States & UTs
All 28 states and 8 union territories — capital, region, languages, living traditions, festivals and representative dress and textiles.
36 entries shown.
South India · State
Capital: Amaravati
A long Bay of Bengal coastline, the Eastern Ghats and the Krishna–Godavari delta shape a state known for temple towns, Buddhist archaeology and a cuisine built on chilli, tamarind and rice.
Culture, festivals & dressNortheast India · State
Capital: Itanagar
India's easternmost state rises from subtropical forest to high Himalaya, and is home to dozens of tribes with distinct languages, weaves and belief systems.
Culture, festivals & dressNortheast India · State
Capital: Dispur
The Brahmaputra valley carries tea gardens, river islands and one-horned rhino grassland, with a Vaishnavite cultural tradition centred on satras.
Culture, festivals & dressCentral & East India · State
Capital: Patna
The Ganga plains here hold the roots of Buddhism and Jainism, the ruins of Nalanda's monastic university, and a strong folk-art and folk-music tradition.
Culture, festivals & dressCentral & East India · State
Capital: Raipur
Sal forest, waterfalls and a large Adivasi population give Chhattisgarh a distinct tribal-art and weekly-market culture, alongside ancient temple sites.
Culture, festivals & dressWest India · State
Capital: Panaji
India's smallest state by area layers four centuries of Portuguese rule over Konkani village life, with churches, temples, spice plantations and a long beach coast.
Culture, festivals & dressWest India · State
Capital: Gandhinagar
From Harappan Dholavira to the white salt desert of Kutch and the last wild Asiatic lions, Gujarat combines deep archaeology with one of India's richest textile traditions.
Culture, festivals & dressNorth India · State
Capital: Chandigarh
Wheat and mustard plains around Delhi hold Kurukshetra's Mahabharata associations, Harappan Rakhigarhi, and a strong akhara and folk-song culture.
Culture, festivals & dressNorth India · State
Capital: Shimla
Deodar ridges, apple orchards and the cold desert of Spiti, with temple towns in the valleys and Tibetan Buddhist settlements in the upper districts.
Culture, festivals & dressCentral & East India · State
Capital: Ranchi
A forested plateau of waterfalls and mineral wealth, home to Santhal, Munda, Oraon and Ho communities whose art and seasonal festivals track the agricultural year.
Culture, festivals & dressSouth India · State
Capital: Bengaluru
Hoysala and Chalukya stone carving, the Vijayanagara ruins at Hampi, Western Ghats coffee country and a coastline of temple towns and beaches.
Culture, festivals & dressSouth India · State
Capital: Thiruvananthapuram
A narrow strip between the Arabian Sea and the Western Ghats, with backwaters, spice hills, temple percussion and one of India's oldest continuous trading histories.
Culture, festivals & dressCentral & East India · State
Capital: Bhopal
The geographic centre of India holds prehistoric rock shelters, Buddhist stupas, Chandela temples and some of the country's best-known tiger reserves.
Culture, festivals & dressWest India · State
Capital: Mumbai
Rock-cut caves at Ajanta and Ellora, Deccan forts, a long Konkan coast and the country's largest film industry sit inside one state.
Culture, festivals & dressNortheast India · State
Capital: Imphal
A valley ringed by hills, with the floating phumdis of Loktak Lake, a classical dance tradition and a long history of polo and martial arts.
Culture, festivals & dressNortheast India · State
Capital: Shillong
Among the wettest inhabited places on earth, with living root bridges, limestone caves and the matrilineal Khasi, Garo and Jaintia communities.
Culture, festivals & dressNortheast India · State
Capital: Aizawl
Ridge-top towns above bamboo-covered hills, with a strong choral-music culture and community festivals tied to the shifting-cultivation year.
Culture, festivals & dressNortheast India · State
Capital: Kohima
Sixteen-plus recognised tribes, each with its own language, weave and festival calendar, in hills along the Myanmar border.
Culture, festivals & dressCentral & East India · State
Capital: Bhubaneswar
Temple architecture from Bhubaneswar to Konark, the Chilika lagoon, tribal highlands and the annual chariot festival at Puri.
Culture, festivals & dressNorth India · State
Capital: Chandigarh
Five rivers, an agricultural heartland, and the spiritual centre of Sikhism at the Golden Temple in Amritsar.
Culture, festivals & dressNorth India · State
Capital: Jaipur
Desert forts, painted havelis, lake palaces and craft towns; India's largest state by area and one of its most visited.
Culture, festivals & dressNortheast India · State
Capital: Gangtok
A small Himalayan state below Kangchenjunga, fully organic in its farming policy, with Buddhist monasteries and Lepcha, Bhutia and Nepali communities.
Culture, festivals & dressSouth India · State
Capital: Chennai
Living Chola and Pandya temple traditions, a classical literature going back two millennia, hill stations in the Nilgiris and a long temple-town coastline.
Culture, festivals & dressSouth India · State
Capital: Hyderabad
The Deccan plateau state formed in 2014, with Qutb Shahi and Nizami heritage in Hyderabad, Kakatiya temples at Warangal and a distinct handloom belt.
Culture, festivals & dressNortheast India · State
Capital: Agartala
A small hill state with a long Manikya royal history, rock-cut sculptures at Unakoti and a mix of Bengali and indigenous Tripuri culture.
Culture, festivals & dressNorth India · State
Capital: Lucknow
India's most populous state, holding the Taj Mahal, the Ganga ghats of Varanasi, Awadhi court culture and the Buddhist sites of Sarnath and Kushinagar.
Culture, festivals & dressNorth India · State
Capital: Dehradun
The Char Dham pilgrimage circuit, alpine meadows, the Ganga's headwaters and Corbett's tiger forest, across Garhwal and Kumaon.
Culture, festivals & dressCentral & East India · State
Capital: Kolkata
From Darjeeling's tea ridges to the Sundarbans mangrove delta, with a literary and artistic tradition centred on Kolkata and Santiniketan.
Culture, festivals & dressIslands · Union territory
Capital: Sri Vijaya Puram
Some 570 islands in the Bay of Bengal, with coral reefs, colonial-era prison history and indigenous communities whose privacy is legally protected.
Culture, festivals & dressNorth India · Union territory
Capital: Chandigarh
A planned city designed under Le Corbusier, with a sector grid, modernist civic buildings and the Nek Chand Rock Garden built from recycled material.
Culture, festivals & dressWest India · Union territory
Capital: Daman
Coastal Portuguese-era forts and churches at Daman and Diu, with the forested, largely Adivasi interior of Dadra and Nagar Haveli.
Culture, festivals & dressNorth India · Union territory
Capital: New Delhi
Eight cities layered on the Yamuna's west bank — Sultanate tombs, a Mughal fort, Lutyens' avenues and three UNESCO World Heritage Sites inside one territory.
Culture, festivals & dressNorth India · Union territory
Capital: Srinagar
The Kashmir valley's lakes and chinar avenues, the Pir Panjal, and the temple town of Jammu — reorganised as a union territory in 2019.
Culture, festivals & dressNorth India · Union territory
Capital: Leh
A high-altitude cold desert of monasteries, barley villages and glacial lakes, made a union territory in 2019.
Culture, festivals & dressIslands · Union territory
Capital: Kavaratti
India's smallest union territory: 36 coral islands in the Arabian Sea, with lagoons, atolls and permit-controlled tourism.
Culture, festivals & dressSouth India · Union territory
Capital: Puducherry
A former French territory on the Coromandel coast, with a grid of colonial streets, the Sri Aurobindo Ashram and the experimental township of Auroville.
Culture, festivals & dressLast reviewed: August 2026. Cultural traditions in India vary by community, district, occasion and generation. The notes below are representative examples reviewed against government sources, not exhaustive or official definitions. Festival timings follow lunar or locally announced calendars — verify current dates with the relevant state tourism department before travelling.