India's largest state, RAJASTHAN , emerged after Partition from a mosaic of eighteen feudal kingdoms, known in the British era as Rajputana , "Land of Kings". Running northeast from Mount Abu, near the border with Gujarat, to within a stone's throw of the ruins of ancient Delhi, its backbone is formed by the bare brown hills of the Aravalli Range, which divide the fertile Dhundar basin from the shifting sands and khejri -covered flats of the mighty Thar Desert, one of the driest places on earth. As the site of India's recent nuclear tests, this western flank of the country, forming the sensitive border with Pakistan, has become one of the world's most notorious geopolitical hotspots. However, the flat terrain, combined with the lure of the lucrative trans-Thar trade routes, rendered it vulnerable to invasion long before Partition. By taxing the movement of silk, spices and precious stones across their territories, successive rulers - from the Hindu Rajputs to their medieval Muslim overlords, the Moghuls - amassed vast fortunes, which they poured into ever more ambitious building projects.

Rajasthan's extravagant palaces, forts and finely carved temples today comprise one of the country's richest crop of historic monuments, visited in greater numbers than any other apart from Agra. But these exotic buildings are far from the only legacy of the region's prosperous and militaristic past. Centuries of Rajput rule created a hierarchy of rigid caste distinctions as monolithic as any in the country, bound by codes of chivalry and honour powerful enough to have driven the female population of whole cities to mass suicide, or johar . The Rajputs remain the landowners, dominating the state's political and economic life, while the lot of the lower castes has altered little since feudal times. In recent years, these disparities have led to violent inter-caste confrontations across Rajasthan, sparked off by Rajput resentment at the government's introduction of job and university place quotas for members of oppressed castes.

For visitors, however, Rajasthan's strong adherence to the traditions of the past is precisely what makes it a compelling place to travel. Swaggering moustaches, heavy silver anklets, bulky red, yellow or orange turbans, pleated veils and mirror-inlaid saris may be part of the complex language of caste, but to most outsiders they epitomize India at its most exotic. Nowhere is this traditional flamboyance more vividly expressed than at the annual camel fair at Pushkar , when hundreds of thousands of villagers converge on a sacred lake in the Aravalli Hills to buy and sell livestock, their almost luminous costumes striking against the muted hues of the desert.

 

Colour also distinguishes Rajasthan's most important tourist cities. Because of the reddish colourwash applied to its ornate facades and palaces in the nineteenth century, Jaipur , the chaotic state capital, is known as the "Pink City". One day's journey to the southwest, Jodhpur 's labyrinthine old walled town, whose sky-blue painted mass of cubic houses is overlooked by India's most imposing hilltop fort, is called the "Blue City". Further west, the remote desert outpost of Jaisalmer , built from a local sandstone that glows in the evening light, is the "Golden City" - birthplace, and undisputed king, of the Rajasthani camel safari . In the far south of the state, Udaipur hasn't gained a colour tag yet, but it could be called the "White City": coated in decaying limewash, its waterside palaces and havelis (mansions) are perfectly reflected in the still waters of Lake Pichola, framed by a distant vista of desert hills.

As an extension to the "Golden Triangle" of Delhi-Agra-Jaipur, the route stringing together these four cities has become the most trodden tourist trail in India. From November until March, thousands of visitors may be moving around it at any one moment, and you'll find the same faces - and the same kinds of souvenir shops, hotels and restaurants - cropping up time and again. But with dependable accommodation and transport available in all but the most out-of-the-way places, it's easy enough to step off the merry-go-round of established sights into more remote areas. Northwest of Jaipur, the desert region of Shekhawati is littered with atmospheric little market towns whose richly painted havelis , castles and mausolea see barely a trickle of visitors. The same is true of Bundi , in the far south of the state, where one of western India's most imposing hilltop palaces presides over a compact warren of traditional buildings that have barely altered since medieval times.

Other incentives to venture into less frequented corners of the state are Rajasthan's wonderful wildlife sanctuaries . Of these, Ranthambore , where you can watch tigers prowling around Rajput ruins and lakeside jungles, is deservedly the most famous, but Sariska , between Jaipur and Agra, boasts almost as many big cats and equally serene landscapes. For sheer profusion, however, the Keoladeo National Park at Bharatpur , on the eastern border of Rajasthan near Agra, is unmatched in South Asia. Literally hundreds of species of birds, from giant saras cranes to tiny scarlet finches and incandescent kingfishers, feed here in the winter months, creating an unforgettable spectacle and a welcome respite from the frenetic cities that inevitably dominate most visitors' itineraries in this state.