Archery in India can be traced back to the Vedic period when the bow and arrow were used as a weapon to kill animals for food and for warfare.

The origin of archery is supposed to be in Aurignacian era, approximately 25,000 years before the modern times.

The history of archery in India is quite evident from the two great epics the Ramayana and the Mahabharata which are full of the great archers like Dronacharya, Arjun, Eklavya, Karan and Lord Ram and his three brothers, Laxman, Bharat and Shatrughan.

Since those days archery is practiced and played. But now due to modern civilization, archery in India has been mainly bound to few interior regions of the country. The Archery association of India organized the first National meet in New Delhi in 1973 where more than 50 archers took part. Since there was no modern tool available that time, the archers had to be happy with the bows and arrows made of bamboo from the states of Meghalaya and West Bengal.

The archery in India can be seen mainly in the interior parts of Northeastern states and in some hill areas. There is a game named BOLA in Meghalaya where a large number of residents gather to bet on their much-loved archers.

Prof Vijay Kumar Malhotra, the then President of Archery Association Of India gave the archery in India its root. He had seen a bright prospect of the game to revive the old culture and tradition. He along with secretary general, Shri Gopesh Mehra tried to launch the game in Asia. Thus an Asian Archery Association was created in Bangkok during the Asian games in 1978.

Archery in India got a high in mid 80s when first time the archers got new sophisticated Equpiment. The game got huge promotion by the Archery Association of India.

The archery in India started gaining recognitions in international competitions since then and the list of talented and promising archers started increasing and most of them are from the rural part of India. The names of Limba ram, Shyam Lal and Sanjeev Kumar are remarkable in Archery in India. Limba Ram brought India among the top six rankers of the world in the Olympic at Barcelona in 1992.

Archery in India went through better changes in 2003 by the Archery Association of India. The national ranking archery circuit tournament was started with prize money. It gave good results soon as the Indian men team got 4th place in that year`s World Championship in New York and the Women team was placed 6th. Olympics, 2004 could not bring any medals to the country in the archery but continued good performance.

The archery in India got back its glory in 2005 again in Madrid World Championship by Indian men winning Silver medal and the women standing at 4th position.

This performance encouraged lots of sports person of the game and many aspired to shine in archery. And for the first time a Compound bow team was also announced at the World Championship in 2005.

The Indian round was introduced to make the game popular. The India round is held under three categories: seniors, juniors and sub-juniors and played with bamboo/wooden bow and arrows so that one with less income can also participate. The archery in India got enhanced with the first Indian Round competition along with the modern Round Nationals at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, New Delhi in April 1995.

Earlier, the tribal communities mainly dominated the archery in India but now-a-days people with good educational and economic backgrounds are also joining the game as the job opportunity for the sports persons have increased.

The archery in India is gaining popularity with lots of youngsters being attracted towards the game. Archery in India has become a motivational source with young talents like Dola Banerjee, Jayant Talukdar, Tarundeep Rai and Rahul Banerjee making their mark at international levels.