Events

Battles, foundings, treaties and turning points. Click a year to open the map at that moment.

6th century CE32 events by century — click a bar to jump there17th century CE

6th century CE · 1

c. 550 CE	Colossal Buddhas carved at Bamiyan Cultural / religious The gigantic Buddhas of Bamiyan, carved into Afghan cliffs, stood as symbols of Mahayana Buddhism’s reach from India; they were destroyed in 2001.	Bamiyan

7th century CE · 4

634 CE	Aihole inscription of Ravikirti Cultural / religious At Aihole — the earlier Chalukya capital, with over a hundred Hindu, Buddhist and Jain temples — a long Sanskrit inscription by the court poet Ravikirti on the Meguti temple praises the Chalukyas and records Pulakeshin II’s victories over Harsha.	Aihole	Chalukyas of Badami
c. 636 CE	Xuanzang studies at Nalanda Cultural / religious Chinese pilgrim travelled in India c. 630-645.	Nalanda	Pushyabhuti (Vardhana) Dynasty
643 CE	Harsha's assemblies at Kannauj and Prayag Cultural / religious In honour of the Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang, Harsha held an assembly at Kannauj attended by kings and leaders of many sects; every five years he held an assembly at Prayaga where he gave away wealth to Buddhists, Brahmins and the poor.	Kannauj	Pushyabhuti (Vardhana) Dynasty
c. 700 CE	Shore Temple at Mahabalipuram Cultural / religious The Shore Temple at Mamallapuram was built during the reign of the Pallava king Narasimhavarman II.	Mahabalipuram	Pallava Dynasty

8th century CE · 4

c. 740 CE	Lalitaditya's Martand Sun Temple Cultural / religious	Martand	Karkota Dynasty of Kashmir
c. 757 CE	Kailasa temple, Ellora begun Cultural / religious The Rashtrakuta king Krishna I had the Kailashanatha temple — the largest rock-cut temple in India — carved out of a hillside at Ellora; it is not a construction but a gigantic sculpture.	Ellora	Rashtrakuta Empire
c. 788 CE	Adi Shankaracharya born (traditional) Cultural / religious Adi Shankaracharya was the 8th-century scholar and teacher of the Advaita Vedanta school of philosophy.	Kalady
c. 800 CE	Vikramashila university founded Cultural / religious The Pala king Dharmapala founded Vikramashila on the banks of the Ganga in the late 8th century; with six colleges and nearly 3,000 scholars, it remained a great centre of learning for more than four centuries.	Vikramashila	Pala Empire

9th century CE · 1

c. 850 CE	Amoghavarsha's Kavirajamarga Cultural / religious Earliest extant Kannada literary work.	Manyakheta	Rashtrakuta Empire

11th century CE · 2

1010	Brihadisvara Temple completed Cultural / religious Rajaraja I's great temple.	Thanjavur	Chola Empire
1030	Al-Biruni writes the Kitab al-Hind Cultural / religious Al-Biruni’s Kitab-ul-Hind, written in Arabic, is a voluminous text of 80 chapters on subjects such as religion and philosophy, festivals, astronomy, alchemy, social life, weights and measures, laws and metrology.	Ghazni	Ghaznavid Empire

12th century CE · 4

c. 1135	Jagannath temple at Puri begun Cultural / religious In the twelfth century Anantavarman, one of the most important rulers of the Ganga dynasty, decided to build a temple for Purushottama Jagannatha at Puri.	Puri	Eastern Ganga Dynasty
1148	Kalhana begins the Rajatarangini Cultural / religious Kalhana’s long poem on the kings of Kashmir used inscriptions, documents, eyewitness accounts and earlier histories, and was often critical of rulers and their policies.	Kashmir	Lohara Dynasty of Kashmir
1153	The Maldives converts to Islam Cultural / religious	Malé	Sultanate of the Maldives
c. 1190	Minaret of Jam built Cultural / religious	Jam	Ghurid Empire

13th century CE · 2

c. 1250	Konark Sun Temple built Cultural / religious Narasimhadeva I of the Eastern Ganga kingdom repelled several Sultanate inroads and defeated the Delhi Sultanate’s governor of Bengal; partly to commemorate these victories he built the Surya temple at Konark, famous for its carved stone wheels.	Konark	Eastern Ganga Dynasty
1292	Marco Polo visits the Pandya coast Cultural / religious	Kayal	Pandya Empire (Second Empire)

14th century CE · 2

1334	Ibn Battuta arrives in Delhi Cultural / religious The Moroccan traveller Ibn Battuta reached Sind in 1333 and travelled on to Delhi, drawn by Sultan Muhammad bin Tughlaq’s reputation as a generous patron. Impressed by his scholarship, the Sultan made him the qazi (judge) of Delhi, a post he held for several years.	Delhi	Tughlaq Dynasty
1343	Ibn Battuta serves as qadi in the Maldives Cultural / religious Sent by Muhammad bin Tughlaq in 1342 as his envoy to the Mongol ruler of China, Ibn Battuta went by way of the Malabar coast to the Maldives, where he stayed eighteen months as the qazi before moving on to Sri Lanka.	Malé	Sultanate of the Maldives

15th century CE · 5

1420	Nicolò de' Conti visits Vijayanagara Cultural / religious The Italian trader Nicolo de Conti was one of several 15th-century visitors — with the Persian ambassador Abdur Razzaq and the Russian merchant Afanasii Nikitin — whose accounts describe the city of Vijayanagara.	Hampi	Sangama Dynasty
1443	Abdur Razzaq's embassy to Vijayanagara Cultural / religious Abdur Razzaq, an ambassador sent by the ruler of Persia to Calicut, was greatly impressed by Vijayanagara’s seven lines of fortifications, which enclosed not only the city but its farmland and forests: between the walls, he noted, were cultivated fields, gardens and houses.	Hampi	Sangama Dynasty
c. 1450	Kabir's poetry in Varanasi Cultural / religious Kabir, raised by a family of Muslim weavers (julahas) in or near Benares (Varanasi), composed verses that speak of one God and decry the rituals of both Hinduism and Islam; little reliable information about his life survives, but his poems were sung far and wide.	Varanasi
c. 1450	Sixty Dome Mosque at Bagerhat Cultural / religious	Bagerhat	Bengal Sultanate
1469	Birth of Guru Nanak Cultural / religious Founder of Sikhism.	Nankana Sahib

16th century CE · 3

1541	Rohtas Fort begun by Sher Shah Cultural / religious	Rohtas	Sur Empire
1582	Akbar's Din-i-Ilahi Cultural / religious	Fatehpur Sikri	Mughal Empire
1591	Charminar built Cultural / religious	Hyderabad	Golconda Sultanate (Qutb Shahi)

17th century CE · 4

1604	Adi Granth installed at Harmandir Sahib Cultural / religious Guru Arjan compiled the hymns of Baba Guru Nanak and his successors, together with those of poets such as Baba Farid, Ravidas and Kabir, in 1604 — the Adi Granth. The town of Ramdaspur (Amritsar) grew around the central gurdwara, Harmandar Sahib (the Golden Temple).	Amritsar
1632	Taj Mahal construction begins Cultural / religious Shah Jahan built the Taj Mahal at Agra as a mausoleum for his wife Mumtaz Mahal. From 1632 it took nearly twenty years and 20,000 specialised workers to complete; it follows the charbagh garden plan.	Agra	Mughal Empire
1653	Taj Mahal completed Cultural / religious Shah Jahan built the Taj Mahal at Agra as a mausoleum for his wife Mumtaz Mahal. Begun in 1632, it took nearly twenty years and 20,000 specialised workers to complete.	Agra	Mughal Empire
1699	Guru Gobind Singh founds the Khalsa Cultural / religious Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth Sikh Guru, laid the foundation of the Khalsa Panth (‘army of the pure’) and defined its five symbols; the community became a socio-religious and military force.	Anandpur Sahib