Datia is a small city in Madhya Pradesh caught between two more famous neighbours — Gwalior to the west and Jhansi across the Uttar Pradesh border to the east — but it has one thing they don't: the Bir Singh Deo Palace, one of the finest examples of early 17th-century Rajput architecture anywhere in India. The seven-storey palace rises from a rocky hill above the old town and its reflection in the Lala Ka Talab lake below is one of those compositions that rewards the effort of getting here.
The old town itself is compact and largely unchanged, surrounded by sections of the original stone wall. Datia was the seat of a princely state under the Bundelkhela rulers and later the British Raj, and the palace is the main legacy of that era. The rest of the town moves at a quiet pace — market stalls, pilgrims heading to the nearby Pitambara Peeth temple, and very few other foreign visitors.