A crossroads town and its rulers
Look at a map of the old caravan routes across the Thar and Nagaur sits where several of them meet. That is why so many rulers wanted it.
One of Marwar's oldest towns: its fort is Ahhichatragarh, the fort of the hooded cobra.
The Chauhans: they held Nagaur from the Ghaznavid raids of the eleventh century until the end of the twelfth, and began the fort as we know it in the early twelfth century.
The sultans arrive: after the defeat of Prithviraj Chauhan it became one of the first strongholds of the Delhi sultans in this part of India.
Facts to know
- Fort begun
- Early 12th century
- Early rulers
- The Chauhan Rajputs
- Amar Singh killed
- Agra, 1644
- Later rulers
- Rathores of Jodhpur, 18th century
- Changing hands: for centuries it passed between sultans, local Muslim dynasties and Rajput clans.
- Mughal seat: Akbar held court here, and in the seventeenth century Shah Jahan made Amar Singh Rathore, eldest son of the Jodhpur ruler, governor of Nagaur.
- The ballad of Amar Singh: proud and quick to anger, he was killed at Agra in 1644 after striking down a Mughal noble who insulted him in open court. Folk singers and puppeteers still perform his story.
- Bakht Singh: in the eighteenth century Maharaja Abhay Singh of Jodhpur gave Nagaur to his younger brother, who ruled it as his own and built most of the palaces, gardens and fountains in the fort.
- Part of Jodhpur: when Bakht Singh became ruler of Jodhpur, Nagaur stayed with Marwar until Independence.
- Set the scene: our short history of Rajasthan and our journal on Mughal and Rajput history.
- Nagaur today: a busy district town of traders, farmers and cattle dealers, with a skyline of domes, minarets and temple spires.
- Not polished for tourists: inside the walls it is quiet, ordered and beautiful. Outside, it is a working desert market town.
Ahhichatragarh, brought back to life
When the restorers arrived in the 1980s, not one of the fort's fountains worked. Today about ninety of them run again, in a desert town where every drop of water counts.
Neglect: by the late twentieth century the fort was decaying.
The trust: in 1985 it passed to the Mehrangarh Museum Trust, set up by the Jodhpur royal family, which also runs Mehrangarh.
The funders: grants came from the Getty Foundation and the Helen Hamlyn Trust.
Facts to know
- Restoration from
- 1985
- Run by
- Mehrangarh Museum Trust
- Architect
- Minakshi Jain
- UNESCO award
- 2002, Asia-Pacific Heritage
- Area
- About 36 acres
- Fountains working
- About ninety
- The principle: led by the Ahmedabad architect Minakshi Jain, the work followed minimum intervention: repair rather than replace, with old materials and methods.
- New skills: it trained a generation of craftsmen in lime plaster, stone and painting, and rediscovered old building techniques.
- The water returns: it traced and restored the fort's intricate water system, so channels, tanks and fountains cool the gardens again as they did for the Rathore court.
- Recognition: a UNESCO Asia-Pacific Heritage Award in 2002, and later a shortlisting for the Aga Khan Award for Architecture.
- Inside the walls: courtyards, gardens, pavilions and pools, with running water everywhere.
- The palaces: among them the Bakht Singh Mahal and the Abha Mahal, set around open courts with fountains, with period furniture and some of Rajasthan's most important wall paintings.
The seven gates
Walk, don't be dropped: the restorers re-created the old ceremonial route, and it is worth walking.
- Angled gates: each turns so that an enemy, or an elephant, could not charge straight through.
- The effect: high walls on both sides, the town's noise falling away, and a slow passage from bazaar to court, just as the builders intended.
The painted palaces
The fort's great treasure: its murals.
- Hadi Rani Mahal: the palace of a queen of the Hada clan, its first-floor rooms painted with court life, music and love, and ceilings circled by winged women.
- Elsewhere: hunts, gardens, processions and portraits in a style blending Rajput and Mughal traditions, in soft colours in remarkable condition.
The water gardens
- Mughal in plan: channels, pools and fountains.
- Desert engineering: water was drawn up and carried through the buildings to cool them in summer.
Ranvas, the queens' palaces
- The queens' quarters: interlocking havelis, each with its own courtyard and terraces.
- A small hotel now: you can sleep inside the walls, walk the gardens after the day visitors leave and wake to peacocks. One of the most romantic places to sleep in Rajasthan.
Local tip
Visit the water gardens in the late afternoon, when the light is soft and the water catches it, and ask your guide to point out the details in the murals.
Eight centuries of Sufi faith
In a lane of the old town, pilgrims tie threads to a marble screen and sit in the shade of the courtyard. The saint they come for lived here nearly eight hundred years ago.
Early roots: Nagaur was one of the first places in India where Sufism took root.
The disciple: when Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti founded the Chishti order at Ajmer in the late twelfth century, his disciple Hamiduddin came to Nagaur.
His names: Hamiduddin Nagori, Hamiduddin of Nagaur, titled Sultan-ut-Tarikin, the king of those who renounce the world.
- A farmer saint: he lived simply in the village of Suwali, near Nagaur, farming a small plot with his own hands.
- No gifts: he refused money and land from the Sultan of Delhi and the governor.
- Vegetarian out of respect: for the Hindu farmers around him he became strictly vegetarian, and is said to have asked that no meat be cooked in his name. The shrine still serves only vegetarian food.
- The dargah: one of Rajasthan's most important Sufi shrines after Ajmer Sharif.
- The urs: the anniversary of his death draws pilgrims from across India, with qawwals in the courtyard.
- Shared faith: Hindus come as well as Muslims, to ask a blessing, tie a thread or sit in the shade.
- Visiting: cover your head, shoulders and legs, remove your shoes, and if there is singing, sit at the back and listen.
- Music in the fort: each February the World Sacred Spirit Festival, organised by the Mehrangarh Museum Trust, brings Sufi singers and spiritual musicians from many countries to the fort before moving on to Mehrangarh.
- Small and intimate: places at the Nagaur concerts are limited, so we plan well ahead. See Rajasthani folk music.
The Nagaur Cattle Fair
Before dawn on a fair morning, the grounds outside Nagaur are a sea of smoke from cooking fires, lowing bullocks and men in huge turbans haggling in whispers.
Who comes: herders and farmers from across Rajasthan and beyond bring their animals to the fairground outside town.
Its size: often described as India's second largest cattle fair after Pushkar, and far more of a working fair.
The trade: tens of thousands of bullocks, camels and horses change hands.
Facts to know
- When
- Magh, usually late January or February
- Length
- About a week
- Also called
- Ramdeoji Pashu Mela
- Best hours
- First light to midday
- Dates
- Lunar, change each year
- The name: the Ramdeoji Pashu Mela, after the folk saint Baba Ramdev.
- Nagauri bullocks: the stars, a famous draught breed, tall, white and fast, prized across north India for ploughing and carts.
- Dressed for sale: painted horns, bells, beads and embroidered cloths, walked up and down for buyers.
- Camels and horses: camels in their hundreds, groomed and decked with ornaments, and Marwari horses put through their paces. Read about camels of Rajasthan and Marwari horses.
- The stalls: dried chillies and fenugreek, bells, ropes, saddles, leatherwork, brass animal ornaments, sweets, toys and bangles.
- Evenings: folk performances, and on some days races and contests.
- Few tourists: unlike Pushkar, the experience is raw and real.
- Pair it: with a night at the fort or nearby Khimsar. Our Nagaur Cattle Fair page has more.
Local tip
Go early, when the light is soft and the trading serious, and leave before midday, when the dust and heat rise. Ask us early about dates.
Bullocks, chillies and the desert trade
Ask an old cattle dealer in Nagaur what a good bullock is worth and he will tell you, at length, about the one his grandfather sold.
Animals and routes: for centuries Nagaur's wealth came from both.
The Nagauri bullock: a tall, pale animal bred for speed and stamina, able to pull a plough through sand or a cart across the desert for days.
Far-off buyers: farmers came from far beyond Rajasthan to buy them.
- After tractors: the breed is far less common, but fine pairs still pull carts in the villages, and the old pride is everywhere at fair time.
- Camels, the trucks of the desert: they carried grain, salt, cloth and spices along the caravan routes.
- Fewer each decade: herders still bring camels to the fair. Our piece on the camels of Rajasthan covers their decline and the people keeping herding alive.
- Spices, the newer wealth: Nagauri methi has made the district's name in kitchens across India and abroad.
- Seed spices: farmers also grow cumin and others that suit the dry soil.
- The grain market: in the morning, sacks are weighed and argued over in a scene little changed in two hundred years.
Walking the old town
Nagaur's old town is a maze of lanes around the fort, and the best way to see it is slowly, on foot, with someone who lives there.
Start at the fort gate: walk into the bazaar in the morning, among grain, cloth, brass and spice shops.
Nagauri methi: a fragrant leafy fenugreek, dried and sold as kasuri methi or pan methi. The district grows more of it than anywhere else.
In season: the leaves dry in great green heaps, and the smell hangs over the lanes.
- Faiths side by side: mosques, temples and Jain shrines stand close together.
- On the way: havelis with carved balconies, small neighbourhood mosques, and temples where women gather in the evening to sing.
- Friendly curiosity: few tourists walk here, so expect to be asked where you are from.
- Breakfast: kachoris and mirchi bada.
- Lunch: dal baati and ker sangri, with sweets from the bazaar halwais.
- Where we eat: usually at the fort or a hotel, but chai and a hot kachori from a busy stall belong to any walk.
Around Nagaur
Nagaur district is large and full of surprises: marble quarries, a poet-princess's birthplace, a goddess on a hill and several old forts.
Khimsar
- The fort: about 42 kilometres towards Jodhpur, Khimsar has a Rathore fort built in 1523, now a heritage hotel.
- Why stay: a dune village nearby, and a lovely base for the fair or the fort.
Merta and Meera Bai
- The poet-princess: Meera Bai, whose songs to Krishna are sung across India, was born at Kurki in this district, into the Rathore family of Merta.
- Merta: to the south, where her family ruled. Her devotion is still remembered in its temples.
Makrana
- Famous marble: the quarries gave the white stone for the Taj Mahal and Jodhpur's Jaswant Thada.
- Carvers today: families still work the stone. See the marble craft of Makrana.
Dadhimati Mata and Kuchaman
- Dadhimati Mata: near Jayal, about 40 kilometres from Nagaur, one of the old goddess temples of Marwar.
- Kuchaman: further east, a hill fort above its town, with painted rooms of its own.
Osian and Deshnoke
- Osian: to the west, the early temples and dunes of Osian.
- Deshnoke: north on the Bikaner road, the Karni Mata temple and its sacred rats. Read our Karni Mata temple guide.
What most visitors to Nagaur miss
Nagaur's history reaches well beyond its walls. A few threads tie this small desert town to Agra, to Krishna's poet and to a folk hero sung across the state.
Akbar's court at Nagaur: in 1570 the emperor stayed here for weeks, and the rulers of Bikaner and Jaisalmer came to the town to offer their allegiance.
A gate named for a rebel: the Amar Singh Gate of Agra Fort is popularly linked with Nagaur's proud governor, whose story the ballad singers still tell.
Facts to know
- Akbar's stay
- 1570
- Bakht Singh in Jodhpur
- Ruled 1751 to 1752
- Merta's founder
- Rao Duda, a son of Rao Jodha
- Tejaji's birthplace
- Kharnal village
- Bakht Singh's short reign: the prince who built most of the fort's palaces finally became Maharaja of Jodhpur in 1751 and died the following year.
- Meera Bai's family: she was a granddaughter of Rao Duda, the son of Rao Jodha who founded Merta.
- Merta's temple: the Charbhuja temple there is the shrine most associated with her childhood devotion.
- Tejaji's village: the folk hero of the Parbatsar fair was born at Kharnal, near Nagaur, and his shrines stand in villages across Rajasthan.
- More Makrana marble: the same white stone faces the Victoria Memorial in Kolkata.
- Salt to the south-east: beyond Kuchaman lies Sambhar Lake, India's largest inland salt lake, with flamingos in winter.
How long to allow, and who it suits
Nagaur can be a two-hour stop on the road or the best night of a desert journey. Here is how to choose.
A road stop: two or three hours in the fort, a chai in the bazaar, and on to Bikaner or Jodhpur.
One night: the fort in late light, the old town and dargah next morning, without rushing either.
Facts to know
- The fort
- Two to three hours
- Old town walk
- About an hour
- The fair
- A morning
- Nights
- One, or two at fair time
- Two nights: at fair or festival time, so you have a full morning at the fairground and an evening of music.
- History and art lovers: the murals and the restoration reward slow looking.
- Photographers: the fair at first light, and the water gardens in the afternoon.
- Families: children love the animals at the fair, but keep them close among the bullocks.
- Not for you if: you want boutiques, polished cafes and a lively evening scene. Nagaur is a working town.
Where to stay in and near Nagaur
There are two ways to stay here: inside the fort itself, or at a family fort nearby.
Inside the fort
- The Ranvas: the restored queens' palaces let you sleep among courtyards, gardens and fountains.
- Our first choice: for the Sacred Spirit Festival and for history lovers.
Khimsar Fort
- Under an hour away: Khimsar Fort has a pool, gardens, heritage rooms and a dune village.
- For the fair: an excellent base. Many guests stay two nights and spend a day in Nagaur.
Jodhpur or Bikaner
- A city palace instead: Nagaur is a long but easy day trip from Jodhpur or Bikaner, or a stop between them.
- Compare: our guide to palace hotels.
When to come to Nagaur
Nagaur is a desert town, so the cool months are best. Two events give them extra reason.
The cool months: sunny, pleasant days and cool nights, cold in December and January.
Match an event: if you can time your trip to the fair or the festival, do. See Rajasthan in February.
Facts to know
- Season
- October to March
- Cattle fair
- Magh, late January or February
- Sacred Spirit Festival
- Usually February
- Hot months
- April to June
- Tejaji fair
- Bhadrapada, at Parbatsar
- The festival concerts: held in the fort's courtyards and pavilions, some in morning light and some late into the night, with the audience on rugs and bolsters close to the musicians.
- Past pairings: qawwals from Ajmer with Manganiyar musicians from the Thar, ensembles from abroad and masters of classical Indian instruments.
- Book early: so few people can attend that the concerts have an intimacy larger festivals cannot match. Ask us about dates as soon as you start planning.
- Summer: severe heat, regularly above 40°C, so visit only in the early morning.
- Monsoon: July to September brings occasional rain and humidity.
- Veer Tejaji: the Parbatsar fair is another large cattle fair, named after the folk hero worshipped as a protector against snakebite.
Getting to Nagaur
Nagaur sits on the road between Jodhpur and Bikaner, which makes it an easy and rewarding stop.
From Jodhpur: by way of Khimsar.
Facts to know
- From Jodhpur
- Two and a half to three hours
- From Bikaner
- Two to two and a half hours
- Khimsar
- About 42 km, under an hour
- Nearest airports
- Jodhpur (JDH) and Bikaner
- From Jaipur
- About five hours
- From Bikaner: by way of the Karni Mata temple at Deshnoke.
- Our journey: Nagaur fits our desert triangle journey of Jodhpur, Jaisalmer and Bikaner, as a stop between Jodhpur and Bikaner.
- Plan the legs: our guide to road distances and drive times.
A day in Nagaur
This is how we would spend a day here, with a night in the fort if you can.
Morning
- At fair time: the fairground at first light, with two or three hours among the herders.
- Otherwise: a walk through the old town and bazaar, ending at the dargah of Hamiduddin Nagori.
Midday
- Lunch and rest: at the fort or your hotel, through the hottest hours, in the cool of thick walls.
Afternoon and evening
- The fort, slowly: late afternoon inside Ahhichatragarh with a guide, through the gates, water gardens and painted palaces.
- Sunset: on the walls, and if you sleep at the Ranvas, the gardens again after dark.
Next day
- Onwards: north to Deshnoke and Bikaner, or south to Khimsar and Jodhpur.
What we tell friends before Nagaur
Nagaur is less used to visitors than Jodhpur or Jaipur. A little care goes a long way.
Give the fort time: at least two or three hours, with a guide who knows the murals. The beauty is in the detail.
Dress modestly: shoulders and knees covered in the old town and at the dargah, with a scarf for your head at the shrine.
At the fair: go early, wear closed shoes and keep clear of the animals, especially bullocks walked for buyers.
- Ask first: before photographing people, especially women and herders. Most are happy to be asked.
- Ask about the animals too: herders are proud of their bullocks and camels, and many will happily show off their best one if you ask before raising a camera.
- A scarf for the dust: at the fairground the dust rises by mid-morning, so cover your nose and mouth and protect your lens.
- Small notes: for chai, offerings and tips. Cards are not widely accepted in town.
- Book ahead: for fair and festival dates, rooms inside the fort and at Khimsar fill quickly.
- Who it suits: travellers who love history, crafts and real markets. If you want polished sights and shopping, stop for a few hours and move on.
