North India

North India is a geographical region, loosely defined as a cultural region comprising the northern part of India wherein Indo-Aryans (speaking Indo-Aryan languages) form the prominent majority population, while Tibeto-Burmans (speaking Tibeto-Burman languages) form the significant minority population. It extends from the Himalayan mountain range in the north to the Indo-Gangetic Plain, 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 represent 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, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, and the union territories of Chandigarh, Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. Occasionally, states of Western, Central and Eastern India are referred as "North Indian" in a broader term. The majority of people in North India speak Indo-Aryan languages. The region was the historical centre of the ancient Vedic culture, the Mahajanapadas, the Gupta Empire; the medieval Pratihara dynasty and the 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, Vindhyachal, Ayodhya, Mathura, Prayagraj, Vaishno Devi and Pushkar, the Buddhist pilgrimage centres of Sarnath and Kushinagar, the Sikh pilgrimage centre of Golden Temple, Amritsar, 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 Hindu and...