Rural India: the villages of Rajasthan & Gujarat

Met at the airport and driven to your hotel. In the afternoon, Old Delhi, beginning at Raj Ghat, the black marble platform by the Yamuna where Mahatma Gandhi was cremated in 1948. Then the Red Fort, Shah Jahan’s red sandstone citadel and the seat of the Mughal emperors from the 1640s until 1857, from whose ramparts the prime minister still speaks every Independence Day. It is closed on Mondays.

Then a cycle rickshaw through the lanes of Chandni Chowk to the Jama Masjid, which Shah Jahan finished in 1656: one of the largest mosques in India, its courtyard big enough for thousands to pray together. Dress modestly for the mosque, and hold on to the rickshaw.

South-west across the plain to Nagaur, whose fort, Ahhichatragarh, hides palaces with painted walls and ceilings. The town is also home to the dargah of the Sufi saint Hamiduddin Nagauri, one of the chief disciples of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti of Ajmer, which draws pilgrims all year round; cover your head to go in. Your guide also takes you to the temple of Deresiya Mata.

On to Khimsar, a village on the edge of the Thar, and Khimsar Fort, built in 1523 by Rao Karamsji, a son of Rao Jodha, the founder of Jodhpur. His descendants still live in part of it, and the rest is a hotel of courtyards, carved stone and archways. In the afternoon, the village crafts centre, then a jeep through the villages around and out to the dunes for sunset. Back to the fort for the night.

The morning inside Sonar Qila, the Golden Fort, one of UNESCO’s Hill Forts of Rajasthan and one of the few forts in India still lived in: thousands of people make their homes within its walls, around the palace, the carved Jain temples and houses of yellow sandstone. Then down into the town for the merchants’ havelis, carved as finely as lace: Patwon ki Haveli, five houses built for one family of brocade and jewel traders, and Nathmal ki Haveli, carved by two brothers, each working on one half.

In the afternoon, 42 km west to the Sam dunes, the sand piled into long ridges. Ride out on a camel with a camel man from the villages, or walk, and stay until the sun drops behind the dunes.

A morning in the villages around Rohet by jeep. The Bishnoi follow the twenty-nine rules of Guru Jambheshwar, who founded the community in 1485, among them never to cut a green tree or kill an animal; in 1730, at Khejarli near Jodhpur, 363 of them died trying to stop the Maharaja’s men from felling their khejri trees. Their fields are a refuge for blackbuck and chinkara, which graze close to the villages because nobody here will hunt them.

You also meet the Raika, herders of camels, sheep and goats, the men in red turbans; the Paliwals, Brahmin farmers; and the Meghwals, who weave and embroider. You go as guests, and your guide will tell you when a photograph is welcome. The afternoon is free at Rohet Garh, or ride out on one of the fort’s Marwari horses.

A day on the old metre-gauge line through the Aravallis, laid before Independence by the princely states of Mewar and Marwar. You board a local train at a village station and ride 44 km with the villagers, down through the Goram Ghat, the steep, wooded pass of the Todgarh-Raoli Wildlife Sanctuary, over bridges and through tunnels. Monkeys come out of the forest to meet the train at the little flag station of Goram Ghat. At Phulad the car is waiting to take you back to Sardargarh.

The evening is free. If you like to cook, the kitchen can give you a lesson in Rajasthani home cooking: spices added one by one to hot ghee, dal, bajra rotis, and gatte simmered in a yoghurt curry.

South through the hills to Dungarpur, once a small Rajput state in the country of the Bhil, one of India’s largest Adivasi peoples; the town takes its name, the story goes, from Dungaria, a Bhil chief who ruled these hills before the Rajputs came. With a local guide, walk through Bhil hamlets of mud-walled houses among their fields. People are often curious to meet visitors: take your time, say hello, and ask before you take a photograph.

In the afternoon, a walk or a boat on Gaib Sagar, the lake laid out in the fifteenth century, then up to the Juna Mahal, the old palace-fort of the rulers of Dungarpur, seven storeys on a rock above the town, painted inside with frescoes and set with mirror-work, with a view over the town and the lake.

Out by jeep at first light, and again in the late afternoon, into the Wild Ass Sanctuary. The Little Rann is the last home of the Indian wild ass, the khur, a chestnut-and-white member of the horse family, very fast when it runs; small herds graze on the bets and gallop across the open flats.

The drives take in the lakes and wetlands of the Rann, Nava Talav among them, and the salt pans around Kharaghoda, where Agariya families rake salt from the brine through the dry months. Nilgai, the blue bull, and jackals are common, and in winter flamingos, pelicans, storks and cranes arrive in great numbers.

The morning in Ahmedabad, Gujarat’s largest city and its capital until 1970, which grew rich on cotton mills and was called the Manchester of the East. First the Sabarmati Ashram on the river, Gandhi’s home from 1917 to 1930, from which he set out on the Salt March to Dandi in March 1930; his cottage, Hriday Kunj, still holds his spinning wheel and writing desk.

Then the Calico Museum of Textiles, one of the finest textile collections in the world, open only for booked morning visits; and the Adalaj stepwell, finished in 1499 by Rani Rudabai, five storeys of carved sandstone galleries stepping down to the water. In the evening, the transfer to the airport for your flight home.