Rajasthan

Hard-baked wheat balls dunked in ghee, served with spiced mixed dal and sweet crumbled churma. Rajasthan’s best-known meal.

Boiled gram-flour dumplings simmered in a tangy curd gravy, made when fresh vegetables are hard to find.

A dry dish of desert berries (ker) and khejri beans (sangri), cooked with spices and dried mango powder.

A fiery red mutton curry coloured and flavoured by Mathania chillies, ghee and curd.

A rich white mutton curry cooked in milk, cream, cashew and almond paste, without any red chilli.

Thick, hand-patted flatbreads of pearl millet, eaten with ghee, jaggery, garlic chutney or buttermilk in the desert winter.

A thin, warm porridge-drink of bajra flour and buttermilk or water, spiced with ajwain or ginger.

Flaky deep-fried pastries stuffed with a spicy onion filling, a Jodhpur breakfast and tea-time snack.

Large mild green chillies stuffed with spiced potato, dipped in gram-flour batter and fried, a street snack of Jodhpur.

A honeycomb-like disc of fried batter soaked in sugar syrup, made for the monsoon festivals of Teej and Raksha Bandhan.

A sweet kachori filled with mawa, nuts and cardamom, fried and dipped in sugar syrup. A speciality of Jodhpur.

Soft, crisp-edged pancakes of milk-thickened batter fried in ghee and soaked in syrup. Pushkar is famous for them.

A graceful circle dance of Rajasthani women, who spin slowly so that their long flared ghaghras open out like flowers.

The fast, snake-like dance of the Kalbelia community, once traditional snake charmers. Its songs and dances are on UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage list.

Women dance with brass pots (chari) balanced on their heads, with a lit lamp on top, showing the daily journey to fetch water in the desert.

A lively dance in which men wear dummy horses made of bamboo and cloth and act out mock battles and tales of local bandits.

A balancing dance in which a performer dances with a tall stack of earthen or brass pots on her head, sometimes on a sword edge or glass.

A devotional dance in which seated women strike small brass cymbals (manjeera) tied to their arms and legs in many rhythms, in praise of the folk deity Baba Ramdev.

A Holi dance of men who move in a large circle, striking sticks together as they turn. It is popular among the Bhil community and in the Mewar and Marwar regions.

The festival of the monsoon, celebrated mainly by women in Rajasthan, Haryana and other parts of North India. Women dress in green, sing folk songs, swing on decorated swings and pray to Parvati.

Rajasthan's festival of Gauri (Parvati), celebrated by women for up to eighteen days after Holi. It ends with processions of Gauri's idol in Jaipur, Udaipur and other cities.

A fair at Pushkar near Ajmer around Kartik Purnima, combining a holy dip in Pushkar lake, worship at the Brahma temple and one of the largest camel and cattle fairs in the world.

A Shakti Peetha at Gayatri hill, Pushkar, Ajmer district, where Sati's wrists is said to have fallen. The Goddess is worshipped here as Gayatri.

A Shakti Peetha at Bharatpur district (identifications differ), where Sati's toes of the left foot is said to have fallen. The Goddess is worshipped here as Ambika.

Jain temples of the 11th–13th centuries famed for their marble carving.

A 15th-century temple of Rishabhanatha with over a thousand carved marble pillars, no two alike.

One of the very few temples of Brahma, by the sacred Pushkar lake.

The shrine of the Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti (died 1236), visited by people of all faiths, especially at the annual Urs.

The planned walled city founded by Sawai Jai Singh II in 1727, with its grid of bazaars, Hawa Mahal and City Palace. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

A hilltop fort-palace of pale yellow and pink sandstone and white marble above Maota Lake near Jaipur, part of the 'Hill Forts of Rajasthan' World Heritage Site.

One of the largest forts in India, on a long plateau above the plains of Mewar, with towers of victory, palaces, temples and water tanks.

The 'Golden Fort' of yellow sandstone rising from the Thar Desert, one of the few forts in the world where people still live inside the walls.

A massive fort on a high rock above Jodhpur, the Blue City, founded by Rao Jodha in the 15th century.

The former capital of Mewar, built around lakes Pichola and Fateh Sagar, with the City Palace rising from the shore.

A wetland near Bharatpur that is home to hundreds of species of birds, especially winter migrants. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

A dry deciduous forest between the Aravalli and Vindhya hills, famous for tigers seen in the open, with an old fort and lakes inside the park.

A sacred lake town near Ajmer with one of the very few temples in India dedicated to Lord Brahma, and a famous fair in the month of Kartik.

Rajasthan’s only hill station, in the Aravallis, home to the Dilwara Jain temples with some of the finest marble carving in India.

Wetland near Bharatpur that hosts thousands of migratory birds.

Astronomical observatory of Sawai Jai Singh II, with the world's largest stone sundial.

Chittorgarh, Kumbhalgarh, Ranthambore, Gagron, Amber and Jaisalmer.

Planned city of 1727 laid out on a grid, the Pink City.

Serpentine dances of the Kalbelia community.