Galtaji Temple

Galtaji is less a single temple than a pilgrimage complex tucked into a narrow gorge in the Aravalli Hills east of Jaipur, built around a natural spring that has never been known to run dry. Tradition holds that the site takes its name from the sage Galav, who is said to have meditated and performed penance here; whatever its deepest origins, the complex rose to real prominence in the early 15th century when the Ramanandi Vaishnava saint Payohari Krishnadas took charge of the site, displacing an earlier community of yogis and setting it on the course that shaped it into the Vaishnava pilgrimage center it remains today. Pink sandstone pavilions with rounded roofs, carved pillars, and frescoed walls give the complex a palace-like appearance rather than that of a conventional temple, and a hilltop Surya Mandir dedicated to the sun god crowns the site.

The spring’s water collects in seven kunds (tanks), of which Galta Kund is considered the holiest and is believed by devotees to have purifying properties; pilgrims bathe here in especially large numbers during Makar Sankranti. Galtaji is also historically significant within the Ramanandi Vaishnava lineage as the place where the saint Goswami Nabha Das, remembered for his devotional hagiography the Bhaktamal, is said to have met the great Ramcharitmanas poet Tulsidas. In more recent decades the site has become almost as well known internationally for its resident troupe of rhesus macaques — the complex is popularly called “Galwar Bagh,” the monkey temple — which has been featured in wildlife documentaries and draws visitors as much for the monkeys as for the shrines themselves.