INDIALINE

Rajasthan Shopping

Puppet Shop - Rajasthan

Barmer

Vibrant embroideries, woollen dhurries, and stone carvings. Sadar Bazar is where the action is.

Bikaner

Best for camel products that include leather footwear, and its brilliant gesso work. Wool carpets and blankets, light cotton quilts, and brilliantly dyed cotton fabrics can be tracked down in the maze of tiny shops around Kot Gate, with KEM Road providing the shopping in larger stores. Urmul’s shop at Junagarh Fort stocks some interesting products developed in cooperative style in the surrounding villages in the desert.

Chittaurgarh

Known for its wooden painted toys made in the surrounding villages, and thewa gold jewellery in its own distinctive style. Also: Akola printed fabrics and leather juttees made in Gangrar.

Jaisalmer

The local tradition of carving is best seen in little wooden boxes that are intricately pierced in exciting patterns and motifs. Also woollen and cotton rugs and blankets, embroidered fabrics, silver jewellery and trinkets, available in shops that open off the cobbled streets.

Jodhpur

Once brides came here for their trousseau shopping because the dyes and prints were resplendent, and the lame work brilliant. The same fabrics can still be found in the bazaars, and you may want to try on a sporty pair of Jodhpurs (the riding breeches that originated in this town). Badalas or zinc alloy pitchers used to carry water, covered with felted cloth, were an earlier version of today’s water flask. Also wooden toys, leather goods, paintings, juttees and silver jewellery, all in the shops in the old city. Handsome pieces of old furniture and artefacts can be found in the huddle of shops at the base of Chhattar Hill.

Kota

Best known for it’s small checked-weave cotton sarees called Kota doriyas, in light floral prints.

Pushkar

During the November fair, the mela is a bewildering array of shops with fabrics, embroideries, utensils, terracotta pots, trinkets, silver jewellery, camel saddles, blankets, shawls, beads bangles and other baubles.

Shekhawati

Associated with the low-legged Shekhawati chair, this region is known for its wood carving, metal utensils, made-as-old furniture, and tie-dye fabrics.

Udaipur

One of the principal shopping zones outside Jaipur, here are a myriad of shops with paintings of the miniature and pichwai variety, as well as terracotta tables and plaques. There are also locally dyed fabrics and textiles, embroideries, wooden toys, white metal objets d’art, silver enamel artefacts, and images of Krishna in the Nathdwara style.