Editor's Letter: Sacred Cities of India

Dear reader,

Every Indian family seems to have at least one pilgrimage story. A grandmother who walked the last stretch to a hill shrine. A parent who carried a small brass pot of Ganga water home from Haridwar. A childhood trip to a temple town where everything, from the food to the crowds to the bells at dawn, felt larger than ordinary life. This issue is about the cities at the heart of those stories, and about how a traveller, whether devout or simply curious, might visit them with open eyes.

What makes a city sacred

India has hundreds of holy places, but only a handful have shaped whole cities around them. In these places, the temple or the river is not an attraction within the town; it is the reason the town exists. Streets lead towards the shrine, markets sell what pilgrims need, families have served visitors for generations, and the calendar is set by festivals rather than by weekends.

Many of these cities appear in old lists that pilgrims have followed for centuries: the seven sacred cities often named as Ayodhya, Mathura, Haridwar, Varanasi, Kanchipuram, Ujjain and Dwarka; the four dhams at the corners of the country, including Rameswaram and Dwarka; and the twelve jyotirlingas, which include Somnath and the Mahakaleshwar temple in Ujjain. Different traditions count these lists in slightly different ways, and I would encourage you to read them as maps of devotion rather than as fixed rules.

What is in this issue

Our seven city portraits, which many of you will remember from our archive, take you to Rameswaram, Ujjain, Varanasi, Mathura, Haridwar, Ayodhya and Dwarka. Each one has its own character. Rameswaram sits on an island at the edge of the sea; Ujjain on the banks of the Kshipra; Varanasi on the great curve of the Ganga; Mathura in the heart of the Braj country; Haridwar where the Ganga leaves the mountains; Ayodhya on the Sarayu; and Dwarka at the western tip of Gujarat, facing the Arabian Sea.

Around them, we have added three new pieces.

The first follows the coast road from Dwarka to Somnath, two of the most important sacred sites in western India, linked by a long stretch of Saurashtra shoreline. It is a route that pilgrims have travelled for centuries, and it reveals a side of Gujarat that many travellers never see: fishing towns, salt pans, old ports and wide, windswept beaches.

The second is a three-day plan for Rameswaram and Dhanushkodi that tries to slow the pace of a place usually rushed in a single day. It makes time for the temple’s long corridors, for the ritual baths at its wells, and for the eerie, beautiful ruins at the end of the land.

The third is an honest guide to what you might skip on a first visit to Ujjain, a city whose popularity has grown sharply in recent years. Our writer looks at the queues, the touts and the rushed itineraries, and suggests how to make room for the quieter parts of the city that pilgrims have valued for a very long time.

Travelling with respect

Sacred cities ask something of their visitors. Dress modestly, remove your shoes where required, follow instructions about photography inside temples, and accept that some spaces may not be open to everyone. Queues can be long and rules can change, particularly at the most popular shrines, where special darshan systems, timings and security arrangements are revised from time to time. Check official temple websites or local notices before you go, and be wary of anyone who offers to get you past the line for a fee.

I would also ask you to think about the environment. Many of these cities stand beside rivers and seas that are under pressure. Avoid plastic offerings, carry your own bottle, and leave nothing behind on the ghats or beaches but footprints.

Finally, be kind to the people who make these cities work: the priests and temple staff, the boatmen, the shopkeepers selling flowers and sweets, and the families who have hosted pilgrims for generations. Bargain fairly, tip where it is due, and remember that for many people here, your visit is part of a living tradition rather than a tourist trip.

A personal note

I did not grow up especially religious, but some of my strongest travel memories come from sacred cities: the sound of bells at dawn on a river ghat, a shared meal in a temple kitchen, an elderly pilgrim who explained the meaning of a ritual to me with great patience. You do not need to share anyone’s beliefs to feel the power of a place that so many people have walked towards for so long. You only need to arrive with humility and a willingness to listen.

How to use this issue

As always, our writers have tried to be accurate, but details such as temple timings, ritual schedules, road conditions and visitor rules change often. Treat the practical information in these pages as a starting point and confirm it locally. We have avoided quoting prices, and we would encourage you to be cautious of anyone who quotes you a fixed fee for something you have not asked for.

June is also a hot month in much of India, and several of these cities are at their most demanding in the summer. If you are travelling now, plan your temple visits for early morning and evening, rest in the heat of the day, and drink plenty of water.

Thank you

Thank you to the readers who wrote in about last month’s issue on lake cities. Several of you told us about lakes we had not covered, from small reservoirs in the Western Ghats to forgotten tanks in old towns, and we hope to return to them in future. Please keep writing to us; your letters shape what we publish.

If one of the cities in this issue holds a special place in your family’s story, I would love to hear it.

With warm regards,

Khushi Anand, Editor