How to see Mandawa without the crowds
Small and dense: you can walk across Mandawa in twenty minutes, and spend a week reading its walls.
The layout: the painted havelis cluster near the main bazaar and fan out into sandy lanes on every side.
Open to visitors: the famous ones, usually for a small fee or a tip to the caretaker.
- Walk across
- About twenty minutes
- Tour buses
- About eleven to three
- Entry
- Small fee or caretaker's tip
- Havelis
- Almost all private property
- Golden rule
- Never touch the paintings
- Admire from the lane: many more are private homes, locked or slowly collapsing.
- Half one: early morning or late afternoon, the half-dozen famous havelis while the light is soft and the lanes quiet.
- Half two: a slow wander through the outer town, where you can stand before a painted wall with no one else in sight.
- Around that: the castle, the food, the dunes and the painted towns within an hour's drive.
- Read one thing first: our Mandawa destination page, for the history of the merchants who built it.
- Manners in every haveli: ask before entering a courtyard, keep your voice low and tip the caretaker who opens the door.
- Why not touch: the oils from fingers do more damage than a century of sun.
Why a desert market town is covered in paintings
The region's name: Shekhawati is named for Rao Shekha, a fifteenth-century Kachwaha chief who broke away from Amber and died in 1488.
1730: his descendant Thakur Shardul Singh took Jhunjhunu from its Kaimkhani nawabs, and his sons divided the land.
The fort: Mandawa grew up under the fort raised by Thakur Nawal Singh in 1755 to guard an outpost on the caravan road.
- Fort built
- 1755, by Thakur Nawal Singh
- Merchants
- Marwari trading families
- Account script
- Mahajani
- Painting era
- About 1830s to 1930s
- The merchants: Marwari families such as the Goenkas, Chokhanis, Ladias, Newatias, Jhunjhunwalas, Sarafs and Murmurias settled beneath its walls.
- Their trade: they financed caravans, lent money and kept their accounts in the old mahajani script.
- Following the money: when the ports of Calcutta and Bombay and the new railways pulled trade from the desert routes in the nineteenth century, they moved east and south, and many grew very rich.
- Fortunes came home as buildings: a merchant's standing was measured by the size of his haveli, the depth of the well he paid for and the rooms he could have painted.
- A century of painting: from roughly the 1830s to the 1930s, Shekhawati's masons and painters covered the mansions with gods, heroes and processions.
- Then the modern world: trains, cars, gramophones and aeroplanes, copied from pictures sent home from the cities.
- Absent owners: most returned only for weddings and festivals, which is partly why so much survives and partly why so much is fading.
- How the houses work: our journal piece on what a haveli is explains how they were planned around their courtyards.
The painted havelis, one by one
See the golden room of the Jhunjhunwala Haveli
The Golden Haveli: the one people mean by that name.
- Upstairs: one small room painted in gold on its ceiling and upper walls, with Krishna and the gopis, Shiva and Parvati, the Devi and the court of Rama.
- When: the late morning on a sunny day, when coloured glass throws pools of light across the floor.
- Best preserved: kept like a small museum, it is the finest interior in town.
Find Nehru on horseback at the Murmuria Haveli
Late work: built in the 1930s, at the very end of the painting era, it looks almost European from the lane.
- The politics of the moment: Nehru on horseback, King George V, Bharat Mata, and freedom fighters including Gandhi.
- What most miss: Krishna herding cows through an unmistakably English landscape, copied by a painter who had only seen it in a print.
Spot the first aeroplane at the Newatia Haveli
The twentieth century arrives: on the outer walls of the Binsidhar Newatia haveli, a flying machine usually read as the Wright brothers' first flight.
- Also look for: a European gentleman on a telephone.
- When: stand across the lane early in the morning, when the light is flat and the colours read clearly.
Read a merchant's world at the Ladia Haveli
A family portrait: the murals of the Gulab Rai Ladia haveli show a trading family's life and dreams.
- Find: the owner with a fort behind him, a couple in a railway compartment and a bird tending its eggs.
- The pair: a tiger and a horse painted as mirror images of each other.
Count the doors of the Chokhani Double Haveli
Twin houses: built for two sons, with two identical wings joined by a shared central wall.
- The courtyards: some of the largest in Mandawa.
- Count the doors: in the inner court. The scale says more about merchant wealth than any amount of gold paint.
Look for Yama at the Goenka Double Haveli
The facade: two gateways side by side and a grand front of painted elephants and horses.
- The family: the Goenkas, whose name went on to Calcutta and beyond.
- The rare one: a painting of Yama, the god of death, seldom seen on Shekhawati walls.
Wander the outer lanes alone
On your second morning: leave the famous loop and walk out from the castle with your guide.
- Where the sand takes over: havelis locked, lived in by a caretaker's family or quietly falling down.
- Unphotographed walls: gods, lovers, trains and elephants that almost nobody records.
- What guests remember: this walk, more than any single haveli.
The castle, the wells and the life of the town
Watch sunrise from the ramparts of Castle Mandawa
The fort: built by Thakur Nawal Singh in 1755, now the town's great heritage hotel.
- Before dawn: climb to the terraces on the bastions with a cup of tea.
- As the sky lightens: the town lights its first stoves, a temple bell drifts up, and the painted facades turn from grey to ochre.
- Not staying? ask us and we'll arrange a visit.
See the Harlalka well at sunset
A gift to everyone: in a desert town, a well was exactly that.
- The form: about a century and a half old, with slender pillars topped by small domed canopies, the classic Shekhawati well.
- The ramp: a long slope where animals once hauled up the water bags.
- At sunset: the rooftops behind turn gold and the pillars stand out against the sky.
Visit the Raghunath temple
A surprise: built in the haveli style, with no spire.
- Look up: at the painted porch ceiling, where small labels name each scene.
- Etiquette: remove your shoes, and if the priest is there, a small offering is welcome. Our temple etiquette guide explains the customs.
Walk the main bazaar in the morning
Still a market town: farmers come in on tractors to buy seed and steel buckets.
The colour: women in bright odhnis, the long head-veils of the region, choose bangles.
- The smell: halwais frying jalebis in big iron pans.
- What to do: buy a bag of roasted chickpeas and simply watch.
- What to ignore: the boys who offer to take you to a shop.
Find the film locations, then look past them
On screen: parts of the town stood in for Pakistan in Bajrangi Bhaijaan, and PK also shot here.
- Local guides: children will happily point out where a song was filmed.
- Keep perspective: ask your guide if you are curious, but don't let the films replace the older stories on the walls.
Ride a camel cart through the outer town
When: an hour in the late afternoon.
- Where: the sandy outer lanes and the fields beyond, where the town ends abruptly in millet and khejri trees.
- Why: slow, bumpy and a favourite with children.
- Our carters: people we know, whose camels are well cared for.
Sit on a haveli platform at dusk
The chabutra: every old house has a raised stone platform by its door, called a chabutra in many towns, where the men once talked business and watched the street.
- At dusk: find one in a quiet lane and let the town pass: cows going home, children on bicycles, a woman with a brass pot.
- The smells: woodsmoke and frying spices.
- The point: nothing happens, and it is wonderful.
Food, frescoes and the people who make things
Eat a Marwari thali
The country: millet, ghee and buttermilk, and most merchant families were strict vegetarians.
- On the plate: bajra roti with white butter and garlic chutney, ker sangri, kadhi, gatte and a sweet or two.
- Where: ask the castle or your haveli hotel, or let us arrange it with a local family.
- The desert's dish: our ker sangri explainer.
Dine in the castle courtyard with folk music
On a winter evening: dinner by lantern light, with musicians singing the songs of the desert.
- Meat-eaters: ask the day before for laal maas, so the kitchen can cook it slowly.
- The heart of the stay: the evening most guests describe that way.
- More: our folk music and dance page.
Cook with a local family
When: usually in the morning, with family cooks in the town.
- What you do: roll bajra rotis on a stone, and temper kadhi with cumin and dried red chilli.
- What you learn: why so little meat appears on a Marwari table.
- Then: you sit down together to eat.
Learn to read a fresco with a specialist
A morning well spent: with a guide who studies the paintings closely, the walls start to speak.
True fresco: painted on wet lime in mineral colours, versus later work on dry plaster with imported pigments.
- Familiar faces: recognise Dhola and Maru on their camel.
- Dating a wall: learn to do it from across the lane.
- A good start: our guide to Shekhawati frescoes.
Dunes, villages and the desert sky
A sundowner on the dunes
Where: just outside town, the Desert Resort Mandawa, run by the castle family, sits on a low ridge of sand dunes.
- When: walk up to the crest in the last hour of light with a drink.
- What you see: shadows lengthening across the fields and lamps coming on in the villages.
- Honestly: it is not the great Thar of Jaisalmer, but it is peaceful and very beautiful.
Walk through a farming village
With a local guide: in the morning, to one of the villages around Mandawa.
- What you see: houses of mud and lime painted with simple motifs, women drawing water and children going to school.
- Sacred trees: the khejri, which the people of this desert protect.
- Manners: ask before photographs, and accept tea if offered. Our rural homestays page describes longer stays.
Lie back under the stars
On a clear winter night: away from the town lights, the sky over Shekhawati is full of stars.
- Where: a quiet corner of the castle terrace, or the dunes after dinner with a blanket.
- What to look for: our stargazing page.
Cycle the lanes at first light
At dawn: before the shops open, the sandy lanes are almost empty.
- The ride: an hour with a guide, past the famous havelis and out to the edge of town, with tea from a roadside stall.
- Why: cool, quiet and the best light of the day for the facades.
- More: our cycling tours page.
Day trips to the painted towns
Slow roads: narrow, through millet fields, past village wells and around the occasional herd of goats.
- Fatehpur
- About 20 km
- Jhunjhunu
- About half an hour
- Nawalgarh
- About 30 km
- Churu
- About an hour
- Alsisar
- About an hour
- Pace
- Two towns a day at most
- The rhythm: leave after an early breakfast, the first town in the morning light, lunch in a haveli or at the castle, the second town in the late afternoon.
- One loop: our Painted Towns of Shekhawati journey links them unhurriedly, and the Shekhawati region page introduces every town.
Fatehpur and the Le Prince haveli
The oldest painted town: twenty kilometres away, founded by the Kaimkhani nawabs in the fifteenth century.
- Its jewel: the Haveli Nadine Le Prince, an early nineteenth-century mansion restored by a French artist, with one of the best stories in Shekhawati.
- Add: the Singhania and Goenka havelis, and be back in Mandawa for lunch.
Nawalgarh and its two haveli museums
The founder: about thirty kilometres away, Nawalgarh was founded in 1737 by the same Thakur Nawal Singh who built Mandawa's castle.
- The museums: the Dr Ramnath A Podar Haveli Museum and the Morarka Haveli Museum, restored in strikingly different ways.
- Our advice: if you add only one town to Mandawa, make it this one.
Ramgarh and the painted chhatris
A merchants' town: founded by the Poddar merchants after a quarrel with the thakur of Churu.
- The chhatris: the domed, painted memorials of the merchant families, one of the most remarkable sights in the region.
- When: the late afternoon light.
Mahansar and the gold and silver room
The haveli: the Sone Chandi ki Haveli, with painted rooms worked in gold and silver.
- Why go: among the most delicate interiors in Shekhawati.
- The mood: quiet, and you may well be the only visitors of the day.
Dundlod and Mukundgarh
Two small Shekhawat estates: each with a fort and a cluster of havelis.
- Dundlod: a Goenka haveli, and a family long associated with Marwari horses.
- The pace: both are calm enough for a slow afternoon.
Churu, at the edge of the dunes
A different state: about an hour north-west, Churu belonged to Bikaner rather than the Shekhawats.
- Its havelis: taller and more austere, including the Surana haveli with its hundreds of windows.
- The gateway: to the blackbuck grassland of Tal Chhapar.
Jhunjhunu and the Khetri Mahal
The district town: about half an hour away, busier and less pretty than Mandawa.
- Its history: the seat from which the Shekhawat family spread across the region.
- The Khetri Mahal: an eighteenth-century palace of open arcaded halls, called the wind palace because the air moves freely through it.
- A full day: combine it with Alsisar.
Alsisar, the quiet one
The town: about an hour away, built around the fort of its thakurs, now the Alsisar Mahal heritage hotel.
- Around it: unrestored havelis, village temples and a lovely chhatri outside the town.
- The point: nothing to do but walk, look and sit on the roof as the camel carts come home.
Blackbuck at Tal Chhapar
The grassland: once a hunting reserve of the Maharajas of Bikaner, now home to a large herd of blackbuck.
- In the cooler months: migrating harriers, eagles and demoiselle cranes.
- Plan it: a long day from Mandawa, best combined with a night in Churu, leaving before dawn to reach the grassland at first light.
If your dates fall on a festival
Holi and the gindad dance
The weeks before: in February or March, the men of Shekhawati gather at night in the squares to dance gindad, a circle dance with sticks.
- The drum: the chang, a large frame drum.
- On Holi itself: Mandawa erupts in colour. We stay inside the castle walls in the morning and come out in the afternoon.
The Shekhawati Festival
- The region's own festival: organised by the state, with folk music, camel and horse events, village sports and haveli walks in Nawalgarh and nearby towns.
- When: usually February, though recent editions have moved, so we confirm the dates each year.
Gangaur and Teej
- Gangaur: in March or April, girls carry clay images of the goddess Gauri through the lanes and sing as they go.
- Teej: in the monsoon, swings tied to trees and new leheriya saris.
What we tell friends before a day in Mandawa
Timing: see the famous havelis before ten or after four. The middle of the day belongs to the tour buses.
A licensed local guide: book one before you arrive. They know which caretakers have the keys, and they won't steer you to shops.
Small notes: for entry fees and tips for caretakers. It keeps the doors open for the next visitor.
- Best hours
- Before ten or after four
- Guide
- Licensed, booked ahead
- Carry
- Small notes and a torch
- Footwear
- Slip-off shoes, socks in winter
- Stay
- At least one night
- Shoes you can slip off: and socks for cold marble floors in winter. Temples and some havelis ask you to go barefoot.
- A torch: or your phone light. The finest paintings are often under dark arches and in the corners of ceilings.
- Ask before photographing: families in their own courtyards. Many havelis are still homes.
- Be kind about the decay: many owners live far away, and restoring a shared family property is hard. Admire, and don't lecture.
- Antique shops: some old doors, windows and brass are not what they seem, and some should never have left their havelis.
- Buy well instead: bangles in the bazaar or printed cloth in Jaipur. Our shopping guide explains how.
- Stay at least one night: our Mandawa itinerary and best time to visit Mandawa guides help you plan, and our luxury hotels in Mandawa guide compares the stays.
