Why it looks like this

Indore rose in the 18th century when the Holkar dynasty made it their seat; the Rajwada, their seven-storey palace begun in 1747, still anchors the old city, with wholesale bazaars pressing around it and the small Saraswati and Khan streams threading between.

The city has a footnote in planning history: pioneering town planner Patrick Geddes wrote one of his most famous reports on Indore in 1918, arguing for repairing its lanes rather than demolishing them. Modern Indore — now regularly ranked India's cleanest city — spreads in rings far beyond the princely core.