Ancient India
India Trails
Sanchi's Buddhist stupas, Nalanda's ruined university, the painted caves of Ajanta, the rock-cut temples of Ellora, and the Vijayanagara ruins at Hampi — five sites that between them cover most of the visible evidence of India before its medieval kingdoms.
Best season
November to February; Ajanta and Ellora are hot and crowded April-June
Duration
10-12 days for the full route
Budget (approx)
₹35,000-75,000 per person, mid-range
Along the way
Every stop, as it actually looks.
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The route
5 stops, in order.
- 1
Madhya Pradesh
SanchiAshoka's Great Stupa, 3rd century BCE — the oldest stone structure on the route.
- 2
Bihar
NalandaA residential university for roughly seven centuries, drawing students from as far as China.
- 3
- 4
Maharashtra
Ellora CavesBuddhist, Hindu and Jain monuments cut into one rock face over four centuries.
- 5
Why these stops belong together
These five do not belong to one period; that is the point of the route. Sanchi's Great Stupa was commissioned by Ashoka in the 3rd century BCE and is the oldest stone structure in the group. Nalanda operated as a residential university from roughly the 5th to the 12th century CE, drawing students from as far as China and Tibet, before it was destroyed. Ajanta's cave paintings and sculpture (2nd century BCE to roughly 480 CE) are the closest thing India has to a continuous visual record of Buddhist art across that span. Ellora, begun not long after, carved Buddhist, Hindu and Jain monuments into the same rock face over four centuries, including Kailasa Temple, cut top-down from a single basalt cliff. Hampi is the outlier by age (14th-16th century) but not by scale, the last great Hindu empire's capital, abandoned after 1565 and never rebuilt. Read in order, the trail runs from Ashoka's stupas to a city left exactly as its final battle left it.