List of largest empires ever existed in India (that is, with its capital in the present-day Republic of India, excluding foreign-ruled empires like the British Raj and the empire of Alexander the Great). An empire involves the extension of a state's sovereignty over external territories. The values given here should generally be interpreted as being only indicative, and not as determining a precise ranking. The calculation of the land area of a particular empire is controversial. In general, the list centres on the side of including any land area that was explored and explicitly claimed, even if the areas were populated very sparsely or not at all.