India Travel

Rajasthan, situated in the north-western part of the Indian Union, is now the largest State of India. Largely an arid state for most of its part, Rajasthan emerged after Partition from a mosaic of eighteen feudal kingdoms, known in the British era as Rajputana."Land of Kings". Running northeast from Mount Abu, near the border with Gujarat, to within a stone’s throw of the ruins of ancient Delhi, its backbone is formed by the bare brown hills of the Aravalli Range, which divide the fertile Dhundar basin from the shifting sands dunes of the mighty Thar Desert, one of the driest places on earth. As the site of India’s recent nuclear tests, this western flank of the country, forming the sensitive border with Pakistan, has become one of the world’s most notorious geopolitical hotspots. However, the flat terrain, combined with the lure of the lucrative trans-Thar trade routes, rendered it vulnerable to invasion long before Partition. The State is girdled by Punjab and Haryana states in the north, Uttar Pradesh in the east, Madhya Pradesh in the southeast and Gujarat in the southwest. By taxing the movement of silk, spices and precious stones across their territories, successive rulers - from the Hindu Rajputs to their medieval Muslim overlords, the Mughals - amassed vast fortunes, which they poured into ever more ambitious building projects.

For visitors, however, Rajasthan’s strong adherence to the traditions of the past is precisely what makes it a compelling place to travel. Swaggering moustaches, heavy silver anklets, bulky red, yellow or orange turbans, pleated veils and mirror-inlaid saris may be part of the complex language of caste, but to most outsiders they epitomize India at its most exotic. Rajasthan s extravagant palaces, forts and finely carved temples today comprise one of the country’s richest crop of historic monuments, visited in greater numbers than any other apart from Agra. As an extension to the “Golden Triangle” of Delhi-Agra-Jaipur, the route stringing together these three cities has become the most trodden tourist trail in India. But these exotic Forts are far from the only legacy of the region’s prosperous and militaristic past. Nowhere is this traditional flamboyance more vividly expressed than at the annual camel fair at Pushkar, when hundreds of thousands of villagers converge on a sacred lake in the Aravalli Hills to buy and sell livestock, their almost luminous costumes striking against the muted hues of the desert.

Other incentives to venture into less frequented corners of the state are Rajasthan’s wonderful wildlife sanctuaries. Of these, Ranthambore, where you can watch tigers prowling around Rajput rums and lakeside jungles, is deservedly the most famous, but Sariska, between Jaipur and Agra, boasts almost as many big cats and equally serene landscapes. For sheer profusion, however, the Keoladeo National Park at Bharatpur, on the eastern border of Rajasthan near Agra, is unmatched in South Asia. Literally hundreds of species of birds, from giant Sara’s cranes to tiny scarlet finches and incandescent kingfishers, feed here in the winter months, creating an unforgettable spectacle and a welcome respite from the frenetic cities that inevitably dominate most visitors’ itineraries in this state.