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Kota is a city on the Chambal River in southeastern Rajasthan, India, famous for its palaces, lakes and gardens and as the country's best-known hub for engineering and medical entrance coaching. Its top sights are the fortified Garh Palace, the Umed Bhawan Palace, Kishore Sagar Lake with its island Jag Mandir, and Chambal Garden.
Kota was founded as a walled city in the 14th century within the Bundi state. In the early 17th century the Bundi ruler Rao Ratan Singh gave it to his son Madho Singh, and in 1625 it became the capital of its own princely state, ruled by Hada Rajputs whose painted palace apartments and armoury still fill the Garh.
Today Kota is the third most populous city in Rajasthan, with more than 1.5 million people and over 200,000 students who arrive each year to prepare for exams. Beyond the city lie the 8th-century Kansua Temple, the 10th-century Baroli temples, the forests of Mukundara Hills National Park and the old Rajput town of Bundi, while weavers nearby make the fine Kota Doria fabric.
Garh Palace, also called the City Palace, is the fortified former residence of the rulers of Kota, in the heart of the city. Tradition says its foundations were laid in 1264, and its painted royal apartments and the Rao Madho Singh Museum hold cannons, armour, paintings and manuscripts.
Umed Bhawan Palace on the outskirts of Kota was built for Maharao Umed Singh II, who moved in in 1905. Designed by Samuel Swinton Jacob in Indo-Saracenic style, it is built of pink sandstone with white stone and Italian marble, and part of it is now a heritage hotel in a large park.
Kishore Sagar Lake is an artificial lake in the centre of Kota, created in 1346 at the request of the Bundi prince Dehra Deh. One of the city's best-known landmarks, it holds the small island palace of Jag Mandir, added in the 18th century, and its banks make a pleasant walk at dusk.
Jag Mandir is a small palace on the central island of Kishore Sagar Lake in Kota, built in the 18th century during the reign of Maharani Brij Kunwar. Its domed pavilions rise straight out of the water, making it one of the most recognisable and most photographed sights of the old city of Kota.
Chambal Garden is a landscaped park on the banks of the Chambal River in Kota. Its centrepiece is a pond that is home to gharials and once held mugger crocodiles, which visitors cross by a suspension bridge or by boat, and scenes of the 2017 film Badrinath Ki Dulhania were shot here.
Seven Wonders Park in Kota holds stone replicas of famous wonders of the world, including the Taj Mahal, the Great Pyramid of Giza and Christ the Redeemer. Designed by the architect Anoop Bartaria and opened in December 2013, it covers about seven acres of gardens, water and paths.
Chambal Riverfront lines the banks of the Chambal River in Kota and is listed among the most popular visitor attractions in the city. On the riverfront stands the Chambal Mata Statue, a marble statue of the Hindu goddess Chambal Mata that is 42.5 metres tall, 12 metres wide and 10 metres deep.
Mukundara Hills National Park is a 760 square km protected area near Kota, set up in 2004 by joining the Darrah, National Chambal and Jawahar Sagar sanctuaries. Once the hunting grounds of the Maharaja of Kota, its dry forests shelter tigers, leopards, wolves, sloth bears and gharials.
Kansua Temple is a Shiva temple beside a spring a few kilometres outside Kota. An inscription on its wall dated 738 CE records that it was built on the site of the ashram of the sage Kanva, which gave the village of Kansua its name, and it holds a four-faced Shiva linga.
The Baroli Temples are a group of nine Hindu temples by the Chambal River, about 45 km from Kota, near Rawatbhata. Built in the Gurjara-Pratihara style in the 10th century, eight of them stand within a walled enclosure, and all nine are protected by the Archaeological Survey of India.
Bundi is a historic town in the Hadoti region near Kota, founded in 1241 by Chauhan nobles as the capital of the Hadoti kingdom from which Kota was later separated. It is known for Taragarh Fort, the Star Fort, and its hillside palace, and nearby Satur is a National Geological Monument.
Kota Doria is a light and very fine fabric woven with tiny squares called khats, still made on traditional pit looms at Kaithoon near Kota. Cotton and silk are blended to make airy saris, and a genuine handwoven Kota Doria sari carries a GI mark woven into one corner.
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