From Darshan to Dinner: Planning a Full Day in Ujjain

A day in Ujjain runs longer than most people plan for. You arrive with a rough idea about darshan and improvise everything after it, usually while hungry and usually badly.

Here is a shape for the day that works, particularly if you are travelling with family.

Before four in the morning

If you are attending Bhasma Aarti you are up well before four, and this is where the day is won or lost.

Eat almost nothing beforehand. A biscuit, water, nothing more. The aarti is long, you will be sitting still, and a full stomach at that hour is miserable.

Sort out your clothes and your bag the night before. At half past three nobody makes good decisions.

Half past six to seven, coming out

You will come out cold and slightly hollow. This is the best meal of the day in Ujjain if you get it right, and most people waste it on whatever is nearest.

Poha, jalebi, hot chai. Or idli and sambhar if you want something softer on an empty stomach. The point is warmth and speed, not volume. You have hours of walking still to come.

Nine to eleven, if you skipped the aarti

If you joined the general queue instead, you are coming out somewhere in this window depending on the crowd.

Dosa or chole bhature here. Something substantial, because the afternoon is when the walking happens and you do not want to be hunting for food again at one o'clock in the heat.

Late morning to afternoon, the corridor

Walk Mahakal Lok properly rather than passing through it. It takes longer than the photographs suggest and there is less shade than you would like in parts. Carry water and do not rush it.

When you stop, a thali is the sensible choice. Dal, sabzi, roti, rice, something sweet, all decided for you at a point in the day when decisions are annoying. Rajma chawal if you want something simpler.

Masala chaas before either of them if it is hot. Rehydrate first, eat second.

Late afternoon

If you have energy left, this is the time for the rest of Ujjain. Ram Ghat, the Kal Bhairav temple, Sandipani Ashram. If you do not have energy left, that is entirely reasonable, and an hour sitting somewhere cool is not a wasted hour on a day that started at three in the morning.

Evening

Keep it light. South Indian, or dal and roti. Medu vada if you only want a snack after a big afternoon. Kheer if the day has gone well.

Most people are travelling the same night or leaving early the next morning, and a heavy dinner before a road journey is a decision you regret around midnight. This is the most commonly ignored advice on this page and the one people mention afterwards.

Where to base the eating

Rasmantra sits inside Mahakal Lok Mandir Parisar, near Triveni Sanghralaya, open 7:00 AM to 10:00 PM. The hours are what make it useful for a full day plan: open for the aarti crowd in the morning, still serving in the evening.

Pure vegetarian throughout, with South Indian breakfast, North Indian meals, thalis, snacks and cold drinks on one menu, which saves the usual argument when a group cannot agree on anything.

The one thing to get right

Do not leave meals to chance around the queue. Decide roughly when and where you are eating before the day starts, and everything else holds together. Skip that, and by afternoon you are tired, hot, and making poor decisions about food, which is how a good trip becomes a merely acceptable one.

Come and eat with us

Rasmantra is inside Mahakal Lok Mandir Parisar, near Triveni Sanghralaya, on the corridor road. Pure vegetarian, open every day from 7:00 AM to 10:00 PM, which covers everything from the Bhasma Aarti crowd at dawn to a late dinner before your train.

Walk in whenever suits you. If you are six or more, or you are coming during a festival week, call ahead on +91 90390 20855 and we will keep a table.

See the full menu or plan your visit at rasmantra.com.