Buddhist Circuit of Enlightenment

Met at Gaya airport and driven the 17 km to Bodh Gaya, half an hour. Walk into the Mahabodhi compound in the late afternoon, when the heat lifts and the chanting starts in four languages at once. Sit at the Vajrasana, the polished sandstone slab Ashoka set beside the Bodhi tree, and stay for the butter lamps. Dinner of Tibetan thukpa in the monastery quarter.

Meditate under the Bodhi tree at first light, when the compound is at its quietest, then walk the other six sacred spots, including the jewelled promenade and the Muchalinda tank with its serpent-sheltered Buddha. After breakfast, cross the Falgu to the Sujata Stupa at Bakraur and climb to the Dungeshwari caves where the Buddha starved for six years. Afternoon among the Thai, Bhutanese and Japanese monasteries and the 25-metre Great Buddha.

Drive 70 km north-east to Rajgir, about two hours through Gaya district's rice country. Climb the stepped path to Griddhakuta, Vulture's Peak, where the Buddha taught the Lotus and Heart Sutras and the view runs across five hills. Below, Venuvana, the bamboo grove King Bimbisara gave to the sangha, and the Saptaparni cave where the First Council met. End on the chairlift to the Vishwa Shanti Stupa, built in 1969.

Twelve kilometres to Nalanda, where the excavated Mahavihara spreads over fourteen hectares of monastery cells, lecture courts and the great stupa of Sariputta, all of it built over and over between the fifth and twelfth centuries. See the museum's bronzes and the Xuanzang Memorial Hall. Then the long haul to Varanasi, about 260 km and six to seven hours, arriving for the Ganga aarti at Dashashwamedh.

On a rowing boat by half past five, drifting from Assi north past bathers, wrestlers and the smoke of Manikarnika, where the pyres have not gone out in living memory. Breakfast of kachori-sabzi and jalebi in a lane behind the ghats, then Kashi Vishwanath through the new corridor. Afternoon with a Banarasi silk weaver at his pit loom in Madanpura, and an evening raga in a small hall.

Ten kilometres out to Sarnath, the deer park where the Buddha found his five former companions and gave the first sermon. The Dhamek Stupa stands 43 metres high with carved geometric bands from about 500 CE; the Dharmarajika mound and Ashoka's pillar stump lie beside it. The museum holds the Lion Capital that India took for its emblem. Afternoon at the 1931 Mulagandha Kuti Vihara and its Japanese frescoes.

Walk down to Assi Ghat for Subah-e-Banaras, the daily sunrise programme of ragas, Vedic recitation and yoga on the steps, with the river turning gold behind the musicians. Breakfast, then a last wander through the brassware and toy shops of Vishwanath Gali and a cup of thandai. Transfer 25 km to Varanasi airport for the flight to Delhi or onward.