NEW DELHI, June 30, 2026 (News Drum): India’s state-wise Hindu temple count has again drawn attention to a striking pattern. Tamil Nadu stands at the top with more than 89,000 Hindu temples, while several northern states that once had rich ancient Hindu traditions show a far more fractured surviving temple landscape. In pre-modern India, major temples were centers of royal power, wealth, landholding, education, art, music, dance, inscription, pilgrimage and community life. When a region preserved its temples, it often preserved a wider civilisational ecosystem around them. When temples were destroyed, converted, abandoned, rebuilt or reduced to fragments, the religious memory could continue but the older architectural and institutional system was destroyed.
The viral map puts India’s total Hindu temple count at 648,907:
Tamil Nadu: 89,154
Maharashtra: 77,283
Karnataka: 61,232
West Bengal: 53,658
Gujarat: 49,905
Andhra Pradesh: 47,152
Rajasthan: 39,392
Uttar Pradesh: 37,518
Odisha: 30,000
Bihar: 29,748
Telangana: 28,312
Madhya Pradesh: 27,947
Kerala: 22,931
Jharkhand: 14,680
Chhattisgarh: 9,484
Assam: 5,394
Uttarakhand:3,695
Goa: 1,855
Delhi: 1,032
Tripura: 568
Haryana: 482
Punjab: 460
Manipur: 441
Meghalaya: 128
ArunachalPradesh: 96
Sikkim: 87
Nagaland: 43
Mizoram: 32
More at source.
https://www.newsdrum.in/crux/what-state-wise-temple-count-reveals-about-the-impact-of-islamic-invasions-12119106