Why go to Banswara at all
Banswara is far from everywhere, simple in its comforts and almost never on a first itinerary. That is exactly why the travellers who go love it.
A different Rajasthan: wooded hills, paddy fields, monsoon clouds and a river full of islands, closer in feel to Gujarat and Malwa than to Jaisalmer.
The islands: scattered through the Mahi and the backwaters of its great dam, the reason for the town's nickname.
Facts to know
- Nickname
- Sau dweepon ka shahar, city of a hundred islands
- Character
- Green, rain-fed, largely Bhil
- Language
- Vagdi, of the Bhili family
- Luxury hotels
- None; most guests stay in Dungarpur
- Best for
- Second and third journeys
- The goddess: Tripura Sundari at Talwara, the most important shrine in Vagad.
- The people: one of the most tribal districts in India, with a large Bhil majority and a history most visitors never hear.
- The honest catch: no luxury hotel. Most of our guests stay at Udai Bilas Palace in Dungarpur, about two hours away.
- Our full guide: read the Banswara destination page for every sight in detail.
Two stories in one name
Banswara's name holds two stories, and people here are happy to tell you both.
The bamboo story: bans means bamboo, and the forests around the town were once thick with it.
The Bhil story: older, and told by the Bhils, it says the land took its name from a Bhil chief called Bansiya, who ruled before the Rajputs came.
- Which is right: our guides tell both and let you choose. Most locals quietly believe the second.
- The Rajput founding: in 1527 Rawal Udai Singh of Vagad died at Khanwa beside Rana Sanga. His lands were divided, and his younger son Jagmal founded Banswara east of the Mahi.
- Sister towns: the elder son kept Dungarpur, and the two have been linked ever since. Read our piece on the palaces of Dungarpur.
- Later centuries: a small, forested state through the Mughal and Maratha years, in treaty with the British from 1818, and part of Rajasthan after Independence.
The Mahi and its islands
From the hill above the dam, the Mahi does not look like one river. It looks like a green archipelago that has wandered inland and got lost among the hills.
A great river: the Mahi rises in Madhya Pradesh, swings north through Banswara, then turns south-west across Gujarat to the sea.
The Tropic twice: on its long loop it crosses the Tropic of Cancer twice, a fact every schoolchild in Banswara knows.
Facts to know
- The river
- Rises in Madhya Pradesh, ends in the Gulf of Khambhat
- Unusual fact
- Crosses the Tropic of Cancer twice
- The dam
- Mahi Bajaj Sagar, built 1972 to 1983
- Distance
- About 16 km from town
- Named after
- Jamnalal Bajaj
- The dam: Mahi Bajaj Sagar, built for hydroelectric power and water supply, and one of the largest dams in Rajasthan.
- More islands: its reservoir pushed the water further into the hills, leaving hilltops as islands.
- Wildlife: mugger crocodiles and freshwater turtles in the backwaters, and cormorants, darters, herons, egrets, storks and ducks in winter.
- In full monsoon: usually August or September, when the gates open and the spillway roars, hundreds of local families drive out to watch.
Local tip
Skip the main dam viewpoint at sunset and ask your guide for a quiet hill above the backwaters. Watch the islands darken one by one as the sun drops.
Seeing the islands
There is no single viewpoint for a hundred islands. The pleasure is in a slow drive, a few stops and an unhurried hour by the water.
From the hills
- How: a drive along the reservoir's edge, stopping at viewpoints above the backwaters.
- When: late afternoon, for soft light and long shadows across the water.
By boat
- When possible: boating depends on the season and local permissions, which change. We check before we promise anything.
- The best hour: early morning, among the islands, with birds on every branch.
Kagdi pick-up weir
- What: a weir on a tributary of the Mahi closer to town, with a garden and lakeside walk.
- Why go: a gentle local evening, with an ice cream among Banswara's families.
Safety by the water
- Don't swim: there are crocodiles, and the currents can be strong in the monsoon.
- Keep back: from the spillway when the gates are open.
Tripura Sundari, the goddess of Talwara
Before dawn on a Navratri morning, the road to Talwara is a river of red: women in red veils, men in red turbans, red flags on every tractor.
Where: near the village of Talwara, about 14 kilometres from Banswara.
The goddess: a great form of the Mother, shown in black stone with eighteen arms, each holding a weapon or a symbol.
- 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.
- Pilgrims: from across Rajasthan, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh.
- Busiest: the two Navratris, in spring and autumn, when the area becomes a fair.
- Our hour: early, for the first aarti, then a quiet sit in the courtyard as village families come with coconuts and red cloth.
- Etiquette: shoulders and knees covered, shoes at the stand, no photographs of the goddess. See our temple etiquette guide.
The old town, the lake and the chhatris
Banswara's sights are scattered, unpolished and almost always empty. They reward the patient.
The old palace on the hill
What: the sixteenth-century palace of the Maharawals, sometimes called the Raj Mandir, above the old town.
- Visiting: still owned by the royal family and not a museum, so it is seen mostly from outside and from the lanes below.
- When: dusk, for the view across the roofs.
Anand Sagar and the royal chhatris
What: an artificial lake, also called Bai Talab, built by a queen of Banswara.
- Beside it: the chhatris, domed memorial pavilions of the state's rulers. Chhatri means umbrella.
- When: early morning, with cool stone and still water.
The old bazaar
- What: the lanes of a small district town, with silver, cloth, utensils and tea stalls.
- When: an evening walk, if you stay the night.
Ruined temples and a hill of remembrance
Two places outside town tell very different stories: one of medieval stone carvers, one of a day the Bhils have never forgotten.
The temples of Arthuna
What: clusters of ruined Hindu and Jain temples, the oldest from the eleventh and twelfth centuries, at the edge of the old Paramara kingdom of Malwa.
- The feel: carved doorframes and fallen lintels among the fields, sometimes with a farmer's goats sheltering in a hall.
- Why go: the carving is as fine as at far better-known sites, and you will likely be alone.
Mangarh Dham
Where: a hill on the border with Gujarat.
- What happened: on 17 November 1913, British-led forces opened fire on a gathering of Bhil followers of the reformer Govind Guru. Estimates of the dead vary widely, from hundreds to well over a thousand.
- Today: a place of remembrance, with a fair each year around the full moon of Margashirsha, in November or December.
- How to visit: quietly, with a guide who can tell the story.
Abdullah Pir
- What: the dargah of a Bohra saint on the edge of town, visited mainly by the Dawoodi Bohra community.
- Etiquette: modest dress, and a guide to make the introductions.
The Bhils of Banswara
Ask a Banswara villager where they are from and they will often name a hill or a river before they name a town.
A majority: a large majority of Banswara's people belong to Adivasi communities, most of them Bhil.
Scattered villages: families live in houses spread across the hills, each near its own fields, rather than in tight clusters.
Facts to know
- Community
- Bhils, among the oldest of these hills
- Famous for
- Archery, and service beside Rajput kings
- Reformer
- Govind Guru
- Biggest festival
- Holi, over several days
- Great gathering
- The Baneshwar fair, in Magh
- Archers: Bhils served and fought beside the Rajput kings, and were also, for centuries, pushed to the margins of those states.
- Govind Guru: in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries he led a movement calling for abstinence from alcohol, education, prayer around sacred fires and an end to forced labour. His image is in homes and roadside shrines.
- The weekly haat: the market where families walk in from the hills to trade grain, goats, cloth and silver. The most respectful way to meet Bhil life.
- Our rule: we don't run tours into people's homes, and we never ask anyone to perform for visitors.
Local tip
At the haat, buy something useful, a brass pot or a length of cloth, and drink tea at a stall. A purchase and a smile open more conversations than a camera.
Baneshwar, where the rivers meet
On the night of the full fair, the riverbank at Baneshwar glows with hundreds of small fires, and around each one a family is singing.
Where: the confluence where the Som and Jakham join the Mahi, on the Dungarpur side of the river.
The temples: Baneshwar Mahadev, the oldest shrine, and temples linked to the eighteenth-century saint Mavji, revered by many as an incarnation of Vishnu.
- The fair: in January or February, in the month of Magh, often called the Kumbh of the tribes.
- Its meaning: many families come to immerse the ashes of relatives who died during the year.
- At night: bonfires, folk songs, raslila in the temples and a fairground of rides and stalls.
- How we go: small groups, a guide who knows the families, the edges during sacred moments, and more listening than photographing. See the Baneshwar Fair.
- Dates: they follow the lunar calendar, and we confirm them each year.
What Banswara eats
In Banswara you eat maize, rice and whatever the monsoon has given the forest.
Maize every day: thick rotis or a coarse porridge.
Rice: grown in the low fields after the rains, unusual for Rajasthan.
- On the side: dal, buttermilk kadhi and green chutneys of chilli and coriander.
- In the monsoon: forest greens and wild vegetables at the haat, and roasted corn on every roadside.
- Mahua: flowers gathered by Bhil families in spring, dried, cooked into sweets or distilled. You will smell their heavy sweetness in March and April.
- For a long day out: we pack a picnic from the palace kitchen at Udai Bilas, or arrange a simple meal at a home or dhaba we trust.
Where to stay, honestly
We say it plainly: Banswara has no luxury hotel, and that shapes how we plan it.
Our usual plan: stay at Udai Bilas Palace in Dungarpur, on Gaib Sagar lake, and spend a long day in Banswara.
- For dawn at Talwara or the fair: a night in the best available town hotel. We book the best room and brief you honestly.
- Your team stays with you: driver and guide throughout.
- Comfort returns: our guide to palace hotels shows where to pick it up again.
When to visit, and why we say monsoon
Banswara is the one place in Rajasthan we actively recommend in the monsoon.
Late July to September
- Why: a deep, astonishing green, full rivers, running waterfalls, a full dam and islands at their best.
- The catch: warm, humid and some rural roads slow. See Rajasthan in August.
October and November
- Why: perhaps the best of all, still green, with the air clearing and the heat gone.
- Festivals: the autumn Navratri at Tripura Sundari, and the Mangarh fair in November or December.
December to February
- Why: pleasant and cool, with winter birds on the backwaters and the Baneshwar fair in Magh.
March to June
- Our advice: hot, and we don't recommend it, though the spring Navratri and Holi fall in this season.
Getting there and planning the day
Banswara is far from everywhere, which is part of its character, so we plan the roads carefully.
From Udaipur: through the hills. See our Udaipur guide.
With Dungarpur: we usually plan the two together, from a base at Udai Bilas.
Facts to know
- From Udaipur
- About 160 km, 3.5 to 4 hours
- From Dungarpur
- About two hours east
- Nearest airport
- Udaipur
- Railway
- Not on the main network
- Driving rule
- No rural roads after dark
- Between states: within a long day's drive of Indore and Ahmedabad.
- A long day: Tripura Sundari for morning prayers, the palace, Anand Sagar and the chhatris, a picnic above the backwaters, the dam in the afternoon, and back to Dungarpur for dinner.
- On our journeys: an extension of offbeat Rajasthan, pairing naturally with Chittorgarh to the north.
Vagad, the green country
Vagad is the old name for the land of Dungarpur and Banswara, the southernmost corner of Rajasthan where it meets Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh.
The land: low, rounded hills and broad valleys, drained by the Mahi and its tributaries the Som and the Jakham.
The rain: far more than the desert to the north, which makes the monsoon here one of the greenest in the state.
- The grain: maize, not millet, is the staple, and the countryside looks and feels closer to Gujarat than to the Thar.
- The language: Vagdi, of the Bhili family, blending Rajasthani, Gujarati and the speech of Malwa.
- Many streams: Rajput courts, Jain and Bohra traders, Brahmin priests and, above all, the Bhils, who were here first.
- The stone: pareva, the fine blue-grey stone of the Dungarpur palaces, quarried in the district.
A long day, or two slow ones
Banswara can be seen in one full day from Dungarpur, but it is better with a night in between.
The long day from Dungarpur
First light: leave Udai Bilas Palace and reach Tripura Sundari for the morning prayers.
- Late morning: the old palace from below, Anand Sagar and the royal chhatris.
- Lunch: a picnic above the Mahi backwaters.
- Afternoon: the dam and a viewpoint over the islands, then back to Dungarpur for a late dinner by the lake.
With a night in Banswara
Evening: walk the old bazaar.
- Second morning: a weekly haat if one falls that day, or the ruined temples of Arthuna.
- Onward: back to Udaipur or Dungarpur by afternoon, or north towards Chittorgarh.
In the fair season
- Give it a day: start early at Baneshwar and leave before the evening crowds peak.
- Base: Dungarpur, which is closer to the confluence.
What we tell friends before Banswara
Banswara rewards curiosity and patience, and punishes rushing.
Come with a local guide: very little is signposted, and the best places need someone who knows the way.
Dress modestly everywhere: a conservative, rural district, so shoulders and knees covered at temples and in villages.
- Ask before every photograph: and accept a no with good grace.
- Carry supplies: water, snacks, sunscreen and mosquito repellent. Facilities on the road are basic.
- Respect every faith: the goddess at Talwara, the Bohra shrines, the confluence at Baneshwar and the memorial at Mangarh.
- Low expectations of comfort: and high expectations of the landscape. Banswara usually exceeds the second.
Who Banswara is for
Banswara is a place for a particular traveller, and we try to match it carefully.
Second and third journeys: for those who have seen Jodhpur's forts and Udaipur's lakes and want to know what lies beyond.
Photographers: green landscapes and monsoon skies.
- Birders: happy to scan a reservoir for an hour.
- The curious: students of religion and tribal history, and anyone interested in where Rajasthan, Gujarat and Malwa meet.
- Not for you if: it is your first visit to India, or you need a spa and a choice of restaurants every evening. Spend your southern days in Dungarpur and Udaipur instead.
- The wider region: our introduction to Mewar and Udaipur places Vagad in context.