Beawar

Colonel Dixon is remembered as the father of Beawar. When he arrived, the Mer people of the surrounding hills had a reputation for raiding, and he chose persuasion over the gun — adopting local customs, clearing dense scrub jungle to lay out a new town, and, it is said, marrying a local woman named Chand Bibi. By tradition he drew the city plan in the shape of a cross, with lanes running parallel to one another and meeting at open crossroads. Beneath his domed chhatri, they say, traders would once place their shop keys, fold their hands, and only then begin the day's business.

To keep his new town safe, Colonel Dixon ringed Beawar with a stout defensive wall and set four great gateways into it — Ajmeri Gate, Mewari Gate, Chang Gate and Surajpol Gate. Each opens towards a different side of the town and carries its own significance. Older residents will tell you that anyone leaving town on an auspicious errand was expected to go out through Ajmeri Gate, which was thought the luckiest of the four. The gates remain Beawar's historic signature today, and a walk through the old city naturally begins at one of them.

Cradled in the central Aravallis within Beawar district, Todgarh is hill country — cool air, rocky ridges and green slopes. It takes its name from Colonel James Tod, the British historian who wrote the history of Rajasthan. Standing here is Pragya Shikhar, a strikingly handsome Jain memorial carved from black granite, with a museum alongside it, inaugurated in 2005. Set against the folds of the Aravallis, the site offers the kind of stillness and natural beauty that makes the noise of the city fall away for a while.

As evening comes on, Beawar drifts towards Subhash Udyan almost by habit. Laid out along the edge of Bichadli Talab, this garden is the calmest corner of the town — low gold light at the water's edge, families out walking, children calling to one another. Inside the grounds stands an old stepwell, its stairs descending into shadow; locals will tell you it holds who knows how many untold stories, and some say people come from beyond Beawar just to look down into it. A stroll, a photograph and a little quiet — the garden manages all three at once.

One of the most revered shrines in and around Beawar is the temple of Ashapura Mata, whose name is known well beyond the district. By tradition the goddess is a kuldevi, a family deity, of the Chauhans, and devotees say that devotion has been handed down through the generations ever since the days of their kings. Anyone who comes to her threshold with a sincere heart, the faithful believe, has every asha — every hope — fulfilled, and it is from this belief, people say, that the goddess took her name. Pilgrims arrive here throughout the year.

Beawar's greatest story is not housed in a building; it moves through the streets. The Badshah Mela is held every year the day after Dhulandi — the third day of Holi. Tradition traces it to Raja Todarmal, one of the nine jewels of Akbar's court, said to have rescued the emperor from a tight spot. A delighted Akbar, the story goes, made him Badshah for a spell, and Todarmal spent it scattering gulal and coins among the people. Even today a local man plays the Badshah, a companion as Birbal dances the peacock dance ahead of him, and traders treat the flying red gulal as sacred, keeping it in their strongboxes.