Travel Guide Patna

population: 2,046,650. On the face of it, Patna has nothing to attract visitors: it's one of the country's noisiest, most densely populated cities and the capital of India's poorest state. And yet Patna, on the south bank of the Ganges, was once the capital of the Magadha Empire under the name of Pataliputra. Today, the best bananas and mangoes in the country are grown here. It's well worth a day or two's visit. That said, it's true that the locals can give tourists a rather cold welcome. But don't take it the wrong way, and keep smiling even if they don't smile at you at first sight. It's just that biharis aren't used to seeing tourists. In the end, it's no bad thing... Here, there's no commercial smile at the outset; it comes later, and relationships are ultimately more authentic.