Jaipur Spiritual Walk Guided Tour with Tuktuk Ride

The city's other layer

Jaipur's forts get the visitors; its temples get the city. This short tour moves between them by tuk-tuk, on foot where the lanes are too narrow, and it is timed for aarti rather than for photographs.

Hawa Mahal, to start

Not as a monument but as a marker — the honeycomb screen on Sireh Deori Bazaar, built in 1799 as an extension of the City Palace zenana so that royal women could watch the street processions unseen. It is dedicated to Krishna, and from the street the facade is said to resemble his crown.

Shree Kalki Temple

Directly opposite, and almost nobody crossing the road to see it. It is dedicated to Kalki, the avatar of Vishnu who has not yet come — the tenth and final one, prophesied at the end of this age. A temple built for a god who has not arrived is a strange and interesting thing, and there is a marble horse in the courtyard waiting for him.

Jai Singh II built it in the 1720s.

Tarkeshwar Mahadev

A Shiva temple in the middle of Chaura Rasta, more than three hundred years old and thick with people on a Monday, which is Shiva's day. During Shravan, the monsoon month, the queue runs down the street.

Govind Dev Ji, usually

Jaipur's most beloved temple, in the City Palace gardens, where the image of Krishna was brought from Vrindavan to keep it safe from Aurangzeb. Seven aartis are performed daily and the hall fills for each of them. The maharaja built his own palace so that he could see the deity from his window.

What is expected

Shoes off, shoulders covered, no photography inside the shrines. Leather belts and bags are best left in the tuk-tuk. Your guide will tell you when to stand and when not to.

Three hours, tuk-tuk and guide included.