An interactive atlas of the sacred Indic world — Hindu, Buddhist, Jain, and Sikh sites across India and the wider civilisational sphere it shaped: Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia. Scrub the timeline to watch two and a half millennia of temple building unfold; every site carries its history, its legend (marked as katha, distinct from documented history), pilgrim practicalities, and full citations.
Colour is the construction era of the standing structure; shape is the tradition — circle Hindu, square Buddhist, diamond Jain, triangle Sikh. While scrubbing time, a hollow mark means the site was already sacred (first attestation or tradition) but today's structure was not yet built; the mark fills in the year construction of the standing structure began.
All maps on this site depict the external boundaries of India as per the position of the Government of India, using the Natural Earth “India worldview” boundary edition: the entire Union Territories of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh — including the areas under Pakistani and Chinese occupation — and the full state of Arunachal Pradesh are shown as Indian territory. Sacred sites located in occupied territory (e.g. Sharada Peeth) are listed under India accordingly.
This seed edition documents 150 flagship sites. Coordinates, construction periods, dynasties, and official websites were cross-checked against English Wikipedia and official sources on 2026-08-26; 148 of 150 coordinates are Wikipedia-verified (2 are flagged for field verification in their entries). Phone numbers appear only where published on an official temple site — never from third-party listings. Every entry cites its sources; nothing is published without one.
Historical facts are compiled from the references cited on each entry — primarily English Wikipedia (facts restated; adapted text CC BY-SA), UNESCO World Heritage Centre listings, the Archaeological Survey of India, state temple boards (TN HR&CE, Devaswom boards, AP/TS Endowments, shrine boards), and official temple trusts. Map geometry comes from Natural Earth (public domain) in its India-worldview edition; site coordinates from Wikipedia/Wikidata (CC0). “Open in Google Maps” links use coordinates only; no Google data is stored.
The full build adds community contributions with a verification queue: photographs, timings, festival calendars, and corrections — with phone numbers accepted only when they match an official source or are call-verified, and every edit carrying a source and a “last verified” date.
Wikidata/OSM ingestion to grow from 150 to thousands of sites; dynasty map-layers under the timeline; complete circuits (all 108 Divya Desams next); routes and accommodation from official sources; Indic-language editions.