Madhya Pradesh
state in central India
Madhya Pradesh (; Hindi: [ˈmədʱjə pɾəˈdeːʃ] ; lit. 'Central Province') is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal. Other major cities include Indore, Gwalior, Jabalpur, Chhindwara and Sagar. Madhya Pradesh is the second largest Indian state by area and the fifth largest state by population with over 72 million residents. It borders the states of Rajasthan to the northwest, Uttar Pradesh to the northeast, Chhattisgarh to the east, Maharashtra to the south and Gujarat to the west.
The area covered by the present-day Madhya Pradesh includes the area of the ancient Avanti Mahajanapada, whose capital Ujjain (also known as Avantika) arose as a major city during the second wave of Indian urbanisation in the sixth century BCE. Subsequently, the region was ruled by the major dynasties of India. The Maratha Empire dominated the majority of the 18th century. After the Third Anglo-Maratha War in the 19th century, the region was divided into several princely states under the British and incorporated into Central Provinces and Berar and the Central India Agency. After India's independence, the Central Provinces and Berar was renamed as Madhya Pradesh with Nagpur as its capital. This state included the southern parts of the present-day Madhya Pradesh and northeastern portion of today's Maharashtra.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Madhya Pradesh” is state in central India. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Madhya, Pradesh and state, not as a finished interpretation.
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The phrase “state in central India” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1188. VIAF identifies the subject as 155930254. The Library of Congress control number is n79130768. Authority coordinates are 22.973, 78.657. 3 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Madhya Pradesh” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.