- Origin: Modern circus as described by Philip Astley (considered to be the father of Modern circus) started appearing in India in the 1880s.
- Evolution of Modern India Circus in India
- In 1879, the Royal Italian Circus by Giuseppe Chiarini toured India.
- Vishnupant Chatre bought most of the circus equipment from Chiarini. Within a year, he formed a new circus company called the Great Indian Circus. This is the first circus company in India.
- In 1887 Priyanath Bose from Bengal founded the Great Bengal Circus and toured Bengal, India, and South East Asia.
- On February 2, 1904, the Malabar Grand Circus, the first circus company in Kerala state was inaugurated at Chirakkara under the leadership of Pariyali Kannan.
- The Great Royal Circus was supposed to have started in 1909.
- In the year 1920, Baburao Kadam founded the Grand Bombay Circus.
- Some of the other important circuses established in India at a later point in time are – the Gemini circus, Rajkamal Circus, Jumbo Circus etc.
