jai Ho', at the 81st Academy Awards. He has also won two Grammys, a BAFTA and a Golden Globe.

'Naatu Naatu', the first song from an Indian film to win the Best Original Song Oscar, comes from which Telugu film?

RRR filmed the dance number at Kyiv's Mariinskyi Palace, the official residence of Ukraine's president, a few months before the Russian invasion.

Which Hindu god's festival, revived by Tilak to sidestep British bans on gatherings, ends with idols immersed in water?

Ganesha's idols are carried in procession on the tenth day and immersed in a river or the sea. Mumbai alone immerses around 150,000 of them a year.

At which Hindu festival do sisters tie a protective amulet around their brothers' wrists?

Raksha Bandhan has brothers give a gift in return. Rakhis tied between people who are not blood relatives have created voluntary kinships across caste, class and religion.

Which thin, crêpe-like South Indian staple is made from a fermented batter of ground black gram and rice?

Dosa's precise origins are unknown, though popular tradition links it to Udupi in Karnataka, probably because Udupi restaurants made the dish famous.

Which hill region grows a tea marketed as the 'Champagne of teas' and protected by a geographical indication since 2004?

Darjeeling tea comes from the Chinese variety of the tea plant, first planted in the region in the mid-1800s. Its leaves are picked in four seasonal flushes.

Which goddess's victory over the buffalo demon Mahishasura is celebrated in eastern India's great autumn festival?

Durga is worshipped in temporary structures called pandals, put up in community squares and by roadsides. UNESCO added the festival to its intangible heritage list in 2021.

In which contact sport, codified in India in the 1920s, must a lone raider tag opponents on a single breath?

Kabaddi is also the word the raider must keep chanting, to show the referees that no fresh breath is drawn. It is the national sport of Bangladesh.

Who captained India to the 2007 World Twenty20, the 2011 Cricket World Cup and the 2013 Champions Trophy?

MS Dhoni spent 2001 to 2003 as a travelling ticket examiner for Indian Railways at Kharagpur before breaking into the national team.

Neeraj Chopra won India's first Olympic athletics gold medal at the Tokyo Games in which event?

Javelin throw gold came with Chopra's second attempt in the final, a mark of 87.58 metres. No Asian javelin thrower had won the Olympic title before him.

Which physicist became the first Asian to win a Nobel Prize in science for work on the scattering of light?

C. V. Raman won the 1930 physics prize for the effect that bears his name. He had expected it sooner and was disappointed when the 1928 and 1929 prizes went to others.

Who became the first Indian in space, flying aboard the Soviet Soyuz T-11 mission in 1984?

Rakesh Sharma, asked by the prime minister how India looked from orbit, replied 'Sare Jahan Se Accha', a line of poetry meaning better than the whole world.

India's floating post office, inaugurated in 2011, is moored on which stretch of water in Srinagar?

Dal Lake owes its lavish houseboats to the British, who commissioned them to get around a ruler's restriction on building houses in the Kashmir valley.

Majuli in Assam, recognised by Guinness as the world's largest inland river island, lies in which great river?

Brahmaputra waters surround an island big enough to be run as its own district: in 2016 Majuli became the first island in India given that status.

Which British lawyer, who had never been east of Paris, was given five weeks to draw the India–Pakistan border?

Cyril Radcliffe chaired both boundary committees, and the frontier still bears his name. He had to leave as many Sikhs and Hindus in India, and Muslims in Pakistan, as he could.

Which 13th-century temple in Odisha is built as a giant stone chariot, complete with carved wheels and horses?

Konark's temple honours the sun god Surya. European sailors called it the Black Pagoda because its great tiered tower looked black.

Which ruined city in Karnataka was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire until armies destroyed it in 1565?

Hampi is estimated to have been the world's second-largest city around 1500, after Beijing, and drew traders from Persia and Portugal.