A month of processions and full stepwells
We have watched the Teej procession from the same rooftop in Tripolia Bazaar for as long as we can remember. Women on the roofs around us wear green and wave-dyed leheriya, and somebody always passes round a box of ghevar. That evening is our August.
The procession: first come the bands, brass glinting in the low light, then camels in their finery, horses and men in turbans of every pink and saffron.
The goddess: last comes Parvati in her palanquin, carried out of the City Palace to cheers from every balcony.
- Weather
- Warm, humid days, often the low 30s °C in Jaipur; a little cooler in Udaipur and the hills
- Rain
- Usually the wettest month, in bursts rather than weeks of grey
- Crowds
- Quiet, with busy holiday weekends
- Festivals
- Teej, Kajli Teej, Raksha Bandhan, Janmashtami, 15 August
- Best for
- Repeat visitors, festival lovers, photographers and couples
- Pack
- Quick-drying cotton, shoes with grip, an umbrella, repellent
- The rains settle in: if July is the month they arrive, August is the month they stay.
- The wettest month: usually, across most of Rajasthan, though wet here still means bursts rather than weeks of grey.
- At their greenest: the hills, with the rivers running and the reservoirs of Mewar rising towards their brims.
- Full stepwells: dry and dusty for most of the year, they fill with water again, and you see what the builders intended: green water reflecting carved stone, steps vanishing beneath the surface.
- The most festive month of the monsoon: in many years Teej, Raksha Bandhan, Krishna's birthday and Independence Day all fall within a few weeks of each other.
- Busy families: the bazaars are crowded with threads and sweets, and the temples ring late into the night.
- How Rajasthanis live: a wonderful time to see it, as long as you accept that the weather, not the itinerary, has the final word.
Reading an August sky
Temperatures: warm, humid days, often in the low 30s °C in Jaipur and a little cooler in Udaipur and the hills.
The usual pattern: a bright, sticky morning, clouds building after lunch, and a heavy shower in the afternoon or evening, sometimes with thunder.
The reward: a fresh, cool hour after the rain that makes the whole day worth it.
- Variety: some days are grey and drizzly throughout, and a few are dry and brilliant.
- Wettest in the south and east: Mount Abu usually has its heaviest rain now, and Mewar and Hadoti are lush.
- Jaipur: green, but with long dry spells.
- The far west: around Jodhpur, Bikaner and Jaisalmer, only a few storms, but they turn the desert briefly green and fill the village tanks.
- The year: our weather and climate guide covers it.
- Roads and events: heavy rain occasionally slows roads for a few hours, especially on ghat roads in the hills, and outdoor evening events can be cancelled at short notice.
- How we plan: short drives, flexible afternoons and an indoor alternative for every outdoor plan.
- The best light of the year: when the sun breaks through after a storm and lights a wet fort against a slate-blue sky. We keep our guests close enough to catch it.
The festivals of August
- Hariyali Teej 2027
- About 4 August, by the almanacs
- Raksha Bandhan 2027
- Mid-August
- Janmashtami 2027
- The last week of August
- Fixed date
- Independence Day, 15 August
- 2026
- An extra lunar month; each fell later
- Lunar dates: Hindu festivals drift by up to three weeks between years, so treat the notes below as seasons, and let us check your days.
Teej in Jaipur, late July or August
What it celebrates: the reunion of Shiva and Parvati and the gift of the rains.
The royal procession: it carries the goddess out through Tripolia Gate in the evening and along the bazaars of the old city, with bands, camels and horses.
- Budhi Teej: the procession goes out again the next day for the old Teej.
- The look: women dress in green and leheriya, swings hang from the trees and henna patterns cover every hand.
- Where to watch: we book a balcony or rooftop above the route, which is calmer and better for photographs than the street. Our Teej guide explains the rituals.
Kajli Teej in Bundi, August or early September
When: about two weeks after Hariyali Teej, in the month of Bhadrapad.
- Bundi's own: the festival Bundi thinks of as its own.
- What happens: the goddess is carried through the streets, women dress in green, swings hang over the lakes and a fair fills the evenings.
- The feel: smaller and more local than Jaipur's Teej, and to us more intimate.
Raksha Bandhan, the August full moon
When: the full moon of Shravan.
- The thread: sisters tie a rakhi, a decorated thread, on their brothers' wrists, and brothers promise to protect them.
- The bazaars: for weeks beforehand they glitter with threads and boxes of sweets.
- A family day: our guides spend it at home, so we plan a light, unhurried day around it.
Independence Day, 15 August
A fixed date: in a calendar of moving ones.
Flags: they fly from every school and rooftop.
- Delhi: the Prime Minister speaks from the ramparts of the Red Fort, which closes to visitors in the days before.
- Old Delhi: the rooftops fill with kite fliers.
- Near a weekend: Indian families travel, and Udaipur and Mount Abu get busy.
Janmashtami, August or September
Krishna's birthday: celebrated at midnight, with fasting, singing and the joyful Nandotsav the next morning.
Rajasthan's claim: the image of Shrinathji, Krishna as a child lifting a mountain, has been worshipped at Nathdwara since the seventeenth century.
- Nathdwara on the night: extraordinary and extremely crowded.
- Jaipur: the Govind Devji temple behind the City Palace fills with devotees.
- With respect: our Janmashtami in Nathdwara page explains how to see it.
Paryushan and the Ramdevra fair
Paryushan: Jain families observe eight days of fasting, reflection and asking forgiveness, in August or September.
- Busy temples: Ranakpur, Dilwara and Jaisalmer fill with worshippers.
- Ramdevra: in the far west, late in the monsoon, pilgrims walk the roads with flags towards the shrine of Baba Ramdev near Pokaran.
- Every community: the fair draws devotees from across western India.
Stepwells, lakes and waterfalls
Every drop mattered: before pipes and dams, kings, queens and merchants built baoris, stepwells, tanks and lakes to catch the rain and hold it through the dry months.
- Works of art: the finest of them, and August is the month to see them doing the job they were made for.
- How they work: our stepwells experience explains.
Bundi's stepwells and lakes
A town of stepwells: Bundi once had dozens.
- Raniji ki Baori: Raniji ki Baori, built by a queen in the seventeenth century, is the most beautiful, its carved gateways framing the water far below.
- The lakes: Nawal Sagar fills beneath the palace, and Jait Sagar begins to bloom with lotus.
- The town: green from end to end.
The lakes of Udaipur
Rising fast: Pichola and Fateh Sagar rise quickly in a good August.
- At the brim: when Fateh Sagar nears it, people drive out after work to watch the water and eat roasted corn on the embankment.
- The Monsoon Palace: it often sits inside a cloud above, which was precisely the point when Maharana Sajjan Singh built it to watch the rains.
Menal and the waterfalls of Mewar
Where: on the road between Bundi and Chittorgarh.
- The fall: the river at Menal pours over a cliff into a deep gorge beside a group of carved medieval Shiva temples, most dramatic in August after good rain.
- How we visit: an hour's stop on the drive, staying well back from the wet edge.
Chand Baori and the Jaipur stepwells
- Chand Baori: at Abhaneri, the vast geometric stepwell holds water in its lowest steps after a good monsoon, and the temple beside it is quiet.
- Panna Meena ka Kund: nearer Jaipur, the small Panna Meena ka Kund below Amber fills, its crisscross steps reflected in green water.
Where we send guests in August
- Anchor on a festival: we usually build an August journey around a festival date, then add the places most beautiful in the rains.
- Two or three bases: enough, and every place below is within half a day's drive of the next.
Udaipur and the Monsoon Palace
Rajasthan at its most romantic: Udaipur in August.
- What to do: a boat on Pichola at the clearest hour, the City Palace while the courtyards are cool, and the Monsoon Palace on a clear evening to see the lakes below.
- Where to stay: a lakeside palace, such as the Taj Lake Palace, the Leela Palace or Shiv Niwas, and watch the storms come over the hills from your window.
Bundi, the town of the rains
Murals come to life: Bundi's paintings are full of monsoon scenes, lovers under storm clouds and peacocks dancing, and in August you see them outside the window.
- Quiet: the Chitrashala is calm, the lanes are washed and the hills are deep green.
- Where to stay: one of the town's heritage havelis.
Chittorgarh and Bijaipur
Magnificent under dark skies: the great fort of Chittor, with its tanks filling and green grass around the ruined palaces.
- Janmashtami: the temples of Meera and Kumbha Shyam are busy.
- Where to stay: Castle Bijaipur, in green countryside about an hour away.
Nathdwara and Eklingji
The great Krishna town: an hour north of Udaipur, home of the Shrinathji image and of pichwai, the painted cloth hangings made for it.
- Ordinary days: we visit for a darshan, a viewing of the god, with a local guide.
- Janmashtami: we only go with careful planning.
- On the way: Eklingji, the Mewar royal family's Shiva temple.
Jaipur, for Teej
If your dates catch Teej: two nights in Jaipur is a joy.
- What to do: watch the procession from a balcony, buy leheriya in the old city and eat ghevar in its best week.
- The rest of August: Jaipur is green, humid and very quiet, and its monuments are pleasant early in the morning.
Deogarh and the Mewar countryside
- The green heart of Mewar: Deogarh has a hilltop palace, its own school of miniature painting and lakes filling around the town.
- Where to stay: Deogarh Mahal, and walk out to the villages in the cool of the evening.
Wildlife in the wettest month
Ranthambore closed: Ranthambore's core zones stay shut through August.
Outer zones: some may run drives, weather permitting, but tracks are muddy and the forest is at its thickest, so sightings are a gamble.
- The fort climb: slippery, and very busy if Ganesh Chaturthi falls in late August, when pilgrims walk up to the Trinetra Ganesh temple.
- Jawai: at Jawai, many camps are closed or on reduced seasons, and leopards are harder to find in the green.
- Bharatpur: at Bharatpur, the monsoon fills the wetland and the great nesting colonies of storks, herons and cormorants build through the late monsoon, though most visitors wait for the winter migrants.
- Peacocks: they dance in every field.
- Sarus cranes: they walk the flooded paddies in the east of the state.
- Birdsong: the forests around Kumbhalgarh and Sajjangarh are loud with it at dawn.
The tastes of August
Ghevar at its peak: in the weeks around Teej and Raksha Bandhan, when families buy it by the box for sisters, daughters and in-laws.
Then it vanishes: after that it quietly disappears until next year.
How to try it: plain, then with malai on top, from a sweet shop that fries it fresh each morning.
- Satudi Teej: in Bundi and Hadoti, Kajli Teej is also called this, after sattu, roasted gram flour, which women shape with sugar and ghee into sweets for the festival.
- Janmashtami offerings: Krishna's temples offer panjiri, a sweet of roasted flour, and butter and sugar crystals, because the child Krishna was famous for stealing butter.
- Midnight meals: many families fast until midnight and then eat together.
- Everyday monsoon food: pakoras in the rain, mirchi bada in Jodhpur, roasted corn at the lakeside and hot chai in small glasses.
- In palace kitchens: ask for a seasonal thali with kadhi, greens and bajra rotis with white butter.
- Learn to cook: a cooking class in a haveli is one of the best ways to spend a rainy afternoon.
Leheriya, henna and the colours of the rains
Before Teej, women and girls sit in rows on doorsteps and in courtyards while mehndi artists draw vines, peacocks and tiny portraits on their palms. A deep, dark stain is said to promise a loving husband, and the women compare hands for days afterwards.
Leheriya means wave: it is the cloth of the monsoon.
How it is made: dyers roll a length of fine cotton or chiffon diagonally, tie it tightly at intervals and dip it in colour, again and again.
- The result: when it is unrolled, the stripes run across it like rain on a window or ripples on a lake.
- The Teej weeks: every woman who can afford a new sari or odhni buys one in leheriya.
- Green sells first: because green is the colour of the rains and of a happy marriage.
- Days of work: the best pieces come from families who have dyed this way for generations.
- See it done: our leheriya and bandhani experience takes you into a dyer's workshop.
- Henna for you: we arrange an artist at your hotel or with a family we know, and our page on mehndi explains the tradition.
- The season's small things: bangles of lac in green and red, swings and their silk ropes, rakhis by the thousand and painted clay toys for children.
- The joy: most of what you will want costs little, and the pleasure is in choosing it in a crowded lane with the rain about to fall.
Crowds, rates and holiday weekends
Calm palaces: hotels across Rajasthan are quiet, with rates among the gentlest of the year and generous attitudes to upgrades.
Quiet monuments: on weekday mornings, and the best guides are free.
- Visitors
- Few from abroad
- Rates
- Among the gentlest of the year
- Busy dates
- Holidays near a weekend, Teej evenings
- Closed
- Some desert camps and safari lodges
- Holiday weekends: when Independence Day, Raksha Bandhan or Janmashtami fall near a weekend, Indian families travel, and Udaipur, Mount Abu and Nathdwara fill quickly.
- Teej evenings: crowded in the old cities of Jaipur and Bundi.
- How we plan: we book those dates early and keep the rest of the trip deliberately calm.
- Prices: our guide to what a luxury Rajasthan journey costs explains how season changes the price, and we quote after one conversation.
- Closures: some desert camps and safari lodges close, and a few heritage hotels use the quiet months for restoration.
- Our checks: we check every property for your dates before suggesting it.
What to pack for August
Quick-drying cotton or linen: and more changes than you think, because humidity slows drying.
Footwear: shoes with good grip for wet stone, and washable sandals for the lanes.
- Rain gear: a compact umbrella and a light rain shell.
- Camera care: a dry bag and a cloth for your lens, which fogs when you leave an air-conditioned car.
- Something green or leheriya: if you will be at Teej. Hosts love it, and we can take you to buy some.
- Modest clothes and socks: for temples and festival crowds.
- Health: mosquito repellent and any personal medicines, with advice from your own doctor before travel.
- The whole year: our packing guide covers it.
A sample week in August
- When it works: this shape suits a year when Teej falls early in August. If it falls later, we reverse it and start in Udaipur.
- A longer, slower version: see our Monsoon in Mewar journey.
Days 1 and 2: Jaipur for Teej
Arrive: a day before Teej, at a palace hotel such as Rambagh Palace.
- Next morning: walk the old city with our guide, buying leheriya and ghevar.
- Afternoon: rest.
- Evening: watch the procession leave Tripolia Gate from a rooftop above the bazaar.
Days 3 and 4: Bundi
The drive: south through green farmland, about four hours.
- First evening: a haveli rooftop as the storm clouds pass over the palace.
- Next morning: Raniji ki Baori full of water and the Chitrashala murals.
- Before the afternoon shower: walk the blue lanes.
Day 5: Menal and Chittorgarh
On the way: the Menal waterfall and its temples.
- Late afternoon: Chittorgarh fort, with the tanks full and the Tower of Victory dark against the sky.
- Overnight: Castle Bijaipur.
Days 6 and 7: Udaipur
The drive: about two hours to Udaipur.
- Evening: a private boat on Pichola at the clearest hour.
- Last day: the City Palace at opening time.
- To finish: if the cloud lifts, the Monsoon Palace for a last look at the brimming lakes.
Our advice for August
Who will love it: repeat visitors, festival lovers, photographers and couples who want quiet palaces.
Who should wait: first-time visitors who want the full circuit, tiger safaris and desert dunes should look at October or later.
The gentler next step: Rajasthan in September, as the rains ease. Our best time to visit guide compares every month.
- One festival, then slow: build the trip around one festival date and keep the rest unhurried.
- Book a balcony: for any procession. The street is crowded, hot and hard to see from.
- Keep afternoons free: storms usually come after lunch, and so does the best nap of the day.
- Family days: on Raksha Bandhan and Janmashtami, expect guides and drivers to want time with their families.
- Nathdwara on Janmashtami: follow your guide and your hosts. Crowds at darshan are intense.
- Slippery stone: walk slowly on wet marble and old steps, and use handrails where they exist.
- Leave the desert: Jaisalmer, Bikaner and the desert camps are for the cool season.