List of Empires in Indian History

Every empire in India had a span and they have been competitors for the largest of all time, relying on description and mode of measurement. 

The most probable ways of measuring size include ruling period, area, population, economy, and power. Of these, the ruling period area is the most commonly used because it has a fairly precise range and can be possibly measured with some degree of accuracy. The list of empires in India is not exhaustive because of the lack of available data for various empires; for this reason and because of the inherent improbability in the estimates, no rankings are given. However, you can find their reign in chronological order.

Here, on this page along with the list of all empires in Indian history, we will go through the top 10 empires in India. Besides the list, we will go through the facts on the empires in India timeline.

Indian History - List of Dynasties and Empires

Below you will find the list of dynasties and empires arranged from the past till the last empire :

• Brief History

• TimeLine

• List of Indian Dynasties

• Paleolithic Age

• Bhimbetka

• Mehrgarh

• Indus Valley Civilisation

• Dravidians

• Aryans

• Vedic Civilization

• Gautama Buddha

• Vardhman Mahavir

• Mahajanapadas

• Kuru Kingdom

• Gandhara Kingdom

• Kosala Kingdom

• Kalinga Kingdom

• Achaemenid Empire

• Alexander Invasion

• Haryanka Dynasty

• Shishunaga Dynasty

• Nanda Dynasty

• Mauryan Empire

• Shunga Dynasty

• Kanva Dynasty

• Satavahana Dynasty

• Kuninda Kingdom

• Pandyan Kingdom

• Chola Dynasty

• Chera Dynasty

• Kushan Empire

• Western Kshatrapas

• Gupta Empire

• The Huns

• Kalabhras

• Indo-Greeks

• Indo-Scythians

• Indo-Parthians

• Indo-Sassanians

• Harshavardhana

• Chalukya Dynasty

• Pallavas

• Pratiharas

• Pala Dynasty

• Rashtrakutas

• Rajputs

• Hoysala Dynasty

• Kakatiya Dynasty

• Kalachuri Dynasty

• Vijaynagar Empire

• Delhi Sultanate

• Mughal Empire

• Maratha Empire

• Mysore Kingdom

• Qutub Shahi Dynasty

• Sikh Empire

• British India

Five Greatest Empires In India

Below is the list of the greatest five empires in India:

• Maurya Empire

• Kushan Empire

• Gupta Empire

• Pratihara Empire

• Chola Empire

Now, let us understand the top empires in Indian history.

So, these were the empires listed in India. Now, let us discuss the Top 10 Empires In India along with their ruling period. 

List of Important Empires in Indian History 

Among the top list of empires in India, let us discuss a few of these in detail.

Maurya Empire - The Largest Indian Empire

The Maurya Empire was between 320 and 185 B.C.E. It was the first crucial historical Indian empire, and also the largest one created by an Indian dynasty.

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This empire was established as a result of a state merging in northern India, which formed one state, Magadha, in present-day Bihar, ruling the Ganges plain. In the wake of Alexander the Great’s attack of northwest India, one Chandragupta Maurya conquered Magadha and formed the Maurya Empire.

Initially, the empire was very successful both internally and in regard to foreign policy. Many of its guidelines were set out by Chanakya, Chandragupta’s minister, who wrote a book advocating a strong, centralized, authoritarian state, The Arthashastra. 

After a treaty with Alexander’s generals, the empire took over the territory in Afghanistan and Iran. By the time of Chandragupta’s grandson’s reign, the empire included most of South Asia besides the southernmost parts of it. The Mauryan empire Ashoka is famous for having embraced Buddhism because of revenge after his bloody conquest of Kalinga (today’s Orissa) around 260 B.C.E. This rose the nascent religion.

The Maurya Empire collapsed not too long after Ashoka's demise in 232 B.C.E.  Some historians have argued that the elevation of Buddhism changed into chargeable for this as it isn't as compatible with running a state as Hinduism. However, the empire’s fragmentation well-known shows the issues of actually retaining an empire in an area as diverse as South Asia. Despite Chanakya’s book, the empire depended less on institutions than on able rulers, the dearth of which doomed it and brought about growing local rule.

Kushan Empire

The Kushan Empire ruled between 335 B.C.E. and 375 C.E. This empire was based in the Bactria location of northern Afghanistan by Yuezhi nomads who migrated there from Xinjiang due to Han Dynasty campaigns. Once there, they displaced the Greco-Bactrian state and multiplied over the Hindu Kush mountains into today’s India and Pakistan. At the peak of their empire, they managed most of the Ganges valley and an arc that prolonged via Afghanistan and Central Asia into Xinjiang. It was under their reign that trade routes evolved between India, China, Persia, and Rome.

Under the effect of the Kushans, who ultimately moved their capitals to Peshawar (in Pakistan) and Mathura (in India), Indian influence, mainly Buddhism, became predominant throughout Central Asia. This tendency reached its top under Emperor Kanishka (127-151 C.E.) who convened the 4th Buddhist Council - essentially converting Buddhism into a state religion; Kanishka additionally multiplied his empire deep into central India.

Ultimately, however, the empire was divided into many principalities and was replaced in North India by the revitalizing Hindu Gupta Empire while its Afghan territories became tributary to the Persian Sassanid Empire.

Pratihara Empire

The Pratihara Empire ruling period was 650-1036 C.E. It was additionally called the Gurjara-Pratiharas is little acknowledged in the West and rarely higher acknowledged in India. Yet it's miles one of the most consequential states in South Asian history and its size and period exceeded many other empires indexed here. The empire rose among military clans in western India after the fragmentation of the Gupta Empire. 

This period saw the rise of the Rajputs in the deserts of parts of Gujarat and Rajasthan, who were to play a critical role in the subsequent Indian history. The Rajputs were Kshatriyas (a caste of warriors and rulers) who devoted themselves to warfare, martial prowess, and fortification with a fervour formerly now no longer located in India; in this sense, they resembled the feudal knights rising in Europe across the same time. Rajputs were fiercely independent and always held their fiefs autonomously while also allying themselves to the Mughals and British at numerous times.

Soon after the rise of the Pratiharas, they defeated Arab invaders at the Battle of Rajasthan (738 C.E.), stopping Muslim expansion into India for three hundred years. 

Further, they set up a capital at Kannauj, close to Delhi, and expanded into an important India. In both western and central India, they set up a big number of fortifications, making these regions tough to conquer. More importantly, a more muscular form of Hinduism emerged in this period that furnished the ideological basis for later resistance to Islam in a way that was not feasible with Buddhism.

Like most Indian empires, the Pratihara Empire eventually fragmented into a couple of states, and Mahmud of Ghazni, an invader from Afghanistan, took away a lot of gold and demolished temples, sacked Kannauj in the early eleventh century. The Pratiharas quickly petered out.

Empires in India Timeline: Facts and Information

• During the reign of the Maurya empire, among the legends, Chanakya was known as Kautilya, who travelled to Magadha, a kingdom that was large and militarily mighty and frightened by its neighbours. When this empire was insulted by its king Dhana Nanda, of the Nanda dynasty. Chanakya swore revenge and promised to demolish the Nanda Empire.

• The emperors of the Gupta dynasty discovered free hospitals for their citizens. Sanskrit was at its peak under the Gupta Empire, as it was their official language or the language of the court. Besides this, Takshila and Nalanda universities were set up during the Gupta Empire, during the reign of Kumaragupta-I.