Cow belt

The Cow Belt is the combined area of the Indian States of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar.

The flat and fertile terrain of Ganges has facilitated the repeated rise and expansion of various empires, including the Gupta empire, Kanauj, Magadha, the Maurya Empire, Pala Empire the Mughal Empire and the Sultanate of Delhi - all of which had their demographic and political centers in the Indo-Gangetic plain. During the Islamic period, the Turkish, Afghan and Iranian rulers referred to this region as "Hindustan" (the region beyond the Indus River), deriving from the Persian term for the Indus River. This term was later used to refer to the whole of India but even in the modern era, the dialect of Hindi-Urdu spoken in this region is called Hindustani, a term which is also used for the local music and culture.