Banswara, the city of a hundred islands

How Banswara began

• A battle far north: in 1527 Rawal Udai Singh of Vagad, ruler of the whole southern hill country, died fighting beside Rana Sanga of Mewar against Babur at Khanwa.
• Two sons, two states: the elder kept Dungarpur, and the younger, Jagmal, took the eastern half beyond the Mahi and founded Banswara.
• Mewar kin: like Dungarpur, it was ruled by a branch of the Guhilot house of Mewar, and its rulers took the title Maharawal.
• Small and forested: it stayed a largely tribal state through the Mughal and Maratha centuries.
• Treaty and union: in 1818 it entered treaty relations with the British along with the other Rajput states, and it joined Rajasthan after Independence.
• The family today: it still owns the old palace on the hill above the town and remains part of local life.
• How that works: our page on meeting Rajasthan's royal families explains the relationship today.

The Mahi and its islands

• The city of a hundred islands: hence the old nickname, sau dweepon ka shahar.
• The dam: Mahi Bajaj Sagar was built for hydroelectric power and water supply and named after the freedom fighter and industrialist Jamnalal Bajaj.
• One of the largest: among the biggest dams in Rajasthan, and its reservoir pushed the islands further out into the hills.
• Who lives here: mugger crocodiles and freshwater turtles in the backwaters, and in winter cormorants, darters, herons, egrets, storks and ducks.
• Monsoon spectacle: when the gates open the spillway roars, and locals drive out in their hundreds, with tea stalls and roasted corn along the roads.
• Dry-season calm: we go in the late afternoon, find a quiet viewpoint above the backwaters, and watch the islands darken as the sun drops behind the hills.

Tripura Sundari, the goddess of Talwara

• A seat of the goddess: many devotees regard the temple as a shakti peeth, and nobody knows for certain when the first shrine was built.
• Three states of pilgrims: it draws people from across Rajasthan, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh.
• Navratri: in spring and autumn the crowds come for nine nights of prayer and the area around the shrine becomes a fair.
• Ordinary mornings: calm. We arrive for the first aarti, the offering of lamps, then sit quietly while families come and go with coconuts, red cloth and flowers.
• It is a working temple: cover shoulders and knees, leave shoes at the stand, don't photograph the goddess, and follow your guide's lead about where to stand.
• Read more: our guide to temple etiquette, and our page on temples and pilgrim towns.

What else to see in and around Banswara

Bhil culture in Banswara

• Scattered homes: villages are not packed together like Rajput villages. Families live in houses spread across the hills, each near its own fields.
• What matters most: the land, the forest and the river are the centre of life.
• Govind Guru: the key to modern Banswara. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries he led a movement among the Bhils of Vagad and the neighbouring hills.
• What he asked for: abstinence from alcohol, education, cleanliness, prayer around sacred fires and an end to forced labour.
• How it ended: it spread fast, the princely states and the British grew alarmed, and it ended in the massacre at Mangarh in 1913.
• Honoured today: you will see his image in homes and roadside shrines across the region.
• The weekly haat: families walk in from the hills to buy and sell grain, vegetables, goats, cloth, utensils and silver jewellery.
• How to be there: go with our guide, buy something useful, drink tea at a stall and let the market be what it is.
• Festivals: Holi is the biggest in many Bhil villages, with days of drumming and dancing, and the Baneshwar fair is the great gathering of the year.
• What we don't do: run tours into people's homes, or ask anyone to perform for visitors.

Baneshwar, where the Som meets the Mahi

• Mavji's temples: beside it stand temples connected to Mavji, an eighteenth-century saint whom many in this region revere as an incarnation of Vishnu.
• His family's gifts: his daughter-in-law Jankunwari built a Vishnu temple here, and his disciples built a Lakshmi-Narayan temple near the confluence.
• The Kumbh of the tribes: each year in Magh, Baneshwar hosts a great fair. More than half the pilgrims are Bhils.
• Why families come: many immerse the ashes of relatives who died during the year in the waters of the confluence.
• The main day: the head priest of Mavji's sect arrives from Sabla in a large procession, and devotees bathe in the river with him.
• At night: bonfires, folk songs, raslila performances in the temples, and a fairground of rides, stalls and acrobats.
• Not a tourist festival: we take small groups with a guide who knows the families and the rituals, and stay to the edges during the most sacred moments.
• Listen more than you photograph: that is how we spend most of our time there.

What to eat in Banswara

• On every plate: dal, buttermilk kadhi and green chutneys of chilli and coriander.
• Monsoon food: forest greens and wild vegetables at the haat, and roasted corn on every roadside.
• Mahua: the flowers fall in spring and are gathered by Bhil families, then dried and eaten, cooked into sweets, or distilled into a local spirit.
• Its scent: sweet and heavy in the villages in March and April.
• The Bohra kitchen: rich and generous, eaten from a shared platter called a thaal.
• No fine dining: we don't pretend otherwise.
• How we feed you: a picnic from the kitchen at Udai Bilas Palace in Dungarpur for a long day out, or a simple, very good meal at a home or roadside dhaba we trust.
• On the plate: our Rajasthani food guide explains what you'll find.

Where to stay for Banswara

• Udai Bilas: on the shore of Gaib Sagar lake, the home of the former royal family of Dungarpur, and it makes Vagad comfortable.
• A night in town: for the dawn at Tripura Sundari, the Baneshwar fair or the dam in full monsoon spate.
• How we handle it: we book the best room, brief you honestly on what to expect, and keep your driver and guide with you throughout.
• Comfort returns: our guide to palace hotels shows where it does on the rest of your journey.

When to visit Banswara

• December to February: pleasant and cool.
• March to June: hot, and we don't recommend it.
• Navratri: twice a year, in March or April and in September or October, the great season at Tripura Sundari. The autumn one is bigger. See our Navratri guide.
• Baneshwar fair: January or February, in Magh, at the river confluence.
• Holi: February or March, with several days of drumming and dancing across the Bhil villages.
• Mangarh fair: around the full moon of Margashirsha.
• Help choosing: our pages on Rajasthan in August and the best time to visit Rajasthan.

Getting to Banswara

• A three-state link: within a long day's drive of Indore in Madhya Pradesh and of Ahmedabad in Gujarat.
• By road only: almost every visitor arrives by car.
• Within the district: distances are long and roads vary, so we use experienced local drivers and avoid rural roads after dark.
• As part of a journey: an extension of our offbeat Rajasthan journey for travellers with time.
• Natural pairings: Chittorgarh to the north and Udaipur to the west.

A long day in Banswara, or two slow ones

Who Banswara is for

• The curious: students of religion and tribal history, and anyone interested in where Rajasthan, Gujarat and Malwa meet.
• Through-travellers: a rewarding stop between Udaipur and Indore or Madhya Pradesh's temple towns.
• Not for: a first visit to India, or anyone who needs a spa, a bar and a choice of restaurants every evening.
• Why: the roads are long, the facilities simple and the sights spread out.
• The alternative: spend your southern days in Dungarpur and Udaipur, and read our journal piece on Banswara, the city of islands at home.
• If it sounds like an adventure: we will make it a comfortable one.

Our advice for Banswara

• Ask before every photograph: and accept a no with good grace. At the haat, a purchase and a smile open more conversations than a camera.
• Carry supplies: water, snacks, sunscreen and mosquito repellent. Facilities on the road are basic.
• Don't swim: there are crocodiles in the river and reservoir, and the currents can be strong in the monsoon.
• Respect every faith: the goddess at Talwara, the Bohra shrines, the confluence at Baneshwar and the memorial at Mangarh.
• Set expectations: low for comfort, high for the landscape. Banswara will exceed the second and surprise you on the first.