colony · Scandinavia and the Baltic
Danish India
Origins
A Danish expedition under Ove Gjedde reached south India, and in 1620 Raghunatha Nayak of Thanjavur granted the Danish East India Company the village of Tranquebar (Tharangambadi). The Danes built Fort Dansborg there, which became the centre of their Asian trade.
Rule and society
Danish India was governed by the company and later the crown, trading in textiles, pepper and tea. In 1706 the German missionaries Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg and Heinrich Plütschau, sent by the Danish king, founded the Tranquebar Mission and translated the New Testament into Tamil. Serampore near Calcutta, acquired in 1755, became a centre of printing and of Serampore College, founded by English Baptists. Denmark also claimed the Nicobar Islands.
Decline and legacy
Overshadowed by British India and loss-making, Denmark sold Tranquebar and Serampore to Britain in 1845 and gave up its claim to the Nicobar Islands in 1868-1869. Fort Dansborg and Tranquebar's churches still stand.
On the connections map
Open the full map →Connections (2)
- Danish India was a colony of Denmark-Norway1620 CE – 1814 CE
- Danish India was a colony of Kingdom of Denmark1814 CE – 1869 CE
More states of Scandinavia and the Baltic →
Cite this page
- APA
- The Epoch Institute. (2026). Danish India. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/danish-india
- MLA
- “Danish India.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/danish-india. Accessed .
- Chicago
- The Epoch Institute. “Danish India.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/danish-india.
- Harvard
- The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Danish India’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/danish-india (Accessed: ).
Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻