Sawai Madhopur

The fort came long before the town. Ranthambore's walls crown a flat hill above the surrounding plain and are usually dated to the 10th century; the fort became the stronghold of a branch of the Chauhan dynasty, and its best-remembered ruler, Hammir Dev, was killed when Alauddin Khalji's army took it in 1301 after a long siege, an episode recorded in later Rajput and Persian accounts alike. The fort changed hands repeatedly afterwards, passing to the Mughals under Akbar and later to the rulers of Jaipur, who kept the surrounding forest as a hunting ground.

Sawai Madhopur itself was founded in 1763 by Maharaja Sawai Madho Singh I of Jaipur, who fortified the existing village of Sherpur and renamed it after himself; Sawai was a title used by the Jaipur house. It grew as a planned settlement below the hills and then, from the late 19th century, as a railway town on the line between Delhi and Bombay, which brought trade, workshops and a mixed population of railway families.

The forest's modern history begins with conservation. The hunting reserve became a wildlife sanctuary in 1955, one of the first areas chosen for Project Tiger in 1974, and a national park in 1980. Villages inside the core were moved out in the 1970s, which remains a contested memory locally, and the conservationist Fateh Singh Rathore became closely identified with the park's protection. Tiger numbers fell sharply around the turn of the century through poaching and have since recovered. Ranthambore Fort was inscribed with five other Rajasthan hill forts as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2013, and the town has grown around the safari economy.

This is eastern Rajasthan rather than the desert, and its culture belongs to the old Jaipur state: Dhundhari speech alongside Hindi, Rajput and Meena communities in the villages, and the same festival calendar of Teej, Gangaur, Holi and Diwali kept across the region. The Meena, one of the largest communities of the district, have long-standing ties to this country and its hills.

Religion here is local and busy rather than monumental. The Ganesha temple inside Ranthambore Fort is the focus, drawing thousands of visitors every Wednesday and very large crowds at Ganesh Chaturthi, when pilgrims climb the ramp to the gates. The goddess temple at Chauth Ka Barwara nearby draws pilgrims from across the district. Both are ordinary religious life rather than tourist sights, and visitors are expected to behave accordingly.

Wildlife has become part of local identity in a way that is unusual for a small town. Guides, drivers, trackers and lodge staff make up a substantial part of the working population, tiger names and individual histories are common knowledge, and photography of the park is a serious local craft. A craft project established near the town has trained women in embroidery and textile work, and shops along the park road sell that work alongside the standard Rajasthani block prints and silver. The relationship between the reserve and the villages on its edge — over grazing, crop damage and livestock losses — is a live and long-running subject.

About 120,000 people live in Sawai Madhopur, which serves as the headquarters of its district and as a market for a large farming area. Wheat, mustard and vegetables are grown on the plain, and the district is known across Rajasthan for its guavas, which are now a business worth billions of rupees a year. Large industry is limited by the rules protecting the forest, so the railway, which has been a major employer since the line was built, government service and tourism carry much of the rest.

The visitor economy is concentrated along the road to the park and runs on the safari timetable: staff and drivers begin before dawn, the middle of the day is quiet, and a second shift runs into the evening. Work is strongly seasonal, with the monsoon closure of the core zones in July and August the slackest period of the year, and many households combine tourism with farming or a government job.

In the town itself life is that of any district centre in Rajasthan: markets that open mid-morning and stay busy after dark, tea stalls, schools and colleges, a district hospital, and the noise of the highway and the railway. Water supply, crop damage by wild animals near the reserve, and the fair distribution of tourism income are the recurring local issues.

Food here is Rajasthani in the eastern, less arid style, and vegetarian in most households. The standard meal is a thali of dal, a seasonal vegetable, chapatis or bajra roti, rice, pickle and buttermilk. Dal baati churma, the state's signature dish of coal-baked wheat balls with lentils and a sweet crumble, is cooked at home for guests and served in restaurants; gatte ki sabzi, gram-flour dumplings in a spiced yoghurt gravy, and kadhi are everyday dishes, and besan and gram flour stand in for vegetables in the dry months.

Snacks come from the same tradition as the rest of Rajasthan — pyaaz kachori, mirchi bada, samosas and pakoras fried through the afternoon and eaten with sweet masala chai. Sweet shops sell ghevar in the monsoon festival season, milk fudges and syrup-soaked malpua. Lassi and chaach, salted buttermilk, are the drinks of the hot months.

The district's own speciality is fruit: Sawai Madhopur guavas have a regional reputation and appear in winter on carts around the bazaar, eaten raw with salt and chilli or made into preserves. Lodges along the park road cook buffet food for an international clientele, with north Indian dishes alongside pasta and salads, while the town's kitchens stay closer to what people actually eat at home.