North India

North India is a geographical region, loosely defined as a cultural region comprising the northern part of India (or historically, the Indian subcontinent) wherein Indo-Aryans (speaking Indo-Aryan languages) form the prominent majority population. It extends from the Himalayan mountain range in the north to the Indo-Gangetic plains, the Thar Desert, till Central Highlands. It occupies nearly two-quarters of the area and population of India and includes one of the three mega cities of India: Delhi. In a more specific and administrative sense, North India can also be used to denote the northern Indo-Gangetic Plain within this broader expanse, to the Thar Desert.

Several major rivers flow through the region including the Indus, the Ganges, the Yamuna and the Narmada rivers. North India includes the states of Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab and Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, and union territories of Chandigarh, Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. Occasionally, states of Western, Central and East India are also referred as North in a broader term.

Indo-Aryans, who today form a majority in North India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, are descendants of the Indo-Iranians who migrated from Central Asia via the Bactria-Margiana Culture into this region between 2000 BC and 1500 BC after the collapse of the Indus Valley Civilisation. There was a slow migration of Indo-Iranian peoples through the northwest leading to the development of the Indo-Aryan languages from Proto-Indo-Iranian and minor vocal synthesis with the Dravidian languages. North India was the historical centre of the ancient Vedic culture, the Mahajanapadas, and Magadha Empire, the medieval Delhi Sultanate and the modern Mughal India and Indian Empire, among many others.

It has a diverse culture, and includes the Hindu pilgrimage centres of Char Dham, Haridwar, Varanasi, Ayodhya, Mathura, Prayagraj, Vaishno Devi and Pushkar, the Buddhist pilgrimage centres of Sarnath and Kushinagar, the Sikh Golden Temple as well as world heritage sites such as the Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve, Khajuraho temples, Hill Forts of Rajasthan, Jantar Mantar (Jaipur), Qutb Minar, Red Fort, Agra Fort, Fatehpur Sikri and the Taj Mahal. North India's culture developed as a result of interaction between these Hindu and Muslim religious traditions.