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This port city on the west coast of India was the center of Portuguese influence in India from 1510 until 1961, and at its height, in the early 17th century, was one of the great cities in the region. Goa as a port dates to the third century b.c.e.

Delhi, now the capital of India, has been the political center of Indian civilization for over a thousand years. The settlement known as Indraprastha, which was mentioned in the Indian epic the Mahabharata, was located at modern-day Purana Qila, near Delhi.

Babur was descended from Tamerlane on his father’s side and Genghis Khan on his mother’s. Son of a petty ruler of Ferghana in Central Asia, he conquered Afghanistan, then northern India, founding the long-lived mughal (Mogul, or Moghul, the different versions of the spelling all derive from Mongol) dynasty in India.

Aurangzeb was the sixth Mughal (Moghul) emperor (r. 1658–1707). He ruled for 49 years as Emperor Alamgir (conqueror of the universe); he was the last great ruler of the Mughal dynasty, but left the empire economically exhausted and widely disaffected.

The Vijayanagara Empire flourished in southern India from 1336 to 1565. It was a Hindu kingdom that left as its legacy a number of small, independent states that survived until colonial times. The city of Vijayanagara (or Vijayanagar), which means “City of Victory,” is located in modern day Karnataka.

Tamil is a Dravidian language group that originated in southern India and is not linked to the northern Aryan language group. Tamil speakers are found in Tamilnadu, the region surrounded by Kerela, Karnataka, and Pradesh and parts of present-day Sri Lanka.

Shiva (Siva), along with Vishnu and Brahma, is one of the Trimurti deities of Hinduism. He is worshipped throughout the Hindu world. His beautiful consort Parvati usually accompanies him. Her avatars are Uma, Durga, or Kali. Shiva’s sons are Skanda (six-faced) and the elephant-headed Ganesha.

Rajputs were members of the approximately 12 million landowners of northern India who claimed to be descended from the Kshatriya warrior caste. The name derives from the Sanskrit term Raja-putra, or “son of the king.”