Bhilar is India’s first book village

Bhilar in Maharashtra is India’s first book village. Located between Panchgani and Mahabaleshwar, the village is formally named Pustakanche Gaav or ‘The Village of Books’. Families in the village have given parts of their homes as reading hubs, which stock nearly 35,000 books in Marathi, Hindi, English and Gujarati, for people to explore free of cost. The walls of their homes showcase designs by artists from all over India, which advertise the books you will find inside. E.g., a house decorated with Warli art depicting folk legends has books on folk tales, while Mangaltara Mansion, painted with pictures of forts and Maratha king Shivaji, stocks history books. Other genres include poetry, literature, environment, biographies, among others.