THE WORLD ATLAS

Realm · approximate borders · 1642–1974

Kingdom of Sikkim

Sikkim's first Chogyals held the hills between the Arun–Tamur rivers (Limbuwan, under looser control) and the Tista. Bhutan took the Kalimpong country east of the Tista in 1706.

The Gorkha conquests of the 1770s–80s pushed the western border back to the Mechi and Singalila ridge. The western limit is uncertain. Sikkim was confined to the Singalila ridge by the Gorkhas. The Treaty of Titalia (1817) returned the Darjeeling hills taken by Nepal. In 1835 the Chogyal granted Darjeeling to the Company. This is Sikkim without the Darjeeling tract, granted in 1835, and without the Morang lowlands annexed by the Company in 1850. An Indian protectorate under the 1950 treaty until it became a state of India on 16 May 1975.

See Kingdom of Sikkim on the map in 1642

On the map
1642–1974
Capital
Yuksom; Rabdentse (from 1670); Rabdentse; Tumlong (from 1793); Tumlong; Gangtok

Rulers named in the sources

South Asian kingdoms, 1550–1857

From the fall of Vijayanagara's capital to the Revolt of 1857, beside the Mughal, Maratha, Durrani and British realms and a few successor states, many kingdoms ruled themselves. In the south: Travancore, Cochin, the Zamorin's Calicut, the Keladi Nayakas, the last Aravidu kings of Vijayanagara, the Nayaks of Gingee, and Mysore through the Wodeyar, Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan periods. In the Deccan and centre: the Gond kingdoms of Garha-Mandla, Deogarh and Chanda, Bastar, Ratanpur, Hyderabad after 1799, Nagpur, Satara, and the Holkar, Scindia and Gaekwad states after 1818. In the north: the Rajput kingdoms and Jat Bharatpur after the Mughal collapse, Rohilkhand, the reduced Awadh of 1803–56, Kumaon, Garhwal, Ladakh and Sikkim. In the east: the Ahom, Koch, Kachari, Jaintia, Manipur and Tripura kingdoms. In the west: Kutch and the Khanate of Kalat.

Sikkim, an Indian protectorate

Sikkim did not join India in 1947. India took over its administration during unrest in 1949, and under the treaty of 5 December 1950 the kingdom became an Indian protectorate: India ran its defence and foreign affairs, the Chogyal ruled at home. After the 1975 referendum Sikkim became India's 22nd state on 16 May 1975. Sikkim's borders did not change.

Sources