Built on the right bank of the river Shipra, Ujjain has seen the rise and fall of many kingdoms and rulers—from Vikramaditya to emperor Ashok and Iltutmish. Now the city sprawls on both sides of the river like any other Indian small town, its garish billboards grinning at squat concrete houses. But all roads in Avantika, one of the many names that the city has collected over centuries, still lead to the old town and its gallis of incense-filled flower shops.
On the streets, a quaint vehicle chugs past the curious traveller every few minutes. It’s neither a jeep, nor an autorickshaw—more colourful and spacious than the former but slower and on three wheels like the latter—and it cannot but make you itch for a ride. And if your pondering stance has tourist written large over it, one of the garrulous tempo drivers will stop and offer you a ride. Like our driver, Ram Singh, who convinced us that a ride through the city couldn’t be better undertaken than in his rattletrap. So our group of 10 trooped in for a leisurely journey—the tempo rides at about 20km/hr—into the temple town. For starters, Ram Singh throws us a challenge. “If you fill a sack of rice, and leave a grain each at the doorstep of every temple you visit, the sack will eventually empty, but the number of temples to see about town would still be far from over.”

Indeed, Ujjain isn’t only about its famed Mahakaleshwar Temple, one of the 12 Swayambhu jyotirlings (where, according to mythology, the lord voluntarily chooses to reside), in the country. Shiva is a common presence in most of Ujjain’s temples, irrespective of the resident deity, be it as a lingam, an image or that rare sculpted idol.

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