India Travel Guide Book

Lonely Planet’s India is your passport to the most relevant, up-to-date advice on what to see and skip, and what hidden discoveries await you. Marvel at the intricate floral designs on the Taj Mahal, watch the setting sun cast a rosy glow over the otherworldly landscape of Hampi, and listen to monks chanting in the shadow of the mighty Himalaya in Ladakh – all with your trusted travel companion. Get to the heart of India and begin your journey now!


Lonely Planet’s Rajasthan, Delhi & Agra is your passport to the most relevant, up-to-date advice on what to see and skip, and what hidden discoveries await you. Take in the intricate floral designs on the Taj Mahal, marvel at the splendor of Old Delhi’s remnants of former empires, and spot a magnificent tiger in the wild at Ranthambore National Park – all with your trusted travel companion. Get to the heart of Rajasthan, Delhi & Agra, and begin your journey now!

The Perfect Choice: Lonely Planet’s Rajasthan, Delhi & Agra is our most comprehensive guide to Rajasthan, Delhi & Agra, and is perfect for discovering both popular and off-the-beaten-path experiences.


An enduring monument of haunting beauty, the Taj Mahal seems a symbol of stability itself. The familiar view of the glowing marble mausoleum from the gateway entrance offers the very picture of permanence. And yet this extraordinary edifice presents a shifting image to observers across time and cultures. The meaning of the Taj Mahal, the perceptions and responses it prompts, ideas about the building, and the history that shape them: these form the subject of Giles Tillotson’s book. More than a richly illustrated history―though it is that as well―this book is an eloquent meditation on the place of the Taj Mahal in the cultural imagination of India and the wider world.

Since its completion in 1648, the mausoleum commissioned by the fifth Mughal emperor, Shah Jahan, for his wife Mumtaz Mahal, has come to symbolize many things: the undying love of a man for his wife, the perfection of Mughal architecture, the ideal synthesis of various strands of subcontinental aesthetics, even an icon of modern India itself. Exploring different perspectives brought to the magnificent structure―by a Mughal court poet, an English Romantic traveler, a colonial administrator, an architectural historian, or a contemporary Bollywood filmmaker―this book is an incomparable guide through the varied and changing ideas inspired by the Taj Mahal, from its construction to our day. In Tillotson’s expert hands, the story of a seventeenth-century structure in the city of Agra reveals itself as a story about our own place and time.