Category: Places

By Rafe Calder The rocks come first. Karnataka Tourism describes massive granite boulders spread across the landscape at Hampi, formed over millions of years, and the ruins sit among them. Where it is Hampi is a village on the banks of the Tungabhadra River in northern Karnataka. The distances differ by source. Karnataka Tourism says…

By Porter Lang Nobody agrees. Three explanations are in circulation for the blue houses of Jodhpur’s old city, and the sources we read do not settle between them. We set them side by side below, because the disagreement is more honest than any one tidy answer. The city and its founder Wikipedia says Rao Jodha,…

By Isla Quinn Cold air. Steep slopes. A small train that has been climbing since 1881. Where it is Wikipedia places Darjeeling in the northernmost part of West Bengal, in the Eastern Himalayas, at an average elevation of 2,045 metres. It says Kangchenjunga, the world’s third-highest mountain at 8,598 metres, rises to the north. The…

By Rafe Calder The river gets the attention. The looms are in the lanes behind it. Where it is Wikipedia places Varanasi on the Ganges in Uttar Pradesh, 692 kilometres south-east of New Delhi and 320 kilometres south-east of Lucknow. It gives the 2011 census population of the metropolitan area as 1,212,610. It says the…

By Ines Keane Bidar has a fort, a pocket of soil and a black metal with silver set into it. The soil is the part people repeat. Wikipedia places Bidar in Karnataka, on the Deccan plateau at an elevation of 710 metres, with a 2011 census population of 216,020. It says Ahmed Shah Wali Bahmani…

By Porter Lang The village that gave its name to a sari also gave its name to a land movement, and both stories start within a few kilometres of each other, east of Hyderabad. Wikipedia places Bhoodan Pochampally in the Yadadri Bhuvanagiri district of Telangana, roughly 40 to 50 kilometres east of Hyderabad, on 28.42…

By Ines Keane Cloth doesn’t turn blue in Bagru so much as it earns it, slowly, over days that involve mud before any dye touches the fabric. The printers belong to the Chhipa community, a name tied to dyeing and printing both. Bagru sits about 30 kilometres from Jaipur, and printing has been practised there…

By Porter Lang Pick up a piece of Jaipur blue pottery and it feels lighter than you expect. That’s the first clue that something unusual is going on. This isn’t fired earth in the way most pottery is. The body contains no clay. The “dough” is a mix of quartz stone powder, powdered glass, multani…