Here's my map of (OTL) India in 1680. I may as well go over many of the depicted states, simply as there are so many of them.
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The
Mughal Empire was perhaps the richest nation in all of the subcontinent. In sheer size, it overshadowed virtually every other Indian kingdom, and its influence progressively expanded southward and eastward at this time. The Grand Trunk Road, expanding from the wealthy eastern provinces to Kabul, was its main trade artery, and perhaps influenced by their Mongol ancestors, the Mughals made sure to make trade easy and streamlined from one end of the vast empire to the other. At this point, it was ruled by Aurangzeb, who was as of 1680 a mediocre ruler, who slightly expanded the borders to the east by conquering Coonch Behar (just south of Bhutan), but an invasion of Assam during the monsoon season led to the death of Mir Jumla, the supreme commander of the Mughal armies. The Maratha Empire emerged from the decaying Bijapur Sultanate to raid the great trading centre of Surat and threaten Mughal expansion, resulting in a long war between the two. Two Afghan rebellions in quick succession, one by the Afridi and another by the Yusufzai, both of which were crushed, and then the ruler of the vassal Rajput kingdom of Marwar died, resulting in a succession crisis between the infant Ajit Singh and the disliked son Indra Singh. The Mughals supported Indra Singh, but then the neighbouring kingdom Mewar got involved as well in favour of Ajit Singh. The rebellion was all but crushed and the Rajputs were all but integrated when Aurangzeb's son Prince Akbar rebelled against his father, proclaiming himself emperor in early January, 1681. If he had charged in immediately after his declaration, he would have likely won, but he waited a few weeks, allowing Aurangzeb to successfully trick Akbar's Rajput allies into abandoning him, forcing Akbar to flee to the Maratha Empire, resulting in an angry Aurangzeb invading the Maratha Empire.
Skardu was in decline at this time, having at one time conquered land as far as Chitral, in modern-day northwestern Pakistan, and collected tribute as far as Ladakh, but at this point it was weak, as much of its eastern territory fractured and Ladakh fell into Mughal orbit. At around this time, Europeans visited Skardu, noting its highly Tibetic culture (albeit its Islamic faith) and calling it "Little Tibet" as a result.
Ladakh was in the middle of a war at this time with Tibet. Having long ago broke away from the territorial control of the Dalai Lama, it slowly became more and more Mughal-influenced, with Aurangzeb creating a mosque in Leh. Even today, despite many cultural similarities with Tibet, Ladakh is more Indianized and has a much larger Muslim minority than Tibet. In its war with Tibet, it got the help of the Mughal Empire, and when the war came to an end, it ultimately retained its independence.
Garhwal fiercely resisted the Mughal Empire with all its wrath, and notably after successfully defeating an invasion, Garhwal's queen Karnavati ordered the noses of prisoners cut off before they were returned, resulting her being given the nickname Nakati Rani (Nose-Cutting Queen). However, more recently, the Mughal tributary of Kumaon was successfully able to invade the southern, rich parts of Garhwal, where terrain was less mountainous.
Nepal was a highly fractured region. Even the Kathmandu Valley, a small place, had three kingdoms. The region was, as one would expect, highly Mughal-influenced as can be seen by
its paintings, even though real control was impossible thanks to its mountainous terrain.
Bhutan was unified by Ngawang Namgyal, who resisted the temporal and territorial control of the Dalai Lama successfully, and as was normal in the region, the nation was melded with theocracy. Although he died in 1651, Namgyal's death was kept a secret by the government, which wished to avoid the kingdom fracturing. At around this time, the kingdom planned some invasions of Sikkim, which were put into action in the following decade, as well as supporting Ladakh against the giant that was Tibet.
The
Ahom Kingdom was fairly resistant, defeating an invasion by the far larger and richer Mughal Empire which temporarily was able to take the capital at Gargaon but ultimately failed. It was the strongest nation in Northeast India, with it being far more cohesive than any part of the region save for Kangleipak and Tripura. It saw some confusion thanks to the invasion, but the kingdom recovered and only destabilized again shortly before British invasion.
Kangleipak was, and still is (if for different reasons), a highly unique part of Northeast India. Not connected to the rest of India by riverine networks, the nation was able to, fairly independently, create a cohesive state that was able to defend itself from Naga and Kuki tribes on its border. At around this time, however, Indian influence was growing, and in the early eighteenth century, it was converted to Hinduism by Chaitanya Vaishnavite missionaries. The kingdom was promptly given a Sanskrit name, one which has stuck to the modern day. It became known as Manipur.
Arakan was influenced by Bengal for centuries. Its rulers constantly compared themselves to Bengali Sultans and later Mughal Emperors. More recently, Chittagong became a centre of piracy, especially Portuguese, and this was used by the Mughals to conquer Chittagong as well as much of coastal Arakan, demonstrating the ease by which they could conquer the country if they ever wanted to. Thankfully for them, the Deccan was far more attractive to the Mughals.
Golconda was a highly prosperous sultanate, withs its diamond mines having achieved fame for their high quality. Aurangzeb set it aside for future conquest, as he felt it would fold easily, and he turned out to be right. Although in terms of southern expansion Bijapur outmatched it, Golconda wasn't facing any crisis anywhere near close to the Maratha Empire, and in fact even used the Marathas to conquer some border regions.
Bijapur, on the other hand, was facing civil war as its sultan was not of age. The Maratha Empire was increasingly ignoring its rule, establishing numerous exclaves in Bijapuri territory. Its court preferred wine to rule, and naturally it resulted in defeat at the hands of the Maratha Empire all round. This didn't totally destroy Bijapur, however; Mughal invasion a few years later was required for that.
The
Maratha Empire, founded by Shivaji, a man whose memory is to this day invoked by Indian politicians, emerged on the scene quite suddenly. Though Shivaji's own father was a conquerer in his own right, he fought in the name of Bijapur. By this point, the Maratha Empire successfully invaded land as far as the Carnatic, with multiple successful campaigns having expanded the Empire's reach, and having raided Mughal cities as far north as Surat, obtaining plenty of plunder. However, at around this time, he died, resulting in a succession crisis ultimately won by his son Shambhaji, a figure who is not anywhere near as well remembered. Regardless, in time, the Maratha Empire invaded much of North India, and in several decades' time, it was able to dominate India itself.
Keladi was initially founded as a region totally suzerain to Vijayanagar, with "Nayak" initially meaning "governor", but as Vijayanagar weakened further and further, as the capital was captured, increasingly the Nayaks became independent. Though Vijayanagar only "officially" was vanquished a little while before 1680, in reality it had been vanquished for a very long time. Keladi was ruled by followers of the Lingayat sect, a Shaivite sect of Hinduism (or its own religion, it's very muddled), and its rulers were fiercely independent but able to keep positive relations with virtually every surrounding kingdom.
Mysore was, at this point, a minor kingdom, having only a few decades ago unified the region from
a fractured mess. However, this changed by a couple decades after 1680 under its first great ruler Chikka Deva Raja who successfully navigated the difficult politics of the era, after which point it stretched over much of the Southern Deccan, beginning a long period of expansion. When the Mughals came knocking in the 1690s, Mysore became a tributary state, but when the Mughals collapsed, it became independent once more (though a friendship between them was established), and it required four wars by the British to conquer, two of which actually ended in Mysorean victory.
Madurai was formerly suzerain to Vijayanagar, but that had long since become little more than words on a paper. By this point, Madurai was in decline, with Mysore having conquered Erode and soon conquering much, much more. Ramnad was also a bit of a difficulty, with its vassal rulers increasingly attempting to assert their independence against Madurai. Eventually, these difficulties grew more and more severe, and Madurai was a minor rump state by the time Britain finally put it out of its misery.
Venad, which despite largely independent paid tribute to Madurai, was far from cohesive. It faced rebellion by a coalition of eight nobles and a string of weak rulers. This state of disrepair was only ended by Marthanda Varma in the early eighteenth century, who turned Venad into the far more well-known kingdom of Travancore
The
Kerala feudal states were a total mess. Other than the great thalassocracies of
Cannanore,
Calicut, and
Cochin, all of which traded with Arabs and Europeans, the region was broken up into many, many, petty kingdoms, some of which were little more than city-states.
