Bundi Utsav at a glance
What it is: Bundi's own festival, with a procession, folk performances, crafts, contests and fireworks over a few days in Kartik.
What makes it special: the stage. Bundi's Garh Palace, stepwells and lakes are among the most beautiful in Rajasthan, and the town is small enough to walk.
- Month
- Kartik, after Diwali in many years
- Length
- Usually about three days
- Organiser
- Rajasthan Tourism with the district
- From Jaipur
- About four hours by road
- From Kota
- About forty minutes
- Best for
- Couples, photographers, repeat visitors
- The bonus: the full moon of Kartik, when pilgrims bathe in the Chambal at nearby Keshoraipatan and float lamps at dusk.
- The honest part: the programme changes every year and the dates are set late, so this is a festival to plan around with some flexibility.
- Read first: our Bundi guide for the town itself.
The stage: a Hada capital folded into a gorge
The founding: in 1342, by the usual reckoning, Rao Deva Hada took this pass from the Meena chiefs who held it and made it the capital of the Hada Chauhans.
The star fort: within a few years the Hadas had begun Taragarh on the ridge above. Tradition credits Rao Bar Singh with building it in 1354.
- Founded
- 1342, by Rao Deva Hada
- Taragarh
- Credited to Rao Bar Singh, 1354
- Stepwells
- More than fifty
- Raniji ki Baori
- 1699
- Kipling
- Visited in 1887
- The palace: the Garh Palace grew down the hillside over centuries, a stack of pavilions, brackets and elephant gates that seems to grow out of the rock.
- The murals: the Chitrashala, built for Rao Umed Singh in the mid-eighteenth century, is painted in green, blue and gold with Krishna, court life and monsoon storms.
- The stepwells: more than fifty, led by Raniji ki Baori of 1699, with carved gateways and brackets in the Hadoti style.
- Nawal Sagar: the square lake in the town, with a small temple to Varuna half-submerged near its centre. In Kartik it is still full after the rains.
- Kipling's Bundi: Rudyard Kipling visited in 1887 while writing travel letters, and stayed at the Sukh Mahal on Jait Sagar. Our journal on Kipling in Bundi follows his route.
The Hada story behind the celebrations
The clan: the Hadas are a branch of the Chauhan Rajputs, the clan said to have been born from a sacrificial fire. Hadoti, or Haravati, means the land of the Hadas.
Mughal service: when Akbar besieged Ranthambore in 1569, its Hada commander, Rao Surjan, surrendered the fort and accepted Mughal service. Akbar gave him the title Rao Raja.
- Generals of the empire: the Hadas became some of the Mughals' most trusted commanders, and their wealth paid for the palace you see.
- Rao Chhatrasal: the builder of the Keshoraipatan temple, he died fighting at Samugarh in 1658, in the war of succession among Shah Jahan's sons.
- The split with Kota: Kota became a separate state under Madho Singh, a younger son of the Bundi house, in the early seventeenth century. The two capitals are only about 40 kilometres apart.
- The British and after: Bundi signed its treaty with the East India Company in 1818, and after independence it merged into Rajasthan.
- Read more: our page on the Rajput dynasties places the Hadas among their neighbours.
When Bundi Utsav falls
The month: Kartik, which usually falls in October or November. Diwali comes at the new moon of Kartik, so in many years the Utsav follows Diwali by a week or two.
The full moon: Kartik Purnima closes the month, and many years the Utsav runs close to it, so the festival and the lamps on the Chambal can be seen together.
- Lunar month
- Kartik
- Western months
- Usually October or November
- 2025 edition
- Opened in early November
- Kartik Purnima
- The full moon closing the month
- Dates confirmed
- By the state each year
- Recent years: the 2025 edition opened in early November, and earlier editions have fallen anywhere from late October to late November.
- How we plan: we confirm the dates each year as soon as the state announces them, and we hold haveli rooms for the likely week in the meantime.
- The weather: dry and sunny, with warm days and cool mornings and evenings. It is one of the most comfortable times of year for Taragarh.
- The landscape: the lakes are full from the monsoon, the hills are still green in late October, and the light is clear and golden.
- Month guide: our Rajasthan in November page covers the other festivals of the season, including the Pushkar Camel Fair at the same full moon.
What happens during the Utsav
The procession
What: a parade through the old town, often called the shobha yatra, with decorated camels and horses, folk dancers, bands and people in traditional dress.
- Where to watch: from a haveli roof or a raised doorway along the route, with the palace above you.
- Why it matters: this is the moment the whole town comes out, and the faces in the crowd are as good as the parade.
Folk music and dance
What: performers from across Rajasthan and from Hadoti, often on stages near the lakes and palace.
- Look for: Ghoomar, Kalbelia dancers in black and silver, Bhavai pot-balancing, and the desert songs of Manganiyar and Langa musicians.
- At night: some evenings bring larger cultural programmes and fireworks.
Contests
Turban tying: a favourite with visitors and locals alike, against the clock.
- Moustaches and dress: past programmes have included contests for the finest moustache and the best traditional dress.
- Village games: tug of war and other traditional games, often with visitors invited to join a team.
Crafts
- What: craft stalls and demonstrations, with textiles, lac bangles, wooden toys and the miniature painting for which Bundi is known.
- Bundi painting: the town gave its name to a school of miniature painting, lush with monsoon skies, peacocks and Krishna. See our page on miniature painting.
Lamps on the water
- What: around the full moon of Kartik, lamps are lit and floated on the water, and some years the lakes and stepwells of Bundi are lit too.
- Where it is greatest: on the Chambal at Keshoraipatan, about an hour from Bundi.
Kartik Purnima at Keshoraipatan
Keshoraipatan is a small temple town on the Chambal, and its great temple was built by Rao Chhatrasal of Bundi in the seventeenth century. On Kartik Purnima pilgrims come in their thousands to bathe in the river and float little leaf-boats of lamps and flowers on the water at dusk.
The temple: dedicated to Keshav Rai, a form of Vishnu, it stands high above the river with steps running down to the ghats.
- The bathe: Kartik Purnima is one of the holiest days of the Hindu year for bathing in a sacred river, and the ghats are crowded from early morning.
- The lamps: at dusk, families light small lamps of clay or leaf and set them on the water with a prayer. This is often called deepdaan, the gift of lamps.
- A fair: a fair gathers around the temple at the full moon, with stalls of sweets, bangles and toys.
- Respect: this is worship, not a show. Stand back from the water's edge, ask before photographing anyone and keep your phone down during prayers.
- Getting there: about an hour's drive from Bundi, and a little closer to Kota. We plan to leave before the crowds peak after dark.
A festival day in Bundi, hour by hour
Dawn, Taragarh
- The climb: walk up to Taragarh at first light, twenty to thirty minutes from the palace, when the valley is in mist and the monkeys are sleepy.
- The view: the whole blue town below you, the palace roofs and the lakes catching the sun.
Morning, the palace and the Chitrashala
- Go early: the Garh Palace and the Chitrashala are quietest in the first hours, before festival visitors arrive.
- Take a guide: someone who can read the murals turns the painted walls into stories.
Late morning, the procession or the contests
- Follow the day's programme: our team tells you where the procession, the contests or the craft demonstrations are that morning.
- Then the stepwells: Raniji ki Baori is a few minutes' walk from the bazaar.
Afternoon, rest
- Lunch on the roof: maize roti and Hadoti dishes at your haveli, then a long rest in the heat of the day.
Late afternoon, the lakes
- Nawal Sagar: walk around the lake and watch the palace turn gold in the water.
- Or Jait Sagar: drive to Sukh Mahal and the cenotaphs of Kshar Bagh for Kipling's view at sunset.
Evening, the performances
- The programme: an hour of the evening performances or fireworks.
- Then dinner: on your haveli roof with the palace lit above you, the most beautiful place in Bundi to end a festival day.
Good manners in a small town
Ask before photographing: people in the procession and the crowd are usually happy to be asked. Some will say no, and that is the answer.
Temples: shoes off, shoulders covered and quiet voices at the temples in the town and at Keshoraipatan.
- The procession has right of way: don't step into the route for a picture.
- Monkeys: carry nothing that looks like food on the way up to Taragarh, and keep sunglasses in a zipped bag.
- Dress: light, modest clothes for the day and a layer for the evening, which can be cool in November.
- Buy fairly: pay makers properly for crafts and miniature paintings. Bargain gently or not at all.
- No drones: the sky over the palace and the crowds is not the place for one.
Where to stay for Bundi Utsav
- Book
- Three to four months ahead
- Best rooms
- Palace-facing, on upper floors
- Access
- Many havelis are reached on foot
- Alternative
- A palace hotel in Kota, forty minutes away
Bundi Vilas
Where: a restored haveli right against the walls of the Garh Palace, reached on foot through a stone archway.
- Feel: a handful of rooms finished with a light, contemporary hand: limewashed walls, local stone and modern bathrooms.
- Who it suits: couples and design-minded travellers who don't mind steps.
Haveli Braj Bhushanjee
Where: a family haveli of around two centuries just below the palace, run by the family who own it.
- Feel: old murals, miniature paintings, carved doors and family furniture, with a vegetarian kitchen cooking Hadoti food.
- Who it suits: history lovers, and families who need a range of room sizes.
Kota's palaces
Umed Bhawan Palace: a large early twentieth-century palace in gardens, now a heritage hotel.
- Brijraj Bhawan Palace: a small, gracious heritage hotel on the bank of the Chambal.
- When to choose them: if you want a full hotel with lawns and space, and a forty-minute drive each way.
Castle Bijaipur
- What: Castle Bijaipur, a sixteenth-century castle in a village in the Vindhyan hills on the way to Chittorgarh.
- When: a peaceful night or two after the festival.
What to eat in Bundi in festival week
Maize roti with white butter and jaggery: the taste of Hadoti in the cool months, best on a haveli roof at breakfast or lunch.
Dal baati: baked wheat rolls broken into dal and soaked in ghee, as across Rajasthan.
- Kota kachori: a crisp pastry filled with spiced dal, heavy with fennel and asafoetida. Bundi's sweet shops sell it too, hot in the morning.
- Diwali sweets: if the Utsav follows Diwali, the sweet shops are still full of the season's specials.
- Coriander country: Hadoti is a great coriander-growing region, and its seed flavours many local dishes.
- Where to eat: we usually plan dinners at your haveli, where the family kitchen cooks Hadoti food properly. Our Rajasthani food guide has more.
What most visitors miss
The Chitrashala's monsoon scenes: look for the painted storm clouds and peacocks. After a green monsoon outside, they make sudden sense.
The smaller stepwells: Bundi has more than fifty. Ask our guide for the ones in the back lanes, used by neighbourhoods rather than visitors.
- Kshar Bagh: the walled garden of the royal cenotaphs near Jait Sagar, with domes carved for the rulers and queens of Bundi.
- Chaurasi Khambon ki Chhatri: the cenotaph of eighty-four pillars on the edge of town, quiet and beautiful in the late light.
- The blue lanes at dawn: before the town wakes, the washed walls are at their softest blue.
- Taragarh's ramparts: most visitors turn back at the first viewpoint. The walls go on, wild and empty.
Bundi's festival year
Kajli Teej: Bundi's great local festival, in the monsoon month of Bhadrapad. The goddess is carried through the streets, women dress in green and leheriya, swings hang from trees and a fair fills the evenings.
Hariyali Teej: the green Teej of Shravan, with swings in the trees and ghevar, the honeycomb sweet of the season, in every sweet shop. See Teej.
- Kajli Teej
- Bhadrapad, usually August
- Hariyali Teej
- Shravan, July or early August
- Gangaur
- Late March or April
- Diwali
- Late October or November
- Holi and Gangaur: Holi with the spring full moon, and Gangaur, the festival of Parvati, about two weeks later.
- Navratri: nine nights of the goddess in Ashvin, with music in the evenings.
- Diwali: lamps in the bazaar and on the havelis at the new moon of Kartik.
- Kartik Purnima: lamps on the Chambal at Keshoraipatan, the moment the Utsav is often timed around.
Photographing Bundi in festival week
The palace from Nawal Sagar: in the late afternoon the Garh Palace and Taragarh reflect in the lake, upside down and gold.
The procession from above: a haveli roof or balcony gives you the parade with the blue lanes and the palace in one frame.
- Raniji ki Baori in side light: the carved gateways and brackets need the low sun of morning or late afternoon.
- Lamps at Keshoraipatan: use a steady hand rather than a tripod on the crowded ghats, and keep the flash off.
- People: ask first, show the picture afterwards, and never photograph worshippers during prayers.
- Read more: our photography tips for Rajasthan cover light, etiquette and kit.
Combining Bundi Utsav with the rest of Rajasthan
Kota Dussehra: a few weeks earlier, in Ashvin. An autumn journey through Hadoti can catch the Kota Dussehra fair and then the Utsav.
Diwali: falls at the new moon of Kartik, before the Utsav in many years. See Diwali in Rajasthan.
- Pushkar: the Pushkar Camel Fair peaks at the same Kartik full moon, about four hours away. You can't be in both on the night, but a journey can include both fairs.
- Ranthambore: about two to three hours away, open for safaris from 1 October and lovely in November.
- Chittorgarh and Udaipur: Bundi leads naturally south to Chittorgarh and on to Udaipur.
- Offbeat Rajasthan: our offbeat Rajasthan journey travels through Bundi, Chittorgarh and Dungarpur, and Utsav week is a fine time to take it.
- The region: our Hadoti page introduces Bundi, Kota and Jhalawar together.
Who will love Bundi Utsav
Couples: a haveli roof, a lit palace and lamps on the water. It is hard to plan a more romantic week.
Photographers: the procession under the palace, dancers by the stepwells and the lamps at Keshoraipatan.
- Repeat visitors: if you have seen Jaipur and Udaipur, Bundi in festival week shows a gentler, older Rajasthan.
- Families: children enjoy the contests and the fireworks, though the climb to Taragarh needs fit legs.
- Less suited to: guests who need step-free access or a large resort. The lanes are steep and many havelis are reached on foot.
- If the dates don't work: come for Kajli Teej in the monsoon month of Bhadrapad instead, Bundi's own great local festival.
Getting to Bundi and around it
By road: our chauffeurs drive from Jaipur on a good highway through farmland, usually after breakfast so you arrive by lunch.
In the old town: the lanes are narrow, so we walk, or use a small vehicle for luggage to your haveli.
- From Jaipur
- About four hours by road
- From Kota
- About forty minutes
- Nearest airport
- Jaipur, with most guests driving on
- Taragarh climb
- Twenty to thirty minutes from the palace
- During the Utsav: roads around the procession route close for a few hours. Our team plans your day around them.
- To Keshoraipatan: about an hour by car. We leave in the afternoon to be on the ghats before sunset.
- Onward: Ranthambore, Chittorgarh and Udaipur are all natural next stops. Our guide to getting around Rajasthan explains how we plan drives.
Before you go
Book early: Bundi has few good rooms, and Utsav week fills them.
Pack: good walking shoes, a light layer for evenings and a scarf for temples.
- Stay three nights: one for the town, one for the festival and one for Keshoraipatan or the lakes.
- Carry small notes: for tea, snacks, temple offerings and tips for performers.
- Plan the drive: Bundi is about four hours from Jaipur, so arrive by lunch and rest before the evening.
- Ask us about dates early: the festival moves every year with the moon of Kartik.