Jharkhand

Deep-fried, slightly crisp breads of soaked rice and chana dal batter, Jharkhand’s best-known breakfast, eaten with potato curry or ghugni.

A soft, thin pancake of rice and chana dal batter cooked on a griddle, a simple everyday bread of Jharkhand eaten with chutney or vegetables.

Ring-shaped fritters of ground urad dal, fried in mustard oil, made in Jharkhand for festivals, weddings and fairs.

Dried yellow or white peas cooked with onion, tomato and spices into a thick curry, the usual partner of dhuska in Jharkhand.

Tomatoes roasted over a flame and crushed with garlic, green chilli, coriander and mustard oil, a sharp, smoky chutney served with dhuska and rice.

A curry of rugra, the round wild mushrooms that grow under sal trees in the early monsoon, a much-awaited seasonal food of Jharkhand.

A spicy dry stir-fry of khukhri, a wild mushroom gathered in the monsoon, cooked in mustard oil with onion and garlic.

Tender bamboo shoots boiled and cooked with mustard oil, garlic and chilli, a traditional monsoon vegetable of Jharkhand’s tribal kitchens.

A sharp pickle of bamboo shoots in mustard oil and spices, made in the rainy season and kept for months.

The tender young leaves of the phutkal (a wild fig tree) boiled and cooked with garlic and chilli, a sour spring green eaten fresh or dried for later.

Young leaves of the koinar (kachnar, Bauhinia) tree cooked as a soft green with garlic and mustard oil, a spring food of Jharkhand.

A warming dal of horse gram, a hardy pulse grown on Jharkhand’s dry uplands, tempered with garlic and mustard oil.

A masked dance-drama of Seraikela in Jharkhand, rooted in martial movements, that tells stories from the epics and from nature through stylised gestures.

The most popular folk dance of Jharkhand, danced in circles or lines with linked arms to the beat of the mandar after the harvest and at festivals.

A martial dance of the Munda and other communities of Jharkhand, in which dancers with swords and shields recreate the moves of foot soldiers.

A dance performed around a branch of the Karam tree during the Karma festival, when sisters pray for the well-being of their brothers and for good crops.

The dance of Sarhul, the spring festival of Jharkhand’s tribal communities, held when the sal trees flower to honour nature and the village deities.

The group dances of the Santhal people, with women in long linked lines moving gracefully to the deep beat of the tamak and tumdak drums.

The spring festival of the Oraon, Munda, Ho and other tribal communities of Jharkhand, when the sal trees blossom. The pahan (village priest) offers sal flowers at the sacred grove (sarna).

Revered as the Jyotirlinga of Vaidyanath (Shiva as the divine healer) and also listed as a Shakti Peetha. In the month of Shravan, kanwariyas carry Ganga water from Sultanganj on foot to offer here.

The holiest Jain tirtha, where twenty of the twenty-four Tirthankaras attained moksha.

One of the twelve jyotirlingas of Shiva, visited by millions of kanwariyas who carry Ganga water on foot during the month of Shravan.

The highest hill of Jharkhand and the holiest Jain pilgrimage site, where, according to Jain tradition, twenty of the twenty-four Tirthankaras attained moksha.

Sal and bamboo forests of the Palamau Tiger Reserve, one of the first tiger reserves of India under Project Tiger, home to elephants, gaur and deer.

A high waterfall where the Subarnarekha river drops off the edge of the Ranchi plateau, the best known of the falls around Ranchi.

A quiet hill station on the Chota Nagpur plateau, called the ‘Queen of Chotanagpur’, known for sunrise and sunset views over forested hills.

A temple of the goddess Chhinnamasta at the meeting point of the Damodar and Bhairavi (Bhera) rivers, an important centre of Shakti worship.

India’s first planned industrial city, built around the Tata steel works and named after Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata.