From Varanasi and the Ganges to the Taj Mahal and Bollywood, the people of the northern plains form the cultural heartland of India.

In the far south of India stands Padmanabhapuram, the largest wooden palace in Asia, the ancient capital of Travancore, whose kings ruled as servants of their god.

Rambagh Palace in Jaipur, the Jewel of the Pink City, was the glamorous home of the maharajas and now a legendary palace hotel. Explore its marble halls, Mughal gardens and royal history.

Ramnagar Fort faces the holy ghats of Varanasi across the Ganges, the ancestral home of the Maharajas of Benares. Explore its Mughal architecture, curious museum, astronomical clock and famous Ramlila.

Shaniwar Wada in Pune was the mighty fortress-seat of the Peshwas of the Maratha Empire. Explore its spiked gates, lost palace, haunting legend and the grandeur of a vanished power.

In the upper valley of the Brahmaputra in Assam live the Ahom people, descendants of a Tai warrior band that crossed the eastern mountains in the thirteenth century and founded

On the remote forested islands of the Andaman archipelago in the Bay of Bengal live the Andamanese, among the most ancient and isolated peoples on earth. Comprising the Great Andamanese,

Among the most distinctive of India’s communities are the Anglo-Indians, a people defined by their mixed British and Indian ancestry, their English mother tongue, and their Christian faith. Once the

Spread across the length of the Indian subcontinent, from Rajasthan to the Deccan, live the Banjara, known in the south as the Lambadi or Lambani and to themselves as Gor.

Across the hills and forests of western and central India, in the Aravallis and the wild country where Rajasthan, Gujarat, and Madhya Pradesh meet, live the Bhils, one of the