List of largest empires in India
List of largest empires ever existed in India (with capital in present day Republic of India). An empire involves the extension of a state's sovereignty over external territories. The values given here should generally be interpreted as being only indicative, and not as determining a precise ranking. The calculation of the land area of a particular empire is controversial. In general, the list centres on the side of including any land area that was explored and explicitly claimed, even if the areas were populated very sparsely or not at all.
| Empire | Approximate maximum extent (Area in km²) |
Approximate date of maximum extent |
Estimate by |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mauryan Empire | 5,000,000 | 250 BCE | Peter Turchin etal.[1] |
| Mughal Empire | 4,000,000 | 1690 CE | Peter Turchin etal.[1] |
| Gupta Empire | 3,500,000 | 400 CE | Peter Turchin etal.[1] |
| India (for comparison) | 3,287,263 | Present | Government of India[2] |
| Delhi Sultanate | 3,200,000 | 1312 CE | Peter Turchin etal.[1] |
| Maratha Empire | 2,500,000 | 1760 CE | Peter Turchin etal.[1] |
| Kushan Empire | 2,000,000 | 200 CE | Peter Turchin etal.[1] |
| Empire of Harsha | 1,000,000 | 648 CE | Peter Turchin etal.[1] |
References
- ^ a b c d e f g Peter Turchin, Thomas D. Hall and Jonathan M. Adams, "East-West Orientation of Historical Empires", Journal of World-Systems Research Vol. 12 (no. 2), pp. 219-229 (2006).
- ^ "India: Profile". National Portal of India. Retrieved 14 October 2015.