Pachmarhi

Pachmarhi is a sandstone plateau at about 1,100 metres in the Satpura range, ringed by gorges and sal forest, and it was a holy place long before it was a hill station. Its rock shelters carry paintings thousands of years old; its caves were cut for Buddhist monks and later named for the Pandavas; and its ravines are full of shrines to Shiva, who, the story goes, hid here from the demon Bhasmasur.

The British found it in 1857, when Captain James Forsyth rode up onto the plateau, and it became the summer retreat of the Central Provinces. The army is still here — the cantonment explains the neat roads and old churches — and the forest around it is now protected as the Satpura Tiger Reserve and a UNESCO biosphere reserve.

The Satpuras are Gond and Korku country, and the hills' festivals are shared. The biggest is Mahashivratri in February or March, when pilgrims climb to the Chauragarh temple carrying iron tridents and leave them there — the hilltop now bristles with thousands. Bada Mahadev and Jata Shankar, cave shrines set in deep gorges where water drips from the rock, are busy year round. In December, the Pachmarhi Utsav brings music and dance to the plateau.

Food is Madhya Pradesh home cooking. Breakfast is poha with jalebi, scattered with sev. Dal bafla — wheat dumplings boiled, then baked and soaked in ghee — is the local cousin of Rajasthan's dal baati. Bhutte ka kees, grated corn cooked in milk and spices, comes from Indore and turns up in the monsoon. In the forest villages, mahua flowers are dried, cooked and distilled.

Most of Pachmarhi's viewpoints and falls are reached only in registered open-top Gypsies, not private cars; hire one with a driver for the day and plan the route around light. Dhoopgarh, at 1,352 metres the highest point in the Satpuras, is for sunset — get there early to claim a rock. Bee Falls has a long staircase down and a cold pool at the bottom. The climb to Chauragarh is a few hours on foot and best started at dawn. Pachmarhi's jeep trails are about forest, gaur and silence; for proper tiger safaris, your Saint will point you to the Madhai gate on the reserve's other side.

The rock shelters and cave paintings are fragile and unfenced in places — never touch the paintings or let anyone chalk over them. Don't feed the monkeys, however insistent they are. Carry water in a refillable bottle and bring your plastic back from the falls. Stay on the marked trails; this is tiger-reserve buffer, and the forest is not a park.

Pachmarhi rewards travellers drawn to Madhya Pradesh's quieter side. The state's great temple town is Khajuraho, a long day's travel north — a different kind of stone, carved a thousand years ago with an exuberance that still startles.