Alwar

Bhangarh has a reputation as the most haunted place in India. Folklore tells of Princess Ratnavati, famed for her beauty, and of a tantrik named Singhia who became obsessed with her and turned to black magic to win her. The princess saw through the trick and hurled the enchanted phial at a boulder, which rolled down and crushed him. As he died he cursed the town to ruin and its people to restless spirits. The Archaeological Survey of India still forbids entry to the fort after sunset.

A short drive from Alwar, Siliserh spreads like glass between low hills, with a royal palace standing at its edge. Maharaja Vinay Singh had it built — around 1845, by most accounts — and the reason, tradition says, was thoroughly romantic. The king, so the story goes, fell in love with Sheela, an ordinary village girl. He is said to have married her, given her the title of Rani Sheela, and made this lake and the palace on its bank for her. At dusk, the gold light lying on the water still recalls that love story.

In the heart of Alwar stands this two-storeyed cenotaph, raised in memory of Maharaja Bakhtawar Singh and his consort, Moosi Maharani. When the maharaja died, the story goes, she chose to become sati on his funeral pyre. Maharaja Vinay Singh later built this grand memorial to honour that sacrifice. Scenes from the Ramayana and the Mahabharata are painted across its ceilings, in frescoes worked so finely that visitors tend to stop and study them at length. It is perhaps the most poignant chapter in Alwar's history.

Deep inside Sariska's forest, this shrine carries a tale from the age of the Mahabharata. During their years of exile, it is said, the Pandavas came through these woods and found a huge rock blocking the path. Bhim, proud of his strength, struck it with his mace and opened a wide gap — a pol — and by tradition the place has been Pandupol ever since. Further on, Hanuman took the form of an old monkey lying across the way and dared Bhim to lift his tail. Bhim could not budge it, and his pride collapsed. A reclining Hanuman is worshipped here.

Sprawled along an Aravalli ridge above the city, Bala Quila is often called the oldest structure in Alwar. Tradition credits the Nikumbh Rajputs with raising it, though sources place that anywhere from the tenth century onward. People know it as the Kunwara Quila, the unmarried fort, because the story goes that no great king ever took it in battle and no assault ever stripped it bare — an aura of being unconquerable that settled into the name itself. Babur, and later Jahangir, are said to have spent time here. The view from the ramparts still stops visitors in their tracks.

Set in thick forest near Sariska, this temple tells of a king who became an ascetic. By tradition, Bhartrihari was the celebrated and learned ruler of Ujjain, and he loved his queen Pingala deeply. The day he learnt she had betrayed him, the story goes, his attachment to the world simply fell away. He is said to have given up his throne, taken initiation as a disciple of Guru Gorakhnath, and spent years of severe penance in these woods outside Alwar. Where there was once only silence, lakhs of devotees now come, and the site has grown into a great centre of faith.