Region

Indian Subcontinent

Also Known As South Asia · South Asian

South Asia

The South Asian landmass running from the Himalaya to the Indian Ocean, covering modern India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism are placed here, which makes it the most productive single region in this scheme. Bon is placed here too, and that is the strain: Bon is Tibetan, and whether the Tibetan plateau belongs to the subcontinent or to Inner Asia depends entirely on whether the boundary is drawn by mountain range, by watershed or by cultural exchange. Buddhism also outgrew the region almost immediately and is now largest well outside it.

Facts

Geography

Latitude

22 degrees north 1

Approximate reference point, rounded to one decimal place; a large or historical region has no formal center, so this coordinate is conventional, not a precise boundary claim.

Longitude

79 degrees east 1

Approximate reference point, rounded to one decimal place; a large or historical region has no formal center, so this coordinate is conventional, not a precise boundary claim.

Modern Area

India, Nepal, Pakistan 1

Traditions

Principal Religious Traditions

Buddhism 2

Principal Religious Traditions

Hinduism 2

Principal Religious Traditions

Jainism 2

Principal Religious Traditions

Sikhism 2

Sacred and Liturgical Languages

Sanskrit, Pali, Ardhamagadhi Prakrit, and Punjabi (Gurmukhi) 3

Learn More

The Most Religiously Productive Land on Earth

The Indian subcontinent is the birthplace of four of the world's major religions, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism, which makes it, by that measure, the single most productive religious region in human history. These traditions share a common conceptual grammar even as they differ profoundly: nearly all work with karma (the moral law of cause and effect across lives), samsara (the cycle of rebirth), and moksha or nirvana (liberation from that cycle) as the ultimate goal, and dharma as the ordering principle of life. Hinduism, the oldest and largest, is less a single religion than a vast family of traditions, Vedic sacrifice, the philosophy of the Upanishads and Vedanta, the great devotional cults of Vishnu, Shiva, and the Goddess, the epics and Puranas, rooted in the Vedas, the oldest religious literature still in use.

From the same soil, in reaction and dialogue, arose Buddhism and Jainism in the sixth to fifth centuries BCE, and, much later, Sikhism in the fifteenth-century Punjab. The subcontinent also became home to enormous communities of Islam (South Asia holds the largest Muslim population of any region) and ancient communities of Christians, Jews, Zoroastrians (the Parsis), and others. The result is a religious landscape of extraordinary density and continuity, in which the philosophical questions of the self, action, and liberation have been debated without interruption for three thousand years.

An Oral Record, Written Down Late

What is known about religion in the subcontinent comes through a transmission unlike any other in this atlas, and the shape of the record is worth understanding before the content.

The Vedic hymns were preserved by recitation for many centuries before anyone wrote them down, and they were preserved with a precision that is genuinely remarkable. Brahmin schools developed layered recitation methods that repeat the text in permuted orders, so that a single error in word or accent would break the pattern audibly and be corrected. The result is a text that specialists regard as transmitted with less corruption than most manuscript traditions of comparable age achieve on parchment.

The manuscripts are a different matter. Palm leaf and birch bark do not survive the climate, so copies were made afresh every few generations and the physical witnesses to even very old texts are usually recent. Dating therefore rests on language and internal evidence rather than on a datable object.

The archaeological record adds a gap that may never close. The Indus Valley cities produce seals and figurines that look religious, and the script on them remains undeciphered despite a century of effort, so their beliefs are read from images alone. The proposals connecting them to later Hindu practice are arguments from resemblance.

Buddhist and Jain material survives on inscription and in Pali and Prakrit canons preserved outside the subcontinent as well as within it, which is why the transmission history of each has its own geography.

Connections

Associated With

British Empire

Orientalist scholarship in British India gave the categories Hinduism and Buddhism the shape they now carry worldwide.

Source Religion Versus Empire? British Protestant Missionaries and Overseas Expansion, 1700-1914Andrew Porter

Pehlwani (Wikipedia)

This source names South Asian directly: "Wikipedia's article on pehlwani, South Asian wrestling, consulted 2026-08-12."

Source Pehlwani (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

Attested Here

Ardhamagadhi Prakrit

Ardhamagadhi Prakrit is documented in use as a written language in Indian Subcontinent. Ardhamagadhi is the language of the Svetambara Jain canon. The claim is where the language is documented in use as a written, literary or liturgical language. It is not a claim about the full extent of its speakers, and it is not a claim about where the language originated.

Source The World's Writing SystemsPeter T. Daniels and William Bright (eds.)

Awadhi

Awadhi is documented in use as a written language in Indian Subcontinent. The claim is where the language is documented in use as a written, literary or liturgical language. It is not a claim about the full extent of its speakers, and it is not a claim about where the language originated.

Source The World's Writing SystemsPeter T. Daniels and William Bright (eds.)

Braj Bhasha

Braj Bhasha is documented in use as a written language in Indian Subcontinent. The claim is where the language is documented in use as a written, literary or liturgical language. It is not a claim about the full extent of its speakers, and it is not a claim about where the language originated.

Source The World's Writing SystemsPeter T. Daniels and William Bright (eds.)

Cow

Kamadhenu the wish-granting divine cow, and cow protection (go-raksha) attested from the Mahabharata onward.

Source A Survey of HinduismKlaus K. Klostermaier

Eagle

Garuda, mount of Vishnu, an eagle being rather than an eagle.

Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)

Elephant

Ganesha, Airavata and the white elephant of the Buddha's conception dream.

Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)

Horse

The ashvamedha, the royal horse sacrifice, and the Ashvins.

Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)

Kinnara

Lion

Narasimha, Durga's mount, and the lion throne of the Buddha.

Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)

Monkey

Hanuman, and the monkey as a devotee whose loyalty is the point of the story.

Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)

Nandi, the bull who sits before every Shiva shrine.

Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)

Pali

Pali is documented in use as a written language in Indian Subcontinent. The claim is where the language is documented in use as a written, literary or liturgical language. It is not a claim about the full extent of its speakers, and it is not a claim about where the language originated.

Source The World's Writing SystemsPeter T. Daniels and William Bright (eds.)

Peacock

The mount of Kartikeya and of Saraswati in some traditions, and the bird that kills snakes.

Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)

Punjabi

Punjabi is documented in use as a written language in Indian Subcontinent. Punjabi in Gurmukhi script is the language of the Guru Granth Sahib. The claim is where the language is documented in use as a written, literary or liturgical language. It is not a claim about the full extent of its speakers, and it is not a claim about where the language originated.

Source The World's Writing SystemsPeter T. Daniels and William Bright (eds.)

Rat

Ganesha's mount, and the rats fed at the Karni Mata temple.

Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)

Sandalwood

The ritual use of sandalwood paste that the atlas records for this tree is Indian, and the trade in its heartwood runs out of southern India.

Source Puja: A Study in Smarta RitualGudrun Buhnemann

Sanskrit

Sanskrit is documented in use as a written language in Indian Subcontinent. The claim is where the language is documented in use as a written, literary or liturgical language. It is not a claim about the full extent of its speakers, and it is not a claim about where the language originated.

Source The World's Writing SystemsPeter T. Daniels and William Bright (eds.)

Sauraseni Prakrit

Sauraseni Prakrit is documented in use as a written language in Indian Subcontinent. The claim is where the language is documented in use as a written, literary or liturgical language. It is not a claim about the full extent of its speakers, and it is not a claim about where the language originated.

Source The World's Writing SystemsPeter T. Daniels and William Bright (eds.)

Snake

The nagas, Shesha, and the cobra at Shiva's neck.

Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)

Swan

The hamsa, mount of Brahma, said to separate milk from water.

Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)

The Ahimsa-Based Dietary Restrictions of Jainism

Jain dietary law, grounded in ahimsa, observed by Jain monastics and laity of the Indian Subcontinent.

Source The JainsPaul Dundas

Tiger

Durga's mount, and the tiger skin Shiva sits on.

Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)

Turtle

Kurma, the tortoise avatar, who supports the mountain used to churn the ocean.

Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)

Vedic Sanskrit

Vedic Sanskrit is documented in use as a written language in Indian Subcontinent. The claim is where the language is documented in use as a written, literary or liturgical language. It is not a claim about the full extent of its speakers, and it is not a claim about where the language originated.

Source The World's Writing SystemsPeter T. Daniels and William Bright (eds.)

Contains

Bengal

Bengal is the delta region of the eastern subcontinent.

Bihar

Bihar is an eastern Indian state.

Deccan

The Deccan is the plateau of peninsular India.

Indus Valley

The Indus plain lies in the northwest of the subcontinent.

Karnataka

Karnataka is a southwestern Indian state.

Kashmir

Kashmir lies at the northern edge of the subcontinent.

Kurukshetra

Kurukshetra lies in Haryana, in northern India.

Maharashtra

Maharashtra is a western Indian state.

Rajasthan

Rajasthan is a northwestern Indian state.

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu is the southeastern Indian state.

Uttar Pradesh

Uttar Pradesh is a northern Indian state.

Uttarakhand

Uttarakhand is a northern Indian state.

Originated Here

Aditi

Source Vedic MythologyArthur Anthony Macdonell

Ahir Budhnya

Attested in the Rigveda.

Source Vedic MythologyArthur Anthony Macdonell

Aja Ekapada

Attested in the Rigveda, in enumerations only.

Source The Rigveda: The Earliest Religious Poetry of IndiaStephanie W. Jamison and Joel P. Brereton

Amsha

Source Vedic MythologyArthur Anthony Macdonell

Aryaman

Source Vedic MythologyArthur Anthony Macdonell

Aurangzeb

Bahubali and Bharata

Source The JainsPaul Dundas

Bhaga

Source Vedic MythologyArthur Anthony Macdonell

Chitrasutra of the Vishnudharmottara Purana

Source The Citrasutra of the Vishnudharmottara PuranaTranslated by Parul Dave Mukherji

Dhatri

Source Vedic MythologyArthur Anthony Macdonell

Diti

A Sanskrit name of the Vedic corpus.

Source Vedic MythologyArthur Anthony Macdonell

Divya Prabandham

Source Songs of Experience: The Poetics of Tamil DevotionNorman Cutler

Gandharva

Jahangir

Kashyapa

Named in the Vedic corpus of the subcontinent.

Source Vedic MythologyArthur Anthony Macdonell

Kolam

Source Feeding a Thousand Souls: Women, Ritual, and Ecology in India, An Exploration of the KolamVijaya Nagarajan

Makara

Manasara

Source Manasara on Architecture and SculptureTranslated by Prasanna Kumar Acharya

Martanda

Attested in the tenth book of the Rigveda.

Source The Rigveda: The Earliest Religious Poetry of IndiaStephanie W. Jamison and Joel P. Brereton

Mauryan Empire

Mayamata

Source Mayamata: An Indian Treatise on Housing, Architecture and IconographyTranslated by Bruno Dagens

Mitra

Source Vedic MythologyArthur Anthony Macdonell

Mughal Empire

Nirriti

Attested in the Rigveda and the Atharvaveda.

Source Atharva-Veda SamhitaWilliam Dwight Whitney

Panchaloha

Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)

Panini

Parjanya

Attested in the Rigveda, composed in the north west of the subcontinent.

Source Vedic MythologyArthur Anthony Macdonell

Rakshasa

Rama's Exile and the War With Ravana

Source The Ramayana of ValmikiValmiki (attributed); Robert P. Goldman (general editor)

Savitr

Sinhalese

Source Encyclopaedia Britannica (online academic reference)Encyclopaedia Britannica editors

Tamils

The Tamil country is the southern tip of the Indian subcontinent.

Tevaram

Source Poems to Siva: The Hymns of the Tamil SaintsIndira Viswanathan Peterson

The Adityas

The Apas

Attested in the Rigveda.

Source Vedic MythologyArthur Anthony Macdonell

The Ashwini Kumaras

Attested in the Rigveda, and under the name Nasatya in a fourteenth century BCE treaty from northern Syria.

Source The Oxford Introduction to Proto-Indo-European and the Proto-Indo-European WorldJ. P. Mallory and D. Q. Adams

The Churning of the Ocean of Milk

Source Vishnu PuranaAnonymous

The Navagraha

The Pitris

Attested from the Rigvedic funeral hymns onward.

Source Vedic MythologyArthur Anthony Macdonell

The Vasus

Attested in the Rigveda.

Source Vedic MythologyArthur Anthony Macdonell

The Vishvadevas

Attested in the Rigveda.

Source Vedic MythologyArthur Anthony Macdonell

Tiruvasagam

Source TiruvacakamManikkavacakar, translated by G. U. Pope

Tvashtri

Source Vedic MythologyArthur Anthony Macdonell

Vastu Shastra

Source The Hindu TempleStella Kramrisch

Vidhatri

A Sanskrit formation of the later Vedic period.

Source Vedic MythologyArthur Anthony Macdonell

Vimshottari Dasha

Vishvarupa

Attested in the Rigveda.

Source The Rigveda: The Earliest Religious Poetry of IndiaStephanie W. Jamison and Joel P. Brereton

Yaksha

Plants Native Here

Crape Myrtle

Lagerstroemia is native to the Indian subcontinent and eastward. It is no true myrtle, the resemblance being only in the leaf.

Source Plants of the World OnlineRoyal Botanic Gardens, Kew

Plants Used in Ritual Here

Basil

Source A Modern HerbalMaud Grieve

Betel Nut Palm

Source The Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants: Ethnopharmacology and Its ApplicationsChristian Ratsch

Cannabis

Source The Religious and Medicinal Uses of Cannabis in China, India and TibetMia Touw

Jasmine

Source A Modern HerbalMaud Grieve

Principal Tradition Of

Buddhism

Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)

Hinduism

Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)

Jainism

Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)

Sikhism

Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)

Related To

Gujarat

Gujarat lies on the northwestern coast of the Indian subcontinent.

Himalayas

The range forms the northern edge of the Indian subcontinent.

Kerala

Kerala lies at the southwestern tip of the Indian subcontinent.

Sky Figures Read Here

Bengali

Bengali is spoken across the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent.

Sources

1. Encyclopaedia Britannica (online academic reference)

Encyclopaedia Britannica editors, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., 2024

s.v. regional geography
Originated Here: Sinhalese

View the Source

2. Encyclopedia of Religion

Mircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.), Macmillan Reference, 2005The geography of religions

Quote, The geography of religions

General reference for the extent of each region and for the traditions placed within it.

View the Source

3. The Oxford Dictionary of World Religions

John Bowker (ed.), Oxford University Press, 1997The religions of the Indian subcontinentView the Source

A Survey of Hinduism

Klaus K. Klostermaier, State University of New York Press, 2007Attested Here: CowView the Source

The Jains

Paul Dundas, Routledge, 2002Attested Here: The Ahimsa-Based Dietary Restrictions of JainismView the Source

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Indian Subcontinent

Associated With

Attested Here

Contains

Originated Here

Plants Native Here

Plants Used in Ritual Here

Principal Tradition Of

Related To

Sky Figures Read Here