Indore has a geography that becomes more interesting the closer one looks at it.

Beyond its better-known localities such as Rajwada, Palasia, Vijay Nagar, Rau, Bhanwarkuan and Khajrana, the city contains an extraordinary collection of neighbourhood names that are also associated with places elsewhere in India. There is a Chanakyapuri, a Saket Nagar, a Rajendra Nagar, a Dwarkapuri, an Alkapuri, a Mansarovar Nagar, a Vrindavan, an Ayodhya Nagari, a Bombay Bazaar, a Bengali Colony and even a Singapore Township.

Some are exact matches with famous neighbourhoods in other cities. Some are names derived from sacred geography. Others reflect communities, cultural associations, migration, urban development or naming conventions that became popular across Indian cities.

What makes the subject particularly interesting is that these are not simply names collected from loosely labelled online maps. Many appear in the official or administrative descriptions of Indore's municipal wards. Indore Municipal Corporation currently has 85 wards, several of which themselves carry names such as Chandan Nagar, Vrindavan, Banganga, Tilak Nagar, Bombay Bazaar, Lokmanya Nagar, Annapurna and Dwarkapuri.

This article explores these names systematically.

A necessary qualification comes first: the fact that two places share a name does not automatically mean that one was named after the other. Unless a documented naming history is available, this article treats them as geographical parallels rather than claiming a direct historical connection.

Why Indore Has Such a Rich Vocabulary of Place Names

Indore developed over several centuries rather than emerging as one uniformly planned city.

The historical nucleus lay around what is now Juni Indore. The settlement expanded because of its position on important movement and trading routes and became a stopping point for people travelling between major religious centres such as Ujjain and Omkareshwar. It later developed under the Holkars into an important commercial and political centre of Malwa.

As Indore expanded, different layers of urban geography accumulated.

Older Indore contains bazaars, bakhals, baghs, mohallas, pithas, chowks and chhaals. Later neighbourhoods introduced the familiar Indian vocabulary of Nagar, Puri, Vihar, Colony and Bagh. Planned schemes and housing developments added still another layer.

The result is that the map of modern Indore preserves names from very different periods and traditions.

Some refer to people or communities. Some evoke religious centres. Some repeat neighbourhood names found across India. Others use prestigious or aspirational place names.

That is why looking at Indore through its place names can reveal much more than a collection of curiosities.

Delhi Names in Indore

The strongest concentration of familiar names comes from Delhi.

Several neighbourhood names present in Indore can also be found prominently in the national capital.

Chanakyapuri

Indore: Chanakyapuri
Better-known counterpart: Chanakyapuri, New Delhi

Chanakyapuri is one of the clearest examples.

New Delhi's Chanakyapuri is the famous diplomatic district containing numerous embassies and official residences. Delhi Development Authority records recognise Chanakya Puri as a Delhi locality.

Indore also has an established residential locality called Chanakyapuri.

The identical name does not establish that Indore's locality was deliberately named after New Delhi's diplomatic enclave, but the geographical parallel is unmistakable.

Saket Nagar

Indore: Saket Nagar
Delhi: Saket

Saket is one of South Delhi's prominent neighbourhoods, while Saket Nagar is a familiar locality in Indore.

The Delhi Development Authority includes Saket among Delhi localities.

The name itself is older than either modern neighbourhood: Saket is an ancient name traditionally associated with Ayodhya. Its use in urban neighbourhood naming therefore need not indicate that one locality copied another.

Rajendra Nagar

Indore: Rajendra Nagar
Delhi: Rajendra Nagar

Rajendra Nagar is another exact match.

Indore's municipal ward descriptions explicitly include Rajendra Nagar, while Delhi also has the established Rajendra Nagar neighbourhood.

The Indore locality is substantial enough that Rajendra Nagar Naka is also recorded in municipal geography.

This illustrates an important feature of Indore's urban vocabulary: a neighbourhood name can eventually generate additional local names around it.

R.K. Puram

Indore: R.K. Puram
Delhi: R.K. Puram

R.K. Puram is strongly associated nationally with Delhi, where Rama Krishna Puram became one of the capital's major government residential areas.

But Indore has its own R.K. Puram as well.

It appears in Indore's Ward 45 municipal description alongside Ambedkar Nagar, MIG Colony and LIG Colony.

Delhi Development Authority records likewise recognise R.K. Puram.

This is one of the strongest exact urban-name parallels between the two cities.

Tilak Nagar

Indore: Tilak Nagar
Delhi: Tilak Nagar
Also found prominently in: Mumbai and several other Indian cities

Tilak Nagar differs from some of the other examples because it is not uniquely associated with Delhi.

Indore Municipal Corporation itself has Ward 49: Tilak Nagar, confirming the name's established civic status.

Delhi also has Tilak Nagar, but similarly named neighbourhoods exist elsewhere in India.

The more reasonable interpretation is therefore that these places independently commemorate Bal Gangadhar Tilak rather than representing one city borrowing the name from another.

This distinction is important throughout this article: shared names can result from shared historical memory rather than geographical imitation.

Shanti Niketan

Indore's Ward 31 municipal description contains Shanti Niketan.

Delhi also has Shanti Niketan, an established South Delhi neighbourhood.

The phrase itself, however, has wider cultural currency in India because of Santiniketan in West Bengal and the Sanskrit-derived meaning of the name. It should therefore be treated as a shared urban name rather than necessarily a Delhi-derived one.

Basant Vihar

Indore's municipal records contain Basant Vihar Colony in Ward 31.

Delhi is known for Vasant Vihar.

The slight difference in transliteration—Basant versus Vasant—is common in north Indian usage. Nevertheless, without documentation about how Indore's colony acquired its name, this is best described as a close name parallel rather than a proven namesake.

Sadar Bazaar

Indore has an old Sadar Bazaar, appearing repeatedly in municipal descriptions of Ward 38 and Ward 58.

Delhi also has its famous Sadar Bazar.

But here again the name is not evidence of a Delhi connection.

“Sadar Bazaar” is a colonial-era administrative and commercial naming convention found in many Indian cantonments and urban centres. Sadar broadly denoted a principal or central administrative area.

Indore's Sadar Bazaar therefore belongs to a much wider Indian urban tradition.

Indrapuri

Indore's Ward 74 includes Indrapuri.

Delhi has Inderpuri, a similarly named locality.

The resemblance is close, although both names arise from common Sanskrit/Hindi naming vocabulary. It is consequently better classified as a shared Indian locality name than a direct Delhi namesake.

Mumbai and Maharashtra Connections

Indore's connections with Maharashtra are historically much deeper than a handful of similar neighbourhood names.

The Holkars were a Maratha dynasty, and Marathi influence remains visible in the historical development of the city. Indore's municipal geography still includes Marathi Mohalla, for example.

Among the place-name parallels, however, one stands above the rest.

Bombay Bazaar

Indore: Bombay Bazaar / Bambai Bazaar
Reference: Bombay, present-day Mumbai

Bombay Bazaar is not a recent nickname or an invention of digital maps.

Indore Municipal Corporation officially identifies Ward 68 as Bombay Bazaar.

The older Hindi pronunciation Bambai Bazaar is also associated with the area.

This makes it one of Indore's strongest geographical names: a historic neighbourhood directly carrying the former English name of Mumbai.

Bombay Bazaar belongs to old Indore rather than the city's newer suburban expansion, which makes its name particularly interesting from a migration and trading-history perspective.

A detailed archival study would be required to establish precisely when and why the name came into use, so it would be premature to provide an origin story without documentary evidence.

Bombay Yojana

The Bombay connection does not end with Bombay Bazaar.

Municipal descriptions for Ward 50 list Bombay Yojana, around the Pipliyahana/Brajeshwari side of the city.

That gives Indore at least two distinct established urban names containing “Bombay”:

• Bombay Bazaar

• Bombay Yojana

They belong to very different parts and periods of Indore's urban development.

Mahalaxmi Nagar

Indore's Ward 37 includes Mahalaxmi Nagar.

Mumbai has the well-known Mahalaxmi area.

However, Mahalaxmi is the name of the Hindu goddess Lakshmi and occurs widely in Indian place names, temples and institutions. It is therefore inappropriate to claim that Indore's Mahalaxmi Nagar was named after Mumbai.

It is nevertheless an interesting identical geographical name.

Banganga

Banganga is sufficiently established in Indore to be the name of Ward 10.

Mumbai also has the famous Banganga Tank and the surrounding Walkeshwar-Banganga precinct.

As with Mahalaxmi, the sacred term Banganga occurs in multiple parts of India. The two should therefore be considered parallel place names, not necessarily related ones.

Lokmanya Nagar

Indore has Lokmanya Nagar, while the title “Lokmanya” is most strongly associated with Maharashtra because of Bal Gangadhar Tilak.

Again, this represents historical commemoration rather than a literal geographical namesake.

Indore's civic ward structure recognises Lokmanya Nagar as a ward name.

Rajasthan and Jaipur Parallels

Several names in modern Indore immediately evoke Jaipur and Rajasthan.

Pink City

Few city nicknames in India are as strongly associated with one place as Pink City is with Jaipur.

Yet Indore also contains a residential area referred to as Pink City.

Importantly, this is not based solely on a property portal. Indore's municipal description for Ward 34 specifically includes “row house Pink City,” while Ward 54 also lists Pink City.

Unlike Vaishali Nagar or Mansarovar, Pink City is not simply a conventional Sanskrit-derived residential name. Its strong association with Jaipur makes its appearance in Indore particularly notable.

Without documentation from the developer or original layout, however, we cannot establish whether Jaipur directly inspired the name.

Mansarovar Nagar

Indore's Ward 37 contains Mansarovar Nagar.

Mansarovar is also one of Jaipur's best-known residential areas.

At the same time, Mansarovar has a much older religious and geographical meaning, referring to Lake Manasarovar in Tibet. For that reason, the Indore and Jaipur neighbourhoods may simply draw on the same culturally familiar name.

Vaishali Nagar

Municipal descriptions of western Indore include Vaishali Nagar.

Jaipur also has a prominent Vaishali Nagar.

But the name Vaishali itself originates from the ancient city in present-day Bihar, an important site in Buddhist and Jain history. The Government of Bihar describes Vaishali as an ancient centre associated with both Mahavira and Gautama Buddha.

So the name's journey is more complicated than “Jaipur to Indore.”

Both modern neighbourhoods participate in a much older Indian geographical vocabulary.

Rambagh

Indore's Ward 57 includes Rambagh.

Jaipur's Rambagh is famous because of Rambagh Palace.

But Ram Bagh—literally a garden associated with Ram—is far too widespread a name in the subcontinent to assume a direct relationship.

It is another good example of why identical place names should be researched rather than automatically interpreted.

Gujarat Connections

Gandhi Nagar

Indore's Ward 15 municipal description includes Gandhi Nagar, an established part of the city near the airport.

Gandhinagar, of course, is the capital of Gujarat.

Despite the nearly identical names, both ultimately derive from Mahatma Gandhi. It is therefore more accurate to describe them as parallel commemorative names rather than saying Indore has a neighbourhood “named after Gandhinagar.”

Dwarkapuri

Indore has a substantial locality called Dwarkapuri, important enough to form a municipal ward of its own.

The name immediately evokes Dwarka in Gujarat, one of Hinduism's major sacred cities.

The connection is linguistic and religious: Dwarkapuri literally refers to Dwarka as a sacred city.

This is therefore a stronger cultural-geographical connection than many generic “Nagar” matches.

Alkapuri

This is one of the most interesting exact neighbourhood parallels.

Indore's Ward 52 lists Alkapuri complete among its constituent areas.

Vadodara in Gujarat also has the prominent locality of Alkapuri; Vadodara Municipal Corporation itself uses Alkapuri in its city listings and addresses.

Once again, there is no evidence presently establishing that the Indore colony was named after Vadodara's Alkapuri. The word derives ultimately from Alaka, the mythological city associated with Kubera.

It is nevertheless one of the clearest exact locality-name matches between Indore and another major Indian city.

Bengal Connections

Chandan Nagar and Chandannagar

Indore Municipal Corporation recognises Chandan Nagar as Ward 2.

West Bengal has the historic city of Chandannagar—also historically written Chandernagore—in Hooghly district. The Government of West Bengal lists Chandannagore Municipal Corporation among the state's municipal corporations.

The spelling is slightly different:

Indore: Chandan Nagar
West Bengal: Chandannagar

Because chandan means sandalwood and is common in Indian naming, a direct historical link should not be assumed. But phonetically and visually, this remains one of Indore's closest parallels with an established Indian city name.

Bengali Colony

Indore's municipal ward descriptions explicitly record Bangali/Bengali Colony in more than one part of the city.

Unlike many duplicate neighbourhood names, the meaning here is straightforward: it refers to a community identity rather than to a particular city.

The name belongs to a broader class of Indore neighbourhood names that preserve evidence of migration and community settlement.

Bengali Square

Bengali Square has become one of the better-known junction names in eastern Indore.

Its importance to this discussion is not that it duplicates a place elsewhere, but that it places a regional identity—Bengali—directly into Indore's urban geography.

Together, Bengali Square and Bengali Colony illustrate how the city's population history can become embedded in everyday addresses.

A Remarkable Cluster of Braj and Sacred Uttar Pradesh Names

Perhaps the most interesting pattern is not a match with Delhi or Mumbai at all.

It is the concentration of names associated with Krishna's Braj region and other sacred cities of northern India.

Vrindavan

Indore Municipal Corporation has Ward 9: Vrindavan. Its ward description also specifically includes Vrindavan Colony.

The original and vastly better-known Vrindavan is the sacred city near Mathura in Uttar Pradesh associated with Krishna.

Because the religious reference is so strong, Indore's use of Vrindavan is best understood as a sacred-geographical name.

Vrindavan Garden Colony

Elsewhere in Indore, Ward 50 includes Vrindavan Garden Colony.

This means the Vrindavan name occurs in more than one form within the city's geography.

Nandgaon

The same Ward 50 description contains Nandgaon.

The famous Nandgaon near Mathura is central to Krishna's Braj geography and is traditionally associated with Nanda and Krishna's childhood.

When considered alongside Vrindavan and the next example, its appearance in Indore becomes more significant.

Nidhivan Colony

Ward 50 also includes Nidhivan Colony.

Nidhivan is one of Vrindavan's most sacred sites.

The presence of:

• Vrindavan

• Vrindavan Garden Colony

• Nandgaon

• Nidhivan Colony

within Indore suggests a recurring Braj-inspired vocabulary in residential naming.

Unlike coincidental matches such as Rajendra Nagar, these names belong to the same religious-geographical tradition.

Ayodhya Nagari

Another particularly clear sacred-place reference appears in Ward 25.

Indore's municipal records list Ayodhya Nagari within Nanda Nagar.

Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh is one of Hinduism's most important sacred cities and is traditionally regarded as the birthplace of Rama.

The addition of Nagari—city or settlement—makes the reference especially explicit.

Jagannath Puri / Jagannathpuri

Indore's municipal descriptions contain Jagannathpuri in more than one part of the city, including Ward 1 and Ward 74.

The name refers culturally to Jagannath Puri in Odisha, one of India's Char Dham pilgrimage centres.

It therefore expands Indore's sacred-geographical place-name network beyond Uttar Pradesh.

Somnath

Indore also has Somnath as a municipal ward name.

Somnath is, of course, the famous temple town in Gujarat containing one of the twelve Jyotirlingas.

Because Somnath is also the name of Shiva himself, the Indore ward name cannot automatically be interpreted as a direct reference to the Gujarati town. Nevertheless, it belongs to the same wider sacred vocabulary.

Pashupati Nath

Indore's Ward 27 is named Pashupati Nath.

Pashupatinath immediately evokes the internationally famous Pashupatinath Temple in Kathmandu, Nepal, although the term is fundamentally an epithet of Shiva.

This is therefore better understood as a religious-name parallel than as evidence that an Indore neighbourhood was named after Kathmandu.

Other Indian Place-Name Parallels

Tirupati

The municipal description of the Geeta Bhawan area includes Greater Tirupati.

Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh is one of India's best-known pilgrimage cities.

The use of Tirupati in Indore is another example of sacred geography entering modern residential naming.

Sikandarabad Colony

Indore's Ward 8 includes Sikandarabad Colony.

The name resembles Sikandrabad in Uttar Pradesh and Secunderabad in Telangana, but Sikandarabad is a historically common place-name formation derived from Sikandar.

Without evidence identifying a specific namesake, the safest conclusion is simply that Indore possesses a locality carrying this widespread Indo-Persian place-name form.

Karol Bagh

Indore's Ward 19 municipal description includes Karol Bagh.

Delhi's Karol Bagh is nationally much better known.

This is one of the more intriguing Delhi-Indore name matches because “Karol Bagh” is considerably more specific than generic names such as Shanti Nagar or Ashok Nagar.

It deserves further archival research into when Indore's Karol Bagh received its name.

Janakpuri

Indore's Ward 21 includes Janakpuri.

Delhi has the large and well-known Janakpuri neighbourhood.

But Janakpuri also has an independent mythological meaning, “the city of Janaka”, so a direct Delhi origin cannot be assumed.

Malviya Nagar

Indore municipal descriptions refer to Malviya Nagar and New Malviya Nagar.

Delhi, Jaipur and several other Indian cities also have Malviya Nagar neighbourhoods.

These are generally commemorative names honouring educationist and nationalist Madan Mohan Malaviya, making them another example of different cities drawing independently from the same national history.

Ashok Nagar

Indore has an entire municipal ward named Ashok Nagar.

Delhi and numerous other Indian cities also contain Ashok Nagar localities.

Because Ashoka is one of the most widely commemorated rulers in Indian public naming, this is best treated as a nationwide urban naming pattern rather than a meaningful direct connection between any two cities.

International Geography in Indore

International examples need more caution because modern housing projects frequently use foreign place names for branding.

There is nevertheless at least one firmly established example worth including.

Singapore Township

On Indore's expanding eastern side is Singapore Township, a residential development that has subsequently become recognised as a locality name.

The project's developer identifies Singapore Township as an established residential project containing hundreds of plots and villas, while major property databases separately recognise Singapore Township as an Indore locality.

Unlike many of the older names discussed in this article, this is clearly a modern development-era name.

That distinction matters.

Bombay Bazaar belongs to the historical city. Singapore Township belongs to the language of contemporary suburban development. Yet both demonstrate how external geography can enter the vocabulary of Indore.

Madina Nagar

Indore's Ward 53 contains Madina Nagar.

The name shares its linguistic and religious reference with Madinah/Medina in Saudi Arabia, one of Islam's holiest cities.

Because Madina can itself mean “city” in Arabic and carries strong religious associations, it would be inaccurate to claim without evidence that the Indore locality was specifically “named after Saudi Arabia's Medina.”

It is nevertheless an international sacred-geographical parallel comparable to the Indian religious place names found elsewhere in the city.

Names That Look Like Matches but Need to Be Treated Carefully

Once one begins searching Indore's map, it becomes easy to create misleading connections.

Names such as:

• Ashok Nagar

• Patel Nagar

• Shanti Nagar

• Krishna Nagar

• Ganesh Nagar

• Ram Nagar

• Anand Nagar

• Jawahar Nagar

• Shivaji Nagar

• Ambedkar Nagar

• Azad Nagar

• Nehru Nagar

occur across dozens, or sometimes hundreds, of Indian cities.

Finding an Ashok Nagar in both Delhi and Indore does not tell us much by itself.

These names generally come from nationally important figures, Hindu deities, Sanskrit concepts, or common residential naming conventions.

For that reason, they should not be presented as evidence that Indore “contains Delhi” or any other city.

The most meaningful comparisons are either unusually specific, such as Karol Bagh, Chanakyapuri or Alkapuri, or form a recognisable thematic cluster, such as Vrindavan, Nandgaon and Nidhivan.

Indore's Own Place-Name Vocabulary Is Even More Interesting

Looking only for names shared with other cities risks overlooking the more important story: Indore possesses an exceptionally rich local vocabulary of its own.

Municipal ward descriptions preserve names such as:

• Tamboli Bakhal

• Chhipa Bakhal

• Tori Corner

• Gorakund

• Ramganj Jinsi

• Gafur Khan ki Bazariya

• Badwali Chowki

• Bakshi Bagh

• Juna Pitha

• Khajuri Bazaar

• Marathi Mohalla

• Chhota Sarafa

• Machhi Bazaar

• Sadar Bazaar

• Ranipura

• Raoji Bazaar

These names tell a different story from the later Nagars and Puris.

They preserve older patterns of occupation, community, trade, land ownership and everyday urban orientation. Several appear directly in the municipal descriptions of Indore's older wards.

What is a Bakhal?

One of the particularly characteristic words encountered in old Indore is bakhal.

Historic neighbourhood names such as Chhipa Bakhal, Tamboli Bakhal and Kasera Bakhal survive in the old city's geography.

Rather than treating these as conventional modern colonies, they are better understood as remnants of an older urban organisation in which communities and occupational groups frequently lived in concentrated quarters.

Bazaar

Indore's commercial history is equally visible through names containing Bazaar:

Bombay Bazaar, Raoji Bazaar, Sadar Bazaar and Khajuri Bazaar are examples.

In these cases the name refers not simply to a shopping destination but to an urban district that developed around commerce.

Nakas: A Different Kind of Geographical Naming

Another characteristic Indore term is naka.

Names such as Dewas Naka and Rajendra Nagar Naka remain part of everyday navigation in the city; Dewas Naka appears in municipal descriptions along the main road toward the city's eastern side, while Rajendra Nagar Naka appears in western Indore's ward geography.

Historically, naka can refer to a checkpoint, entry point or junction.

In cities such as Indore, a naka often acquired the name of the destination reached by the road leading outward from it.

This is a different phenomenon from a residential colony borrowing a famous name.

A name such as Dewas Naka is geographical in a literal directional sense: it identifies the side of Indore from which the road traditionally continued toward Dewas.

Such names preserve the city's relationship with its surrounding region.

What the Place Names Tell Us About Indore

Taken together, these names reveal several different layers of Indore.

1. Indore was and remains a city of movement

Its early growth was connected to commerce, pilgrimage and routes across Malwa. Smart City Indore's historical account describes the settlement as an important halting place between religious centres and later as an expanding trade centre.

The city's neighbourhood names continue to reflect movement and settlement.

2. Religious geography strongly influences residential naming

Vrindavan, Nandgaon, Nidhivan, Ayodhya, Dwarka, Jagannath Puri, Somnath, Pashupati Nath and Tirupati all appear in some form in Indore's urban geography.

This is not unusual in India, but the concentration in one city is striking.

Sacred cities function not only as physical destinations but also as cultural symbols that can be reproduced in neighbourhood names hundreds or thousands of kilometres away.

3. National personalities produced another common naming layer

Tilak Nagar, Gandhi Nagar, Ambedkar Nagar, Azad Nagar, Nehru Nagar, Rajendra Nagar and similar names show how modern Indian political and social history became embedded in post-independence urban development.

Because the same figures were commemorated nationwide, identical locality names naturally appeared in multiple cities.

4. Communities became part of the map

Bengali Colony and Marathi Mohalla are examples of places whose names preserve community identities.

There are many more examples in old Indore in which occupational or community identities became attached to a lane, mohalla or bakhal.

5. Modern developers introduced a new geographical vocabulary

Names such as Singapore Township belong to a much newer period.

Here the external place name functions less as religious or historical memory and more as a modern residential identity.

This represents a completely different phase in the evolution of Indore's place names.

A Reference List of the Strongest Verified Geographic Parallels

The following table summarises the examples for which an Indore place or locality could be reasonably verified during research for this article.

Are These Places Actually Named After Their Famous Counterparts?

In some cases, possibly.

In others, almost certainly not.

That is the most important conclusion to keep in mind.

Urban names can reach the same result through very different paths.

Bombay Bazaar contains an unmistakable external geographical term.

Bengali Colony points towards a community or regional identity.

Ayodhya Nagari invokes sacred geography.

Tilak Nagar commemorates a historical figure.

Sadar Bazaar comes from an administrative-commercial naming tradition.

Singapore Township is a modern real-estate name.

And Rajendra Nagar could independently occur in numerous Indian cities.

Treating all of them as though they belong to one phenomenon would obscure rather than explain Indore's history.

What connects them is simply this: Indore's map has absorbed names and references from an unusually broad range of Indian and occasionally international geographies and traditions.

Indore as a City Written in Layers

A city's map is a historical document, even when nobody intended it to be one.

Indore's older neighbourhoods preserve the vocabulary of bazaars, baghs, mohallas and bakhals. Its twentieth-century residential growth introduced Nagars, Puris and Vihars. Sacred geography brought names such as Vrindavan, Dwarkapuri and Ayodhya Nagari. National history produced Tilak Nagar and Gandhi Nagar. Migration and community identities appear in names such as Bengali Colony and Marathi Mohalla. Modern suburban development added names such as Singapore Township.

Seen together, these names form a record of how Indore expanded and how different generations imagined the city.

The most interesting question, therefore, is not simply why Indore has a Chanakyapuri like Delhi or an Alkapuri like Vadodara.

It is why cities reuse geography at all.

Sometimes a distant place represents faith. Sometimes prestige. Sometimes memory. Sometimes community. Sometimes national identity. Sometimes it is simply a name that sounded appropriate to the people laying out a new colony.

Indore contains examples of almost all of these processes.

And that makes its neighbourhood map far more than a collection of addresses.

It is another way of reading the history and culture of the city itself.