A land where the gods are neighbours
What strikes most of our guests is how ordinary it all is. These are not museum stories. People plan their week around them, and the guests who come for the forts often leave talking about a morning in a temple, a moment at a ghat or a song at a shrine.
Hindu kings: they built temples to their family gods and goddesses.
Jain merchants: grown rich on the caravan trade, they spent their fortunes on marble carved so fine it turns translucent at the edges.
- Faiths
- Hindu, Jain, Sufi and folk
- Mewar's true king
- Eklingji, a form of Shiva
- Nathdwara
- Krishna as a seven-year-old
- Pushkar
- Brahma's only great temple
- Best approach
- Arrive while worship is under way
- Sufi saints: they settled in the cities and drew followers of every faith.
- Folk deities: in the villages people still honour warrior heroes and saints like Pabuji and Baba Ramdev, whose stories travelling bards sing through the night.
- A king who was a minister: in Udaipur the Maharana was, by long tradition, only the diwan of Eklingji, the form of Shiva who is the true king of Mewar.
- A god who is a child: in Nathdwara, Krishna is cared for as a seven-year-old boy, woken, dressed, fed and put to bed every day.
- Rats as family: in Deshnoke, the rats in Karni Mata's temple are believed to be her family, reborn.
- A creator cursed: in Pushkar, Brahma has his only great temple because his wife cursed him for marrying another woman while she was late.
- Visit slowly: arrive at the hour of worship, stand at the edge, and let someone explain what you are seeing.
- The background: our guide to faith and temples in Rajasthan explains it, and this page shows where and how we take you.
Darshan, aarti and the shape of a visit
- Darshan
- Seeing, and being seen by, the deity
- Aarti
- Worship with lamps
- Parikrama
- Walking clockwise around a shrine
- Prasad
- Blessed food, taken with the right hand
- Dargah
- The shrine of a Sufi saint
Darshan, the act of seeing
The meaning: darshan is seeing, and being seen by, the deity. When the sanctum doors open, worshippers press forward, because the look itself is a blessing.
- Jhankis: at Nathdwara the doors open only for short viewings through the day, and the crowd moves as one when they do.
- With your guide: they stand with you, find the calmest place and explain what the god is wearing that morning.
Aarti, the worship with lamps
What happens: a priest circles a lamp before the deity while bells ring, conches sound and the people sing.
- At Pushkar: the evening aarti on the ghats, when the lake glows with small flames, is one of the most beautiful things in Rajasthan.
- How to watch: find a quiet step, sit, and don't push to the front.
Parikrama and prasad
Parikrama: walking around a shrine, always clockwise, keeping it on your right.
- At Pushkar: pilgrims walk around all three of its sacred lakes.
- Prasad: food offered to the deity and then shared as a blessing.
- If handed prasad: take it with your right hand, eat a little and never put it on the floor.
The Jain way
Ahimsa: Jain temples follow non-violence towards every living being.
- Leather stays outside: shoes, belts, wallets and watch straps.
- Covered mouths: pilgrims sometimes cover their mouths with a cloth so as not to harm tiny creatures.
- Visiting hours: the early part of the day is usually kept for worship and non-Jain visitors are welcomed later, so we check the hours for the week you travel.
The dargah
What it is: the shrine of a Sufi saint, usually built over the grave.
- Customs: men and women cover their heads, and shoes come off at the gate.
- Offerings: pilgrims lay a chadar, a cloth of flowers or silk, at the tomb.
- Evenings: often bring qawwali, the devotional singing of the Sufis. People of every faith come, and respectful visitors are welcomed.
The great Jain temples, marble beyond belief
- Ranakpur
- Inscription of 1439; 1,444 pillars by tradition
- Dilwara
- Vimal Vasahi c. 1031; Luna Vasahi 1230
- Jaisalmer Fort
- Seven Shvetambara temples
- Osian
- Mahavira temple, around 783 CE
- Leather
- Leave it all outside
Ranakpur, the forest of pillars
Where: a quiet valley on the western side of the Aravallis.
Who built it: the Jain minister Dharna Shah, to Adinath, the first tirthankara, on land given by Rana Kumbha. An inscription of 1439 records him as patron.
- The heart: four images of Adinath sit back to back, facing the four directions.
- The pillars: by tradition 1,444 of marble, no two alike.
- Look for: the Parshvanath relief, where serpent hoods twist into an endless knot.
- See it twice: at the start of visiting hours and close to closing, when the marble turns from grey to white to honey.
Dilwara, Mount Abu, the ceilings
Five temples: in one walled compound a little under three kilometres from Mount Abu town.
Vimal Vasahi: built around 1031 by Vimal Shah, a minister of the Chaulukya king Bhima I.
- Luna Vasahi: built in 1230 by the brothers Vastupala and Tejapala, its central dome hung with a marble pendant like a chandelier.
- Plain outside: the interiors are some of the supreme works of stone carving in India.
- No photography inside: which makes you look more closely.
The Jain temples of Jaisalmer Fort
Seven temples: Shvetambara shrines together in the south-west corner of the fort, built over about four centuries by merchant families of the caravan trade.
- The carving: columns break into dancers and ceilings open like flowers.
- The Gyan Bhandar: beneath the Sambhavanatha temple, a library of palm-leaf manuscripts kept safe through centuries of war.
- When: in the morning, when worship is under way and light falls through the lattices in shafts.
Osian and the Oswals
Where: about ninety minutes from Jodhpur.
- The temples: about eighteen Hindu and Jain temples built between the eighth and twelfth centuries.
- The oldest: its Mahavira temple, around 783 CE, is the oldest dated temple in this part of Rajasthan.
- Home of the Oswals: one of the great Jain merchant communities. On a festival morning you'll meet Oswal families from Mumbai who have come home to pray.
Bhandasar, Bikaner
The temple: three storeys, dedicated to Sumatinatha, in Bikaner's old city.
- Inside: painted with mirror work and gold leaf.
- The ghee story: Bikaner people love to tell you its builder had about 40,000 kilograms of ghee mixed into the mortar instead of water, and that the floor still sweats a little on hot days. Our guides tell it with a smile.
The pilgrim towns, where faith runs the clock
- Pushkar
- Fifty-two ghats; vegetarian and alcohol-free
- Nathdwara
- About an hour north of Udaipur
- Ajmer
- Dargah of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti
- Deshnoke
- About 30 km south of Bikaner
- Eklingji
- About 22 km north of Udaipur
Pushkar, the king of pilgrimage places
Tirth raj: what Hindus call it.
The story: Brahma struck down a demon with a lotus, and where its petals fell, lakes appeared.
- The lake: fifty-two ghats, many named for the princely houses that endowed them.
- The temples: Brahma's dates largely from the fourteenth century, and Savitri, his first wife, watches over it from her hilltop temple on Ratnagiri.
- At dawn: we climb to Savitri with a torch and a flask of tea.
- The rules: Pushkar is vegetarian and alcohol-free, and shoes come off on every ghat.
Nathdwara, the house of a divine child
Shrinathji: Krishna as a seven-year-old lifting Govardhan hill, installed in 1672 after his priests carried him away from the Braj country under Aurangzeb.
A haveli, not a temple: because he is cared for as a child, his home is called a mansion.
- Eight darshans a day: short viewings, from his waking to his bedtime.
- What to expect: noisy, devout and deeply human. Phones and bags stay outside.
- Afterwards: a walk through Chitron ki Gali to watch the pichwai painters.
Ajmer, the shrine of Gharib Nawaz
The saint: Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti, remembered as Gharib Nawaz, the friend of the poor, died in Ajmer in 1236.
The shrine: one of the most visited in South Asia. Akbar walked to it in thanks.
- Who comes: Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and Christians, with roses and chadars.
- How we go: in the morning, heads covered, with a guide who knows the shrine's families, and back for qawwali in the evening.
- The Urs: the anniversary of the saint's death follows the Islamic calendar, so we confirm the dates each year.
Deshnoke, the temple of Karni Mata
Where: about 30 kilometres south of Bikaner.
The goddess: Karni Mata, patron goddess of the Bikaner and Jodhpur royal families.
- The rats: around 20,000 of them, believed to be her family reborn. A white one is a great blessing.
- Barefoot: you must enter without shoes, so bring socks. Early morning is the quietest hour.
- Navratri fairs: twice a year pilgrims walk here in their thousands.
Eklingji and Galtaji
Eklingji: a walled complex of more than a hundred shrines to the family god of the Mewar rulers, about 22 kilometres north of Udaipur.
- When: in the evening, when local families come straight from work. Photography is not allowed.
- Galtaji: near Jaipur, Galtaji is a string of temples and sacred tanks in a narrow valley, fed by a spring pilgrims believe never runs dry.
- The macaques: hundreds of them. Go early and carry nothing that looks like food.
Old stone temples for lovers of sculpture
Harshat Mata, Abhaneri
The temple: ninth century, to Harshat Mata, the goddess of joy, beside the great stepwell of Chand Baori.
- The plan: panchayatana, with four smaller shrines at the corners.
- The carving: the tower is gone, but the panels around its terraces, Vishnu, Balarama, dancers and couples in tender embrace, are full, soft Pratihara work.
- Read more: our stepwells page explains why a well and a temple stand side by side.
Kiradu, near Barmer
Where: about 35 kilometres west of Barmer, in empty scrub.
- The temples: ruined, from the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and the carvings of the Someshvara temple are superb.
- At first light: you may have them entirely to yourself.
- Its nickname: some writers call it the Khajuraho of Rajasthan, which undersells it.
Jhalrapatan and the Chandrabhaga temples
Where: near Jhalawar, in Hadoti.
- The sun temple: about a thousand years old, in Jhalrapatan.
- Chandrabhaga: seventh-century temples on the river nearby.
- Pair them: with Gagron Fort, and come at dusk, when the stone glows.
The Sas-Bahu temples at Nagda, and Jagat Shiromani at Amer
Nagda: a few kilometres from Eklingji, two carved tenth and eleventh-century shrines beside a small lake, their columns crowded with dancers and musicians.
- Jagat Shiromani: below Amber Fort, built in the early seventeenth century by Man Singh's queen in memory of their son.
- The gateway: one of the finest carved marble gateways in Rajasthan.
Beyond Rajasthan: Khajuraho, Varanasi and Vrindavan
Khajuraho: the temples of Khajuraho are among the greatest sculpture in India.
- Varanasi: the ghats of Varanasi are the oldest living pilgrimage on earth.
- Mathura and Vrindavan: Mathura and Vrindavan are the Krishna country from which Shrinathji came.
- Pairings: each fits naturally with Rajasthan.
Folk gods, fairs and the faith of the villages
Baba Ramdev: in late summer pilgrims walk the roads of Marwar with flags, heading for his great fair at Ramdevra, near Pokaran. He is honoured by Hindus and Muslims alike.
Pabuji: a warrior hero who died keeping his word, sung by the bhopas.
The phad: the bhopas unroll this long painted cloth and perform Pabuji's epic through the night by lamplight. Our journal tells the story of the bhopa and the phad.
- Ramdevra
- Baba Ramdev's fair, late summer
- Khatu Shyam ji
- Great fair in Phalgun
- Baneshwar
- Bhil fair in Magh
- Kolayat
- Bathing at the Kartik full moon
- Bishnoi rules
- Twenty-nine, set in 1485
- Khatu Shyam ji: near Sikar, its great fair falls in the month of Phalgun.
- Salasar Balaji: in Churu district, it draws pilgrims all year.
- Baneshwar: in the south, the Baneshwar fair gathers Bhil families from three states at a river confluence in the month of Magh, and is often called their Kumbh.
- Kolayat: near Bikaner, pilgrims bathe in the sacred lake at the full moon of Kartik.
- Plan around them: these fairs are beautiful to witness and enormous, so we plan drives around their big days.
- The Bishnois: in the villages south of Jodhpur they live by twenty-nine rules set out by their guru Jambheshwar in 1485, which forbid cutting green trees and harming animals.
- Khejarli, 1730: Amrita Devi and many others were killed hugging khejri trees to save them.
- Faith as ecology: a morning with a Bishnoi family teaches it, and our page on the Bishnoi villages explains how we arrange it.
How we take you into a temple
It starts with the calendar: we check festival dates, darshan timings and the hours non-Jain visitors are welcomed, which can change at short notice.
Confirmed on the day: rather than trusting a schedule online.
The timing: you arrive when worship is under way but before the coaches.
- Your guide goes in with you: explaining the images and rituals, and translating a prayer or a song when the moment is right.
- No flower-seller blessings: we don't use the men who lead visitors to a ghat and then demand a large donation.
- A ritual at Pushkar: we arrange it with a priest our family trusts, who explains each step.
- The priests' registers: Pushkar's priestly families keep handwritten records of the pilgrims they have served for generations, and some guests have found their own grandparents' names in them.
- The quieter moments: tea with a Jain family after the morning puja, qawwali at Ajmer, an hour with a pichwai painter in Nathdwara, or a naturalist in the forest at Ranakpur before the temple opens.
- If you are Jain: tell us in advance and we'll plan your visit to Ranakpur or Dilwara for the morning prayers.
Sacred seasons and festival days
- Kartik Purnima
- Late October or November
- Janmashtami
- August or September
- Navratri
- Spring and autumn
- Mahavir Jayanti
- March or April
- Paryushan
- August or September
Kartik Purnima, the autumn full moon
When: usually late October or November.
- At Pushkar: the holiest day, when pilgrims bathe in the lake in their hundreds of thousands at the climax of the Pushkar Camel Fair.
- Elsewhere: lamps are floated on the Chambal at Keshoraipatan near Bundi, and Kolayat fills too.
Janmashtami and Diwali at Nathdwara
Janmashtami: Krishna's birthday, in August or September, is the great night at Nathdwara, with the birth celebrated at midnight.
- Annakut: the day after Diwali, the temple offers a mountain of food to Shrinathji.
- Be ready: both are extraordinary and very crowded. Read about Janmashtami in Nathdwara.
Navratri, twice a year
When: the nine nights of the goddess fall in spring and again in autumn.
- Where: the fort temples of Amber and Chittorgarh fill with devotees, and pilgrims walk to Deshnoke for the Karni Mata fairs.
- Read more: our Navratri page explains the customs.
The Urs at Ajmer
What it marks: the anniversary of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti's death, drawing pilgrims from across South Asia.
- When: it follows the Islamic lunar calendar and moves through the seasons year by year.
- Read more: our Urs at Ajmer Sharif page has the detail.
Mahavir Jayanti and Paryushan
Mahavir Jayanti: in March or April.
- Paryushan: the great Jain period of fasting and reflection, in August or September.
- Where: both bring pilgrims to Ranakpur, Dilwara and Jaisalmer, moving times to visit if you don't mind company.
Who will love it, and who should go gently
Who will love it
Architecture and sculpture lovers: give Ranakpur and Dilwara as much time as Mehrangarh and Amber, and add Osian, Kiradu and Jhalrapatan.
The curious about living faith: Pushkar, Nathdwara and Ajmer are endlessly rich.
- Photographers: they love the ghats at dawn, within the rules.
- Travellers of Indian descent: they often tell us a darshan or a ritual at the lake was the most emotional moment of their journey.
- Couples: they love the quiet of Ranakpur's valley at night.
- Older children: they enjoy hunting for the pillars and the hidden carvings, and Deshnoke is unforgettable, in one way or another.
Who should go gently
If crowds make you anxious: Nathdwara at festival time is a press of bodies, and Pushkar's lanes are busy and occasionally pushy.
If waiting frustrates you: nobody can say exactly when a door will open.
- If rules feel heavy: dress rules and leather rules apply almost everywhere.
- What we do: choose quieter hours, a calmer temple or a view from further back.
- To go deeper: our Sacred Rajasthan journey links Pushkar, Ajmer, Nathdwara and Ranakpur.
Temple etiquette, the short version
Cover up: shoulders and knees, men and women alike. A light scarf helps for covering your head at the dargah and some temples.
Shoes off: before temples, ghats and dargahs. Carry socks for hot or icy marble, and leave shoes with your guide or at the shoe stand.
At Jain temples: leave all leather outside, including belts, wallets and watch straps, and bring no food or drink.
- Dress
- Shoulders and knees covered
- Shoes
- Off; carry socks
- Jain temples
- No leather, no food
- Cameras
- Not inside Nathdwara or Dilwara
- Ask before photographing: many temples forbid photographing the images, Nathdwara and Dilwara forbid cameras inside, and nobody should photograph people bathing at the ghats.
- Move gently: walk around shrines clockwise, keep to the edges when worshippers are at the sanctum, and speak softly.
- Prasad: accept it with your right hand and never put it on the floor.
- Posted rules: some temples post rules about entry during menstruation, as many traditional Indian temples do. We ask guests to respect them.
- Flower-sellers: politely decline anyone who presses a flower into your hand and leads you to a ghat. Go with your own guide.
- Monkeys: langurs and macaques live around many temples. Don't feed them and keep food out of sight. Our page on wildlife around the temples explains why.
- Before you pack: read what to wear in temples.