The Language of the Journey
The words that unlock India — architecture, ritual, craft, cuisine and wildlife — defined by our curators, linked to the places on your journey where you will meet them.
A
A Hindu ritual of worship in which lamps of flame are circled before a deity — or, at Varanasi and Pushkar, before the sacred river itself — accompanied by bells, conch and chant. The Ganga Aarti at Dashashwamedh Ghat is India's most celebrated evening ceremony.
On the journey:Ganga Aarti in Varanasi|Reference:Wikipedia ↗
A traditional Indian wrestling gymnasium, where pehlwani wrestlers train in earthen pits under regimens of exercise, diet and discipline that predate written records. Varanasi's riverside akharas are among the oldest continuously running.
On the journey:Varanasi journeys|Reference:Wikipedia ↗
A lacy, bowl-shaped Kerala pancake of fermented rice batter, crisp at the edges and soft at the centre — the classic partner to vegetable stew at a backwater breakfast.
On the journey:Kerala houseboat cruise|Reference:Wikipedia ↗
B
A pavilion with twelve doorways (bara-dari, 'twelve doors') built to catch the breeze from every direction — a fixture of Mughal and Rajput gardens, and the name of many palace lawns and terraces today.
On the journey:Umaid Bhawan Palace|Reference:Wikipedia ↗
The swamp deer of central India, named for its 'twelve-tined' antlers — brought back from two dozen animals to thriving herds in Kanha National Park, one of conservation's great recoveries.
On the journey:Kanha destination guide|Reference:Wikipedia ↗
C
The Persian fourfold garden — quartered by water channels representing paradise's four rivers — that structures the great Mughal tombs. Humayun's Tomb introduced it to India; the Taj Mahal perfected it.
On the journey:Humayun's Tomb · Taj Mahal|Reference:Wikipedia ↗
A domed, open pavilion on pillars — literally 'umbrella' — that crowns Rajput forts, palaces and cenotaphs. The silhouette of Rajasthan is drawn in chhatris.
On the journey:Mehrangarh Fort|Reference:Wikipedia ↗
D
The mud-resist block printing of Bagru, near Jaipur — patterns stamped in clay paste before dyeing, so the cloth remembers what the dye couldn't reach. Among Rajasthan's oldest textile crafts, still done by hand.
On the journey:Jaipur artisan workshops|Reference:Wikipedia ↗
The shrine-tomb of a Sufi saint, a place of pilgrimage across faiths. Delhi's Nizamuddin Dargah, with its Thursday qawwali, is the tradition's beating heart in the capital.
On the journey:Delhi destination guide|Reference:Wikipedia ↗
The royal court or audience hall of a maharaja or nawab — and by extension the great ceremonial assemblies of princely India. Palace hotels' 'durbar halls' preserve the theatre of it.
On the journey:Taj Falaknuma Palace|Reference:Wikipedia ↗
G
A flight of steps descending to sacred water — riverbanks in Varanasi, lake edges in Udaipur and Pushkar. The word also names the Western and Eastern Ghats, the mountain 'steps' of peninsular India.
On the journey:Ganga Aarti · Udaipur guide|Reference:Wikipedia ↗
The monumental gateway tower of a South Indian temple, rising in painted tiers of gods and myths. Madurai's Meenakshi Temple raises fourteen of them, the tallest over fifty metres.
On the journey:Meenakshi Temple|Reference:Wikipedia ↗
H
A traditional mansion built around courtyards, its fortunes tied to merchant and noble families. The painted havelis of Shekhawati and the sandstone havelis of Jaisalmer are the form at its most exuberant.
On the journey:Jaisalmer guide · Jaipur workshops|Reference:Wikipedia ↗
J
Perforated stone or latticed screen-work that filters light and breeze while veiling the interior — Mughal and Rajput architecture's answer to both climate and privacy, cut to near-lace fineness at its best.
On the journey:Hawa Mahal|Reference:Wikipedia ↗
An enclosed, overhanging balcony window — carved, canopied and cantilevered from palace walls — from which royal women observed the street unseen. Hawa Mahal is, in essence, 953 jharokhas arranged as a facade.
On the journey:Hawa Mahal|Reference:Wikipedia ↗
K
Kerala's classical dance-theatre, in which elaborately painted and costumed performers enact the epics through codified gesture and expression. The make-up ritual alone takes hours and is half the art.
On the journey:Kathakali evening in Kochi|Reference:Wikipedia ↗
The traditional rice barge of Kerala's backwaters — teak hull lashed with coir rope, famously without nails — reborn as the private houseboat that defines the Alleppey experience.
On the journey:Private houseboat cruise|Reference:Wikipedia ↗
Jaipur's royal jewellery technique: uncut gemstones set in frames of pure, hammered gold foil — usually backed with meenakari enamel. The craft arrived with the Mughals and never left the Pink City.
On the journey:Jaipur artisan workshops|Reference:Wikipedia ↗
L
The Sikh community kitchen serving free vegetarian meals to all comers regardless of faith or rank. The Golden Temple's langar at Amritsar feeds up to a hundred thousand people a day, run almost entirely by volunteers.
On the journey:Amritsar journeys|Reference:Wikipedia ↗
M
A raised platform in or above the forest — once a hunting perch, today the wildlife-watcher's tower and, at camps like Jamtara, the frame of the 'star bed' slept in under the open sky.
On the journey:Jamtara Wilderness Camp|Reference:Wikipedia ↗
A hereditary community of Muslim musicians of the Thar desert whose folk repertoire — sung for Rajput patrons for centuries — maps the desert's history in song. Their firelight performances define Jaisalmer's nights.
On the journey:Suryagarh, Jaisalmer|Reference:Wikipedia ↗
The warhorse of Rajput cavalry, unmistakable for its inward-curving ears — bred in Marwar for loyalty and endurance, and today the mount of choice for riding safaris across Bishnoi country.
On the journey:Mihir Garh|Reference:Wikipedia ↗
The Jaipur art of enamelling gold in brilliant colours — traditionally worked on the reverse of kundan jewellery, so the hidden side of a piece is often as fine as its face. The connoisseur always turns the jewel over.
On the journey:Jaipur artisan workshops|Reference:Wikipedia ↗
N
A Muslim princely ruler under the Mughal empire and the Raj — Lucknow's Nawabs of Awadh built its refined culture of poetry, courtesy and slow-cooked cuisine that survives in the city's kitchens today.
On the journey:Lucknow journeys|Reference:Encyclopaedia Britannica ↗
The stocky mountain goat of the southern Western Ghats, found nowhere else on earth. Eravikulam National Park above Munnar protects the largest surviving population, grazing within metres of the visitor path.
On the journey:Munnar tea country|Reference:Wikipedia ↗
P
The traditional wrestling of the subcontinent, practised in earthen akhara pits under codes of diet and discipline centuries old. Varanasi's riverside akharas open their morning training to respectful visitors.
On the journey:Varanasi journeys|Reference:Wikipedia ↗
The inlay of polished coloured stones — carnelian, jade, lapis — into marble, brought to its Indian summit on the Taj Mahal. Agra's artisan families continue the craft, some claiming descent from the original builders.
On the journey:Taj Mahal|Reference:Wikipedia ↗
A gated micro-neighbourhood of old Ahmedabad — a self-contained lane of carved wooden houses, courtyards, bird-feeders and secret passages. The pols earned Ahmedabad India's first World Heritage City title.
On the journey:Ahmedabad journeys|Reference:Wikipedia ↗
Q
The ecstatic devotional music of Sufi Islam — massed voices, harmonium and driving handclaps — performed at dargahs across the subcontinent. Thursday evenings at Delhi's Nizamuddin shrine are its living heart.
On the journey:Delhi guide|Reference:Wikipedia ↗
S
Kerala's ceremonial feast — a couple of dozen vegetarian preparations served in strict order on a banana leaf, from sharp pickles at the tip to payasam at the close. Onam's festival meal, and the backwaters' finest lunch.
On the journey:Kerala journeys|Reference:Wikipedia ↗
The great hardwood of central India's forests — straight-trunked, high-canopied, cathedral-like in mature stands. Kanha's sal forests are the landscape Kipling gave to Mowgli.
On the journey:Kanha guide|Reference:Wikipedia ↗
The princely hunt of old India — the institution that built the hunting lodges, machans and camps which conservation-era Rajasthan has converted into some of its finest wilderness hotels.
On the journey:The Oberoi Vanyavilas|Reference:Wikipedia ↗
The gondola-like wooden boat of Kashmir's Dal Lake and, by extension, the light canoes poled through Kerala's narrower canals — the quietest way to travel that exists.
On the journey:Backwater journeys|Reference:Wikipedia ↗
The stunted montane forest that pockets the high grasslands of the Western Ghats — an ecosystem found nowhere else on earth, protected in Eravikulam alongside the Nilgiri tahr.
On the journey:Munnar guide|Reference:Wikipedia ↗
A well dug as inverted architecture — flights of steps descending storeys to the water table, doubling as cool gathering places. Rajasthan and Gujarat hold the masterpieces, many recently restored to glory.
On the journey:Amber Fort & Panna Meena ka Kund|Reference:Wikipedia ↗
T
A complete meal served as a constellation of small dishes around a central platter — each region's thali a map of its cuisine, from Rajasthani dal-baati to Kerala's banana-leaf spread.
On the journey:Culinary journeys|Reference:Wikipedia ↗
The ancestral joint-family home of Kerala, built of carved wood around courtyards to a precise traditional grammar. Kumarakom Lake Resort's villas stand behind genuine tharavad facades rescued and re-erected.
On the journey:Kumarakom Lake Resort|Reference:Wikipedia ↗
A noble estate of Rajputana — smaller than a princely state, ruled by aristocratic families whose descendants now receive guests in the same forts and manors. Deogarh and Shahpura are living thikanas.
On the journey:Dev Shree Deogarh|Reference:Wikipedia ↗
The auspicious gateway or door-hanging of Indian tradition — from carved temple archways to the embroidered festoons over Gujarati and Rajasthani thresholds, hung to welcome fortune in.
On the journey:Craft traditions guide|Reference:Wikipedia ↗
V
The tower rising over a South Indian temple's sanctum. Thanjavur's Brihadeeswarar vimana climbs sixty-six metres and carries an eighty-tonne capstone — Chola engineering announcing itself for a millennium.
On the journey:Brihadeeswarar Temple|Reference:Wikipedia ↗
Z
Thread wrapped in fine silver or gold, woven into silk to make brocade — the glittering signature of Banarasi weaving, worked on jacquard pit looms in Varanasi's weaving quarters.
On the journey:The Weavers of Varanasi|Reference:Wikipedia ↗
The women's quarters of a royal household, architecturally expressed in screened courtyards, jaali walls and jharokha balconies — the reason much of Rajput palace architecture watches without being watched.
On the journey:Amber Fort|Reference:Wikipedia ↗
Every term here is something our guests encounter in the field — usually with a curator beside them to explain it better than any glossary can.
Meet the Curators