Puri is situated in the coastal area of Odissa located 60 kilometres south of the Bhubaneswar. Shankaracharya founded his Eastern Dhan (Jagannath Peeth) at Puri.

Puri is also known as Jagannath Puri after the Jagannath Temple located in the city. According to copper plates of the Ganga dynasty, the construction Jagannath temple was initiated by the ruler of Kalinga, Anantavarman Chodaganga Dev during his reign in 11^th century.

The temple has four distinct sectional structures, namely –

1. Deula, Vimana or Garba griha (Sanctum sanctorum) where the triad deities are lodged on the ratnavedi (Throne of Pearls). It was in Rekha Deula style.
2. Mukhashala (Frontal porch).
3. Natamandapa or Jagamohan (Audience Hall/Dancing Hall).
4. Bhoga Mandapa (Offerings Hall)

Jaisalmer is in Rajasthan. It was named after Maharawal Jaisal Singh, a Rajput king who founded the city in 1156 AD.

The town has a fort, which contains the palace and several ornate Jain temples. Many of the houses and temples are finely sculptured. This strategic location continued to serve Jaisalmer well, as it lay right on the two main routes connecting India with Persia, Egypt and farther west.

The majority of the inhabitants of Jaisalmer are Bhati Rajputs, who was renowned as a warrior. In 1293, the Bhattis so enraged the Sultan of Delhi Alauddin Khilji that his army captured and sacked the fort and city of Jaisalmer.

Jaialmer accepted the supremacy of Mughal Emperor Akbar.

Jaisalmer signed the defensive alliance with British East India Compay in 1818 at the time of the Governor General Lord Hastings.

• On left bank of Kalinadi near Kasganj (Etah district). Following cultural sequences:

1. Period1: Occurance of OCP
2. Period2: Unpainted black and red, black slipper and red ware.
3. Period IIIA: Proto PGW by introduction of iron and traditional black  painting on pottery
4. Period IIIB: Mature PGW represented by Hastinapur, Noh, Atranjikhera
5. Period IV: Co-occurence of NBW and PGW ware

• Hastinapur, Ahichhatra, Kausambi, Atranjikhera, Kampili and Jakhera indicates material culture associated with PGW reflects an urbal, semiurban and proto-urban way of life.

(5) Jalalabad / Nagarhara

Stupa in Mes Aynak near Jalalabad

• Buddhist heritage is recorded through wide-ranging archaeological finds, including religious and artistic remnants. Buddhist doctrines are reported to have reached as far as Balkh as recorded by Husang Tsang.
• Faxian visited and worshiped the sacred Buddhist sites such as of The Shadow of the Buddha in Nagarhara (modern Jalalabad).
• In 630 AD Husang Tsang, the famous Chinese Buddhist monk, visited Jalalabad and a number of other locations nearby. The city was a major center of Gandhara’s Greco-Buddhist culture in the past until it was conquered by Muslim Arabs in the 7th century.
• The region became part of the Afghan Ghaznavid Empire in the 10th century and later Ghurids until the Mongols invaded the area. It then became part of the Timurids.
• The modern city gained prominence during the reign of Babur, founder of the Mughal Empire. Babur had chosen the site for this city which was built by his grandson Akbar in 1570.

Jalore was ruled by the Paramaras in the 10^th century. Kirtipala was the founder of the Jalore line of Chauhans. He captured it from the Parmars in 1181 and took the clan name Songara, after the place.

Jalor was attacked and destroyed in 1311 by Alauddin Khilji, Sultan of Delhi.

In 1704 Jalore became part of Marwar the kingdom until Indian Independence in 1947.

Monuments in Jalore: Jalore Fort, Malik Shah’s mosque, Sire Mandir at Jalore, Jain temples built in the 8^th century.

(7) Jammu

The state of Janjira was situated on the west coast and was established by Sidis, also known as ‘Habshi’, assumed to be from Abyssinia.

Later on Janjira formed the part of Bijapur Kingdom.

Janjira was regularly attacked by the Marathas.

There is also a fort in Janjira built in 11^th century. Nizam, the ruler from Ahmadnagar sent one of his Siddi commanders who captured the fort.

(9) Jaugada / Jaugarh (Ancient name: Samapa)

Jaunpur is situatd near Varanasi across the river Gomati in UP. It was founded in 14^th century by the Sultan of Delhi Firuz Shah Tughlaq and named in memory of his cousin, Muhammad bin Tughluq, whose given name was Jauna Khan.

When the Sultanate was in disarray, in 1393 Malik Sarwar declared independence. He and his adopted son Mubarak Shah founded what came to be known as the Sharqi dynasty (dynasty of the East). During the Sharqi period the Jaunpur Sultanate was a strong military power in Northern India, and on several occasions threatened the Delhi Sultanate.

The Jaunpur Sultanate attained its greatest height under the Shams-ud-din Ibrahim Shah (ruled 1402-1440). To the east, his kingdom extended to Bihar, and to the west, to Kanauj.

Under Sikandar Lodi, the Delhi Sultante was able to reconquer Jaunpur in 1493, bringing that sultanate to an end.

The Jaunpur Sultanate was a major center of Urdu and Sufi knowledge and culture.

Notable Sharqi monuments are Atala Masjid, Jama Masjid and the Lal Darwaza Masjid. The Jaunpur mosques display a unique architectural style, combining traditional Hindu and Muslim motifs with purely original elements. The Jaunpur Qila, a fortress from the Tughlaq era, remains in ruined form.

• Jhansi ka Kila is a fortress situated on a large hilltop called Bangira, in Uttar Pradesh. It served as a stronghold of the Chandela Kings in Balwant Nagar from the 11th through the 17th century.
• In the 18th century the town of Jhansi served as the capital of a Maratha province and later the Princely State of Jhansi from 1804 till 1853 when the territory became a part of British India.

(12) Jhukar

• The Jhukar Phase followed the Harappa Culture around the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. It, in turn, was followed by the Jhangar Phase.
• A post-Harappan archaeological culture of about the 16th-15th century B.C. at the village of Jhukar, on the territory of the province of Sind (Pakistan).
• Two-color pottery similar to Baluchistan types is characteristic of the Jhukar culture as are the distinctive seals made from stone, faience, and clay.
• Excavations in Chanhu-Daro have established a certain time interval between the Harappan and Jhukar cultures.

(13) Jinji (or Gingee)

It is situated in Arcot district of Tamil Nadu and faous for Fort. The fort was among the most impregnable fortress in India.

Fort was built during the 15-16^th century by the Nayakas, the military leaders of the Vijayanagara Empire and who later became independent kings. In 1565 A.D., Bande Ullah Khan, the Bijapur Genral captured the Fort. The fort passed to the Marathas under the leadership of Shivaji in 1677 AD and then to the Moghuls, Carnatic Nawabs, French under General Bussy. The British captured it in 1761 and surrenderd to Haider Ali in 1780.

The Gingee Fort complex is on the three hills which together constitute a fort complex. It is famous for Kalyan Mahal and the Idgah.

(14) Jodhpur 

It is situated in Rajasthan. Rana Rao Jodha, a Rajput chief of the Rathore clan, founded Jodhpur city in 15^th century which became the capital of Marrwar kingdom. Jodhpur was located on the strategic road linking Delhi to Gujarat. This enabled it to profit from a flourishing trade. This also led Jodhpur to benefit from the exposure to the wider world leading to the development of new styles of art and architecture.

Marwar accepted lordship of Mughal Emperor during Akbar. During this period, the state furnished the Mughals with several notable generals such as Maharaja Jaswant Singh. After his death, the disputed regarding succession of the throne had led to invasion of Aurangzeb on Marwar.

Mehrangarh Fort located in Jodhpur is a large fort. The old city circles the fort and is bounded by a wall with several gates.

Jodhpur is known as the “Sun City” for the bright, sunny weather it enjoys all the year round.

(15) Jodhpura

• Jodhpur on the bank of river Sahibi, is the first site where evidence of the Ganeshwar-Jodhpura culture (almost 3000BCE) was identified. The typical pottery here is wheel made,orange to red in color, with incised designs.Shapes include dish-on-stand. Pottery similar to Jodhpura was discovered in Ganeshwar.

• Jorwe is a village and an archaeological site located on the Pravara, a tributary of the Godavari River of Ahmednagar district. 
• In the middle of the second millennium (1500 BCE), the Jorwe culture, a Deccan Chalcolithic culture, flourished in the whole of Maharashtra, except the districts in Konkan and certain parts of Vidarbha. 
• As in the preceding culture, it was characterised by a distinct type of painted pottery, a blade-flake industry of chalcedony, as well as tools and ornaments of copper. However, due to the scarcity of the metal, copper was used sparingly. Their mixed economy was based on agriculture, stock-raising, hunting and fishing. They cultivated a variety of crops, including cereals. They practised crop rotation because it gave them the facility of irrigation – clear evidence of that has been unearthed at Inamgaon, near Pune.  
• Large rectangular houses with wattle and daub walls and thatched roofs. They stored grain in bins and pit silos, cooked food in two armed chulas (hearths) inside the house and roasted animals in a large fire pit in the courtyard. 
• They worshipped a mother goddess associated with fertility and another headless deity. 
• They believed in life after death, and therefore interred the dead inside the house under the floor. Children were buried in two urns that were joined mouth-to-mouth and set horizontally in the pit, while adults were placed in a supine position with the head towards the North. Before the ceremonial burial, the feet were chopped off, possibly because of the fear of the dead turning into ghosts.

(17) Junagarh / Girnar 

Girnar Hill is a collection of mountains situated near Junagadh in Kathiawar of Gujarat.

One of the major rock edicts of Ashoka is found here. The edict is on black granite in Brahmi script. On the same rock there are inscriptions in Sanskrit added around 150 CE by Rudradaman I, the Saka ruler of Malwa, a member of the Western Kshatrapas dynasty. Another inscription dates from about 450 CE and refers to Skandagupta.

Inscription of Rudradaman is the earliest Sanskrit inscription. It mentions renovation of the famous Sudarshana Lake which was originally built by Pusyagupta the provincial governor of Chandragupta.

Many Jain and Hindu temples are located in Girnar.

(18) Junapani

• The stone circles of Junapani are prehistoric megalithic circles (dated from 1000 BC to 300 AD) in Junapani, near Nagpur, yielding a variety of iron objects including daggers, flat axes with cross-ring fasteners, hoes, rings, bracelets, horse bits, chisels with long blades, and pointed tongs.These circles have nothing in common with the menhirs, dolmens and other non-sepulchral and sepulchral megalithic structures of South India. 
• Junapani is the second largest site, with 150 stone circles of megalithic period, out of 51 sites around Nagpur Region, and 89 in the Vidharba Region.The stone circles of Junapani is an uninhabited burial site containing Sepulchral megaliths with remains of the dead. It forms the northern fringe of central India’s megalith distribution. A skeleton of horse family was also found.
• A copper bell with iron tongue was located in one of the circles. In three circles excavated, heaps of sticky black clay was found heaped around the funerary finds. Iron implements, stone pestle has also been reported, Middle Stone Age tools were found here.
• A notable feature is the cup-marked stones in the circles which seem to suggest an astronomical significance. This aspect has been discerned from the fact that the cup-marked stones are fixed at specific locations denoting specific directions. 
• The funerary antiquaries at this megalithic burial site are painted red pottery (a few with Megalithic Graffiti Symbols), and the coarse red ware. These finds are identical to similar finds from other locations in the region such as from Kaundinyapura, Paunar, Takalghat and Khapa, west of Nagpur.There is evidence of black and red pottery, such as bowls featuring linear paintings in black.

(19) Junnar