A royal hunting retreat in Godwar
What a rawla is: a nobleman's residence, smaller than a palace and less formal than a fort. Our piece on rawlas and thikanas explains how these houses fitted into the old kingdoms.
Godwar, a border country: the farmland between the Aravallis and the Marwar plains. Mewar and Marwar fought over it more than once before it settled with Jodhpur in the eighteenth century.
- Built as
- A hunting lodge for the Jodhpur royal family
- Century
- Seventeenth
- Owners
- A branch of the Rathore house of Jodhpur
- Sister hotel
- Ajit Bhawan, Jodhpur
- An old trading village: inscriptions of 1138 and 1145 from the Chahamana kings of nearby Nadol describe Narlai as a market where a toll was charged on merchants' bullocks.
- A battle on its fields: on 15 June 1680, in Aurangzeb's war with the Rajput states, a combined Rathore and Sisodia army defeated a Mughal force here. For once the old rivals fought side by side.
- The lodge: built for the royal hunt in the seventeenth century, when these hills were forest and scrub full of game.
- The family today: the owners are a branch of the Rathore royal house, the same family that runs Ajit Bhawan in Jodhpur. The rawla is still family-owned.
From hunting lodge to village hotel
In the mid-1990s the family restored the old lodge and opened it to guests. They kept the thick walls, the gates and the courtyards, and added rooms and tents in the gardens behind. It belongs to the first generation of Rajasthan's rural heritage hotels, the houses that taught travellers to stay in villages as well as cities.
- The old building: low, white and deeply shaded, with courtyards, arched verandas and rooms that keep faded frescoes on some walls.
- The newer rooms: garden rooms and tents spread through the grounds behind, with more space and privacy.
- What survived: original fort walls and gates, archways and old coloured-glass windows.
- What it feels like: quiet in a way a city hotel never is, with the granite hill so close you watch the light move across it all day.
Choosing your room
For atmosphere: we ask for a room in the old building, with the frescoes and the thick walls that keep it cool.
For space: a garden room or a tent, quieter and roomier, and easier for families.
- Old building
- Most atmosphere, thickest walls
- Garden rooms and tents
- More space and privacy
- Watch for
- Steep steps, some small bathrooms
- Book with
- The stepwell dinner, at the same time
- For ease: if stairs are hard, tell us. Some old rooms have steep steps and small bathrooms.
- For couples: we look for a room with a private corner or a view of the hill.
- For light sleepers: the village wakes early, with cowbells, temple bells and the call of peacocks. We think it is the best alarm in Rajasthan.
- Our honest view: tell us what matters most, and we will say plainly which room suits you, or whether a larger property near Jodhpur would be a better fit.
Dinner in a stepwell
What a stepwell is: a baori, a deep stone well with flights of steps down to the water. Every Rajasthani village once depended on one.
The setting: on a dinner night the rawla's team lights hundreds of oil lamps along the steps and ledges of an old village stepwell.
- The music: folk singers of the region usually sit on the stone landings with a dholak drum and a harmonium, and their songs echo off the walls.
- The meal: a table laid at the bottom, and dinner carried down in courses.
- Who it suits: two people, or a small family, on a cool, clear night between October and March.
- Book it early: it depends on the weather and the hotel's calendar, and some nights are taken by private parties.
- Understand it first: our page on the stepwells of Rajasthan explains how and why they were built.
The Narlai table
Winter staples: thick bajra millet rotis with white butter, ker sangri of desert berries and beans, kadhi and gatte dumplings.
For a celebration: dal baati churma, the baked wheat balls, lentils and sweet crumble of every Rajasthani feast.
- Rajput meats: laal maas in its red chilli sauce and safed maas in cream and nuts often appear at the stepwell dinner.
- Jain and vegetarian food: this is a Jain village, and the kitchen knows how to cook without onion and garlic. Ask ahead.
- Breakfast from the village: mirchi bada, a large green chilli stuffed with spiced potato and fried in gram-flour batter, with sweet milky tea.
- Afternoon drink: chaas, the cool salted buttermilk every farmer drinks.
- Cook with them: a cooking class with the rawla's cooks can be arranged.
Horses, the hill and the white elephant
Marwari horses: the rawla keeps horses of the native breed, with its inward-curving ears. Ride out through the fields in the cool of the morning.
Riding further: for longer rides, our Marwari horse safaris page explains how we plan them.
- The hill: villagers call it Jaikal. It is a single granite monolith, and the white elephant on top can be seen for miles.
- The climb: more than seven hundred steps, steep in places. Go before sunrise or in the last hour before sunset, with water and proper shoes.
- The view: village roofs, temple spires, the fields of Godwar and the Aravalli ridge to the east.
- Tea at the top: the rawla can arrange tea or a sundowner beside the elephant.
- The cave shrine: a Shiva shrine inside the hill, busiest on Mondays and in the monsoon month of Shravan. Shoes off and voices low.
Rest and slow afternoons
The midday rule: from late morning to about four, stay in. Climb and walk at the edges of the day.
The garden: shaded lawns and verandas are where most guests spend the afternoon.
- Wellness, honestly: this is a small heritage hotel, not a spa resort. If massage or yoga matters, tell us and we check what the rawla can arrange on your dates.
- Birdwatching from your chair: langurs settling on the hill, an owl on a ledge and peacocks flying heavily up to roost at dusk.
- For a large spa: pair Narlai with Mihir Garh or a city hotel in Udaipur or Jodhpur.
The temple village outside the gate
The Adinath temple
- What it is: the principal Jain temple, dedicated to the first tirthankara and generally considered the oldest in the village.
- Look up: the dome tells the story of Neminath, who abandoned his own wedding when he heard the cries of animals penned for the feast.
The Neminath temple
- Why go: carved stone worth the patience.
- How: it is often locked. Our guide asks politely for the keys at the pedhi, the office of the main temple.
A village of temples
- How many: locals say Narlai once had more than a hundred. Around twenty-two carved temples still stand.
- Who built them: wealthy Jain merchant families of Godwar, who still come home for weddings and festivals.
Village life
- What you see: potters at their wheels, women sorting grain on doorsteps and old men playing cards under the banyan.
- The Rabari: the herding community of the region, the men in white with red turbans. Our Rabari herders page tells their story.
Granite, peacocks and the occasional leopard
Ancient rock: the granite of Godwar is hundreds of millions of years old, worn into domes, boulders and rounded ridges.
Between the outcrops: scrub, thorn and small fields, with neem, khejri and banyan trees around the wells.
- Peafowl everywhere: the males display in the fields after the first rains.
- Hanuman langurs: they live on the hill and around the temples, tolerated because of their link with Hanuman.
- Nilgai: the big blue-grey antelope graze the field edges at dawn.
- Birds of the rock: grey francolins call from the scrub, and Indian eagle-owls nest on the rock faces.
- Leopards: they live in these hills, and Rabari herders know which cave one used last month. Never go looking on foot.
Two days at Narlai, the way we plan them
Day one, arriving by way of Ranakpur
Morning: leave Udaipur after breakfast and reach Ranakpur by mid-morning for the temple.
- Afternoon: a late lunch at the rawla and a rest.
- Evening: a village walk with a guide, the Adinath temple, then dinner in the stepwell under the lamps.
Day two, the hill and the horses
Dawn: climb the hill and drink tea beside the white elephant as the light comes up over Godwar.
- Morning: ride out on Marwari horses through the fields, or take a jeep into the countryside.
- Evening: Kumbhalgarh's walls at sunset, or a leopard drive in Jawai.
Day three, onward
- North: to Jodhpur, with lunch at Rohet on the way.
- South: to Jawai for two nights of leopards and Rabari country.
What most visitors miss
The temple bells at dawn: step outside the gate at first light and simply listen.
The hilltop Jain shrine: a long flight of stairs at the edge of the village, climbed barefoot by pilgrims, with silence at the top.
- Afternoon tea in the village: if a family invites you, accept. Your guide will translate.
- The cave in the hill: many climbers pass it without stopping. Pause, take off your shoes and look in.
- The night sky: with almost no lights in the village, the stars are some of the clearest on the Udaipur to Jodhpur road.
Day trips from Narlai
Ranakpur, under an hour
- Why go: the great fifteenth-century Jain temple in white marble, with its forest of carved pillars.
- When: early, before the coaches. Mornings are kept for worship, so we confirm visiting hours for you.
Kumbhalgarh, a short drive
- Why go: Rana Kumbha's fortress, its walls running for kilometres along the ridge.
- When: a stretch of the wall in the late afternoon, then the evening light on the battlements.
Jawai, about an hour
- Why go: leopard country among the granite hills around Jawai Bandh.
- Our advice: an evening drive is possible from Narlai, but serious leopard watchers should give Jawai its own nights, perhaps at SUJAN JAWAI.
Nadol, close by
- Why go: the old Chahamana capital and its temple to Ashapura Mata, the family goddess of the Chauhans.
- Who it suits: anyone who likes old stone and few visitors.
When to stay at Rawla Narlai
October to March: the season for hill climbs, village walks, rides and stepwell dinners.
December and January: cold after dark. Pack a warm layer.
- Best months
- October to March
- Coldest nights
- December and January
- Hottest
- April to June
- Monsoon
- July to September, green fields
- Festivals
- Holi, Diwali, Paryushan, Shravan
- April to June: often very hot. A short stay, with long afternoons in the shade.
- The monsoon: green hills and bright fields, though rain can cancel an outdoor dinner.
- Holi and Diwali: celebrated with real village joy. For Jains, Diwali marks the liberation of Mahavira.
- Paryushan: the Jain festival of the late monsoon brings many families home to the temples.
Who will love Rawla Narlai, and who won't
Walkers: a hill, village lanes and temples with no other visitors.
Couples: the stepwell dinner and the quiet are the reasons most honeymooners come.
- Photographers: granite in low light, Rabari turbans and lamp-lit steps.
- Active families: the climb, the horses and the space. Children who can manage steep steps love it.
- Long journeys: a perfect rest between the big-city days of Udaipur and Jodhpur.
- You may not love it if: you want a large spa, a choice of restaurants or a full programme of sights. Rural Rajasthan is dusty in the dry months.
- Better alternatives then: a larger property such as Rohet Garh near Jodhpur, or one of the Udaipur palaces.
How Rawla Narlai fits our journeys
Mewar and Marwar: Narlai is the heart of our Mewar and Marwar journey, a pause between the two kingdoms.
Village Rajasthan: it is a natural stop on our village Rajasthan journey of rawlas, forts and farms.
- The classic drive: our journal piece on Udaipur to Jodhpur via Ranakpur shows how Narlai breaks the road.
- On to Jodhpur: stop for lunch at Rohet on the way north to Jodhpur.
- Compare the styles: our heritage havelis page sets Narlai among the rawlas, garhs and kothis of Rajasthan.
Getting to Rawla Narlai
From Udaipur: the usual route passes Ranakpur, so most guests stop at the temple on the way.
From Jodhpur: about two and a half hours south, through the villages of Marwar.
- From Udaipur
- About 2.5 hours by road
- From Jodhpur
- About 2.5 hours by road
- Nearest airports
- Udaipur and Jodhpur
- Nearest station
- Falna, about an hour
- By train: Falna, on the main line between Ahmedabad and Jaipur, is the nearest useful station.
- In the village: you walk. The lanes are narrow and the distances short.
- More detail: our Narlai guide covers the village in depth.
What we tell friends before they stay
Climb early or late: never at midday. The steps have little shade.
Carry a torch: street lighting in the lanes is patchy, and stepwell steps are uneven.
- Dress for temples: shoulders and knees covered, and no leather inside Jain shrines.
- Ask before photographing people: especially women and anyone at a shrine.
- Don't hand out sweets or pens: if you want to give something back, ask us first.
- Learn the greeting: khamma ghani, which often earns a smile and an invitation to tea.
- Expect stars, not nightlife: and the best sleep of your journey.