Money made in Calcutta, spent in the desert
Most of the families never came back to live. You will see every state between perfect restoration and collapse, sometimes on the same street, and the story behind each house is usually about a fortune, a city far away and a grandfather who never came home.
On the caravan routes: in the eighteenth century this sandy country sat between the ports of Gujarat and the cities of the north.
A shrewd bargain: the local Rajput lords, the Shekhawats, held their land as small estates called thikanas, and offered merchants protection and low taxes to settle under their forts.
- Where
- North-west of Jaipur
- Rulers
- The Shekhawat Rajputs, in thikanas
- Painting era
- Roughly 1830 to 1930
- Merchant families
- Agarwal, Maheshwari, Oswal Jain
- Went to
- Calcutta, Bombay and beyond
- The traders: Marwari families, Agarwals, Maheshwaris and Oswal Jains, financed caravans in grain, cotton, spices and opium, and kept their accounts in the old mahajani script.
- Then the trade moved: in the nineteenth century the railways and new British ports drew the caravans away, and the merchants followed the money to Calcutta, Bombay and beyond.
- Great business houses: families from a handful of dusty towns became some of the great names of modern India, among them the Birlas of Pilani, the Podars, the Goenkas, the Ruias and the Singhanias.
- Money sent home: every son who prospered built a haveli, and every haveli tried to outdo the one across the lane.
- More than houses: they also built temples, wells, schools and painted cenotaphs called chhatris.
- Towns as galleries: from roughly 1830 to 1930 painters covered the walls inside and out. Nobody planned a museum. It happened one family's pride at a time.
- The empty houses: many havelis were left to caretakers, and some are crumbling while cousins in Kolkata or Mumbai debate what to do with them.
- The regional story: our Shekhawati page tells it in full.
How a haveli works, from street to roof
- Chabutra
- The platform outside the gate
- Baithak
- The formal sitting room
- Mardana
- The outer, men's courtyard
- Zenana
- The inner, women's courtyard
- Nohra
- The yard for camels, carts and cars
The platform and the gate
The chabutra: a raised platform outside the main gate, where the men of the family sat in the evening and watched the town go by.
- The great gate: tall enough for an elephant, with a heavy studded door, and Ganesh keeping watch above.
- The wicket door: a small door set into the big one for daily use.
- Two messages: the great door was a statement to the street, and the small door was the reality of daily life.
The outer court, where business was done
The mardana: through the gate lies the outer courtyard, the men's world.
- The baithak: the formal sitting room off it, where the merchant met clients and signed accounts.
- The finest painting: usually found here, and in grander houses the ceiling is worked in mirror and gold.
- Look for the hook: a cloth fan, the pankha, once hung there, pulled on a rope by a servant sitting outside.
The inner court, where the family lived
The zenana: a second, narrower doorway leads to the inner courtyard, the women's quarters.
- Daily life: the kitchen, the storerooms, bedrooms on the upper floors, and roof terraces where chillies were dried and people slept in the hot months.
- Jharokhas: latticed windows let the women watch the lane without being seen.
- Better-kept paintings: many inner frescoes survive better than the outer ones, because deep verandas kept off the sun.
The nohra and the double haveli
The nohra: a walled yard beside the house for camels, carts, horses and later the family car.
- Double havelis: two mirrored houses side by side for two brothers, like the Chokhani and Goenka double havelis of Mandawa.
- A machine for the desert: thick walls hold the night's cool well into the afternoon, and the courtyards pull hot air up and out.
- Read more: our journal explains what a haveli is.
How to read a painted wall
True fresco first: masons laid fine lime plaster in sections, painters worked into it wet so the pigment bonded with the lime, and the surface was polished until it shone.
Araish: the word Rajasthani masons use for this polished lime work.
Earth and plant colours: red and yellow ochre, lamp black, indigo, and green from copper.
- Araish
- Polished lime plaster
- Early colours
- Ochre, lamp black, indigo, copper green
- Late colours
- Bright imported chemical colours
- Bring
- A small torch and binoculars
- Later work: painters moved to dry plaster, quicker and finer, and from the late nineteenth century used bright imported chemical colours.
- Date a wall from across the street: look at the brightness of its blue.
- The early subjects: Krishna and Radha, scenes from the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, local heroes, elephants and horse processions.
- Dhola and Maru: the lovers of the great desert romance ride their camel across many walls.
- Then the outside world arrives: Europeans in hats, steam trains with every carriage drawn, motorcars, early aeroplanes, gramophones and the occasional English king or queen.
- Where the painters got it: what the merchants saw in Calcutta, or what the families brought home in prints and photographs.
- Krishna in England: in Mandawa's Murmuria haveli he herds his cows through a plainly English country landscape, copied from a print.
- The painters' jokes: an elephant made of the bodies of seven women, or a horse made of many figures.
- Look up: the best work is often under the eaves, on gateway ceilings or in small rooms where colours have kept their brilliance.
- Go deeper: the British writer Ilay Cooper spent years documenting these paintings, and our guide to Shekhawati frescoes goes further.
The painted towns, one by one
- Distances
- Most towns an hour or less apart
- Allow
- Two nights for three towns; four to fall for it
- Start
- Nawalgarh
- Busiest
- Mandawa; walk at 8am
Nawalgarh, where we always begin
Founded: by Thakur Nawal Singh in 1737, who invited merchant families to settle under his protection.
The most havelis: more fine havelis than anywhere else in the region, two restored by descendants of their builders.
- The Podar museum: the Dr Ramnath A Podar Haveli Museum, built in 1902, carries something like 750 paintings, retouched and bright.
- The Morarka museum: the Morarka Haveli Museum, built around 1900, was cleaned but never repainted, so its colours are softer and original.
- Both in one morning: the Morarka first. Guests arrive certain which approach is right and leave unsure, which is exactly the point.
Mandawa, the best-known
Founded: around a fort built by Thakur Nawal Singh in 1755 to guard a trading post on the caravan route. The fort is now Castle Mandawa.
- A walkable grid: the Chokhani and Goenka double havelis, and rooms glittering with gold paint.
- The Murmuria haveli: from the 1930s, with Nehru on horseback and King George V on its walls.
- Timing: the easiest town to start with and the busiest, so walk at eight in the morning, before the day visitors.
Fatehpur, the oldest and the most moving
Founded: by the Kaimkhani nawab Fateh Khan in the mid-fifteenth century, with some of the earliest and finest painted havelis in the region.
- The Devra haveli: bought in the late 1990s by the French artist Nadine Le Prince and restored by cleaning the soot from the frescoes rather than painting over them.
- Today: it is an art centre and guest house.
- Beautiful and sobering: much of the rest of town stands empty and fading. Bring small notes for the caretakers.
Ramgarh, the merchants' revenge
Where: about twenty kilometres north of Fatehpur.
- Founded: in 1791 by the Poddars, traders from Churu said to have quarrelled with their thakur over taxes and moved across the border.
- The chhatris: a group of painted cenotaphs whose ceilings are among the best preserved paintings in Shekhawati.
- When: in the late afternoon light.
Mahansar, for the gold and silver room
- One great treasure: the Sone Chandi ki Haveli, whose painted rooms are worked in gold and silver.
- Pair it: a short drive from Ramgarh, and we often combine the two in a single afternoon.
Churu, on the edge of the dunes
History: Churu belonged to the kingdom of Bikaner, and its Oswal Jain and Agarwal merchants built some of the most imposing havelis in Rajasthan.
- The Surana haveli: famous for its hundreds of small windows. The Kanhaiya Lal Bagla haveli is painted.
- Sethani ka Johara: a reservoir built in the famine of 1899, just outside town, the most beautiful thing the merchants left.
- Onward: the natural stop on the way to the blackbuck of Tal Chhapar.
Alsisar, Dundlod and Mukundgarh, the quiet ones
Alsisar: a small town around its thakurs' fort, now the Alsisar Mahal hotel, with unrestored havelis, temples and wells around it.
- Dundlod: a fort, and a family long associated with Marwari horses.
- Mukundgarh: its own fort and havelis.
- Why we send people: there is little to do except walk, look and sit on a roof as the camel carts come in.
Merchant palaces beyond the painted towns
- Patwon ki Haveli
- Begun 1805; about fifty years to finish
- Nathmal ki Haveli
- Around 1885
- Rampuria havelis
- Late 19th and early 20th century
- Bagore ki Haveli
- Late 18th century, Udaipur
Patwon ki Haveli, Jaisalmer
Begun in 1805: by the merchant Guman Chand Patwa, who traded in gold and silver thread, brocade and jewels, with a house for each of his five sons.
Fifty years to finish: the cluster took about that long.
- The facades: a wall of jharokhas, screens and brackets carved from yellow sandstone, so dense you can stand an hour and keep finding details.
- Inside: one of the houses is furnished as a merchant's home.
- When: in the morning, before the lane fills.
Salim Singh ki Haveli and Nathmal ki Haveli, Jaisalmer
Salim Singh: prime minister of Jaisalmer in the early nineteenth century, remembered as a tyrant.
- His haveli: it flares out at the top into balconies under an arched roof, and the town says its upper storeys were cut back on the ruler's orders.
- Nathmal ki Haveli: built around 1885 and guarded by stone elephants.
- The two carvers: the story goes that two brothers each took one half and never quite agreed. Spot the differences with your guide.
The Rampuria havelis, Bikaner
Built by: the Rampuria family, Jain merchants, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
- The stone: red Dulmera sandstone carved with balconies, screens, flowers and figures.
- Inside: some mix Rajput painting with European tiles, chandeliers and stained glass. One is the heritage hotel Bhanwar Niwas.
- When: walk the lanes in the late afternoon, when low light picks out the carving.
Bagore ki Haveli, Udaipur
Whose house: Amar Chand Badwa, prime minister of Mewar in the late eighteenth century, on Gangaur Ghat.
- The rooms: more than a hundred, with painted walls and glasswork.
- Evenings: the courtyard hosts a show of Rajasthani folk dance.
- The courtly side: a minister's house rather than a merchant's.
The havelis of Bundi and Jaipur
Bundi: family havelis below the Garh Palace have murals in their rooms and take guests.
- Jaipur: nobles' townhouses line the bazaars of the walled city, and Samode Haveli is one you can sleep in, with a dining room covered in murals.
- Our list: the journal names the best havelis to stay in.
Sleeping in a haveli of your own
Family-run: several forts and havelis in Shekhawati have become hotels, most still run by the families who own them.
- Smaller and simpler: than the city palaces, but they give you the chance to wake inside the paintings you came to see.
- The best of it: walking out at dawn into empty lanes, then coming back for breakfast on a roof.
- Compare them: our guide to the haveli hotels of Shekhawati, and our journal on how heritage hotels differ from palace hotels.
Castle Mandawa
The building: the thakurs' fort of 1755, now the region's best-known heritage hotel.
- Staying there: ramparts, a pool and dinner in the courtyard.
- The base: the most comfortable one for Mandawa, Nawalgarh and Fatehpur, and the town's havelis begin at its gate.
Alsisar Mahal, Roop Niwas and Piramal Haveli
Alsisar Mahal: it fills the fort of a quiet town.
- Roop Niwas Kothi, Nawalgarh: a family country house with stables of Marwari horses, so you can ride out at dawn past khejri trees and village wells.
- Piramal Haveli, Bagar: a calm, beautifully kept merchant house.
- Honest advice: each suits a different traveller, and we'll tell you which suits you.
Bhanwar Niwas, Bikaner
The house: a Rampuria haveli in the old city of Bikaner, with painted rooms and a courtyard.
- Why stay: you sleep inside the carved red stone you came to see.
- On a longer route: it pairs well with Junagarh Fort and the Shekhawati towns.
How we arrange a haveli walk
Local guides: they know which families welcome visitors, which caretakers are at home and which havelis are unsafe, with broken stairs and sagging roofs.
The knock: a caretaker or a grandmother appears, and a gate shut all morning swings open onto a courtyard nobody has photographed today.
- Walk
- First and last hours of light
- Midday
- Rest
- Guides
- Local; know families and caretakers
- Tea with owners
- Where a family is willing
- The light: we walk in the first and last hours, when low sun is kind to faded paint, and rest through the middle of the day.
- Tea in a courtyard: where a family is willing, with the owners or their caretaker, and a conversation about who built the house and where the family went.
- In Nawalgarh: the two museums with a slow lane walk.
- In Fatehpur: time for the guided visit at the Le Prince haveli, which is the point rather than a formality.
- With more time: Ramgarh's chhatris and Mahansar's gold room, ending on the dunes near Mandawa at sunset.
With an artist or a restorer
For painters and conservationists: we try to arrange an hour with a local painter or restorer who works in lime and natural pigments.
- What you see: how a fresco is made, and how it is saved.
- Confirmed as we plan: it depends on who is working in the region that season.
Village life beyond the havelis
On the farms: families still churn buttermilk by hand and plaster their courtyards with clay.
- What we arrange: an afternoon with a farming family or a camel-cart ride to the dunes, always on the family's terms.
- How we work: our rural homestays page explains it.
The journey that strings them together
- The easiest way in: our four-night painted towns of Shekhawati journey.
- The longer loop: the heritage havelis trail continues to Bikaner and Jaisalmer, so you see painted, carved and lived-in havelis in one journey.
When to come to the painted towns
November to February: warm, bright days and cold nights, sometimes below freezing, with frost on the fields at dawn.
Winter mornings: woodsmoke, mist over the mustard and painted walls glowing as the sun climbs. February brings the mustard into flower.
What to pack: a warm layer for breakfast and a hat for noon.
- Best months
- November to February
- Mustard in flower
- February
- Hottest
- June; Churu hit 50.8°C in 2019
- Monsoon
- July and August, short
- Festival
- Shekhawati Festival, late winter
- March: pleasant, with Holi and the weeks before it, when men gather in town squares at night for gindad, a stick dance to the beat of the chang, the big frame drum.
- April onwards: the heat builds fast, and by June these are among the hottest towns in India. Churu reached 50.8°C in June 2019.
- The monsoon: short, in July and August, with green fields and humidity.
- The Shekhawati Festival: the state's Shekhawati Festival brings folk music, camel races and haveli walks in late winter, in February in many years and in March in recent ones.
- Holi: Holi in Rajasthan here is joyful and little touristed.
- Pilgrim fairs: Khatu Shyam ji and Salasar Balaji fill the roads on their big days, so we plan drives around them. We confirm the dates each year.
Who will love the havelis, and who won't
You will love it if
History in the open: you like places where it lies about unguarded.
The hunt: you enjoy finding a painted ceiling in a dusty room after asking three neighbours for the key.
- Stories over marble: a family fortune moves you more than a marble lobby.
- Your craft: painters, architects, photographers and anyone interested in conservation tend to adore it.
- After the forts: you want to see how wealthy families, not kings, lived in nineteenth-century Rajasthan.
- Older children: they usually enjoy hunting for trains, cars and aeroplanes on the walls.
You may not love it if
You want polish: the towns are dusty and busy on the highway side, many havelis are locked or crumbling, and the hotels are characterful rather than grand.
- The short version: see Nawalgarh's two museums and one walk in Mandawa, then move on.
- Either way: come with time to look up, a torch and small notes for the caretakers.
Visiting with respect
Ask before entering: even if the gate is open. A caretaker or a family member may be inside.
Tip the caretakers: their small fees and tips are often the only money that keeps a building standing.
- Entering
- Always ask first
- Caretakers
- Tip them
- Antiques
- Never buy stripped doors or panels
- Greeting
- Khamma ghani
- Don't buy stripped antiques: many carved doors, brackets and painted panels are taken from abandoned havelis, and every sale makes the next theft more likely. Buy new work from living carpenters.
- Hands off the walls: don't touch painted walls or use flash on frescoes. Lime and pigment are fragile, and the oil from fingers stains.
- Ask before photographing: especially women in the inner courtyards and grandmothers on the doorsteps.
- Dress modestly: in the old towns, and remove shoes and cover your head lightly if invited into a family temple.
- Learn the greeting: khamma ghani. The old men on the haveli platforms will light up when you use it.
- Ask the best question: which family built each house, and where they live now.