This revision corrects Port Blair to Sri Vijaya Puram and adds the Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh capital qualifications. It removes the old “second most populous nation” statement and a formation-date column that mixed different kinds of historical dates.
28 states and their capitals
| State | Capital / relevant administrative note |
|---|---|
| Andhra Pradesh | Amaravati |
| Arunachal Pradesh | Itanagar |
| Assam | Dispur |
| Bihar | Patna |
| Chhattisgarh | Raipur |
| Goa | Panaji |
| Gujarat | Gandhinagar |
| Haryana | Chandigarh |
| Himachal Pradesh | Shimla; Dharamshala (winter capital) |
| Jharkhand | Ranchi |
| Karnataka | Bengaluru |
| Kerala | Thiruvananthapuram |
| Madhya Pradesh | Bhopal |
| Maharashtra | Mumbai; Nagpur hosts the winter legislature session |
| Manipur | Imphal |
| Meghalaya | Shillong |
| Mizoram | Aizawl |
| Nagaland | Kohima |
| Odisha | Bhubaneswar |
| Punjab | Chandigarh |
| Rajasthan | Jaipur |
| Sikkim | Gangtok |
| Tamil Nadu | Chennai |
| Telangana | Hyderabad |
| Tripura | Agartala |
| Uttar Pradesh | Lucknow |
| Uttarakhand | Dehradun (temporary); Gairsain (summer) |
| West Bengal | Kolkata |
8 union territories and their capitals
| Union territory | Capital / relevant administrative note |
|---|---|
| Andaman and Nicobar Islands | Sri Vijaya Puram (formerly Port Blair) |
| Chandigarh | Chandigarh |
| Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu | Daman |
| Delhi (National Capital Territory) | New Delhi |
| Jammu and Kashmir | Srinagar (summer); Jammu (winter) |
| Ladakh | Leh; see the source note on Kargil below |
| Lakshadweep | Kavaratti |
| Puducherry | Puducherry |
Important capital-name and seasonal-capital notes
Sri Vijaya Puram: the new name of Port Blair
The Ministry of Home Affairs announced the renaming of Port Blair to Sri Vijaya Puram on 13 September 2024. See the official PIB release. Older maps and papers may still use Port Blair; record both names in revision notes.
Uttarakhand: Dehradun and Gairsain
The Uttarakhand Chief Minister’s official geography page labels Dehradun as temporary capital and Gairsain as summer capital. Keep those qualifiers when answering a question specifically about the summer capital.
Himachal Pradesh: Dharamshala
India Cine Hub, a government portal, identifies Dharamshala as the winter capital. A one-city table containing only Shimla omits that distinction.
Andhra Pradesh: Amaravati
Use Amaravati for Andhra Pradesh and Hyderabad for Telangana. The PIB release of 1 April 2026 discusses the Lok Sabha passage of the amendment concerning Amaravati. That dated release should not, by itself, be treated as evidence of every later legislative step.
Ladakh: read the exact source wording
An official Ladakh gazette document describes Leh as the capital, while the Ladakh government helicopter-service page describes Kargil as a joint capital. Official pages use different wording. For a question about a particular administrative seat, use the specified reference and date rather than treating this as an unqualified one-word fact.
How to revise states and capitals
- Learn states and union territories as separate lists.
- Practise recall in both directions: state to capital and capital to state.
- Keep a short exceptions list for shared, seasonal and renamed capitals.
- Use a political map to place each state before testing recall.
- For an old question paper, distinguish the answer applicable at the time from a later name change.
Frequently asked questions
Is Chandigarh a state?
No. Chandigarh is a union territory and also serves as the capital of Punjab and Haryana.
Is Sri Vijaya Puram a new union territory?
No. It is the renamed capital city formerly known as Port Blair, within Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
Why are some entries longer than one city name?
A single-city list can hide seasonal or administrative distinctions. The qualifiers make those differences explicit for exam preparation.