McCullum smashed a Ishant Sharma delivery over long-on to defy India's victory charge.
This is McCullum's slowest Test century coming off 197 balls but under the circumstances it surely is one his best innings ever.
McCullum and Bradley Watling brought up their 100-run stand for the sixth wicket off 254 balls to frustrate India as captain MS Dhoni took the second new ball as soon as it became due after 80 overs.
But McCullum upped the ante against the second new ball and soon got to 5000 career runs in Test cricket.
McCullum is the fourth New Zealand batsman to reach the 5000-run mark in Test cricket after John Wright, Martin Crowe and Stephen Fleming.
McCullum was dropped by Virat Kohli when he was on 9 and by Ishant Sharma on his follow-through when the New Zealand captain was on 36.
New Zealand scored 59 runs for the loss of one wicket in the second session of the day.
Ravindra Jadeja struck soon after lunch to dismiss Corey Anderson, pushing India close to victory.
Jadeja took a simple return catch to send back Anderson (2) and reduced the hosts to 94/5.
Earlier, Zaheer Khan grabbed two early wickets to put India in charge, reducing the hosts to 87/4 at lunch.
Debutant Tom Latham was dismissed by Mohammed Shami in the final over before lunch for 29, having avoided the dreaded pair in his first Test when he punched Zaheer through point for two runs.
Zaheer had the ball move slightly away off the seam to catch the thinnest of outside edges of both Kane Williamson (7) and Hamish Rutherford (35) to reduce the hosts to 52/3 inside the first hour.
Latham and McCullum buckled down to see the hosts almost through to the break before Dhoni took his third catch of the innings on the first ball of the final over before lunch.
India had been bowled out for 438 on the second day with Ajinkya Rahane scoring his maiden Test century.
The compact right-hander top-scored with 118 and shared in profitable partnerships with Virat Kohli (38) and Dhoni (68), while opener Shikhar Dhawan scored 98.
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