If you have room in your budget for only one coffeetable photo book on India, let it be this one. The best book ever published about Benares (really), this book is an incredible work. The text alone would be worth the price. The photos are works of art. Buy a second copy to frame prints from.

An interesting city that too many people associate solely with charity work by Mother Teresa and too little with the amazing Bengali culture, land of poets, radical politics and anti-British terrorists, and teaming with culture and contradictions. Some of the best films in India come from the Bengalis as well.

Best way to preview your interest level in various areas.

The best, most inspired book about this city, but also illuminating for anyone traveling anywhere in India.

Well known for his films abroad, which made almost no money, Satyajit Ray's other enduring creative outlet was his murder mysteries, which supported him and his family. They are charming.

Good fun.

Great visual guides. I like them better as souveneirs rather than actual guidebooks, but I like them very much, which ever way you choose to use them.

Get this one for yourself. You will enjoy it for years!

Gorgeous.

If you head north to Ladakh, this is the spiritual classic of a bygone time when seekers could find real teachers there. Now things are bit overrun. Ladakh monasteries are not there to teach Western students of Buddhism.

Excellent history.

A favorite of mine. Campbell falls head over heels in love with India - and rightly so.

The middle third concerns a stay at an ashram.

The police procedural - on steroids!

The hugely popular spiritual gathering.

The professor of sacred geography at Benares Hindu University.

Oxford India books can often be bought in country at substantially lower prices.

The fascinating leader - from Italy.