The geological history of the Indian subcontinent is marked by successive episodes of extensive isolation, which have provided ideal settings for the development of a unique floral and faunal diversity. By molecular phylogenetic analysis of a large set of ranid frog taxa from the Oriental realm, we show that four genera, now restricted to torrential habitats in the Western Ghats of India and the central highlands of Sri Lanka, represent remnants of ancient divergences. None of three other biodiversity hotspots in the Oriental mainland were found to harbour an equivalent level of long-term evolutionary history in this frog group. By unceasingly providing favourable humid conditions, the subcontinent's southern mountain ranges have served as refugia for old lineages, and hence constitute a unique reservoir of ancient ranid endemism.