RAJASTHAN TRIP

19.08.14 : Jaiselmer

Visited Jaiselmer city, called Golden city because all houses and havelis built of yellow sandstone.  The town stands on a ridge of yellowish sandstone, crowned by a fort, which contains the palace and several ornate Jain temples. Many of the houses and temples are finely sculptured. It lies in the heart of the Thar Desert.  Jaisalmer is named after Maharawal Jaisal Singh, a Rajput king who founded the city in 1156 AD. "Jaisalmer" means "the Hill Fort of Jaisal". Jaiselmer Fort now called Sonar Killa is beautiful shining like gold in the sun, with carved palace, havelis n beautiful Jain Temple.  Later walked down the lanes flanked on both side by yellow sandstones  Havelis with intricate carved balconies. Visited beautiful  Patwa Haveli, built by rich Marwari merchant. Again slept the night under  starry sky with lovely chilly breeze under raziya.

Additional Phtotos

On way back from the city, visited Kuldara Village 400 yrs old, totally ruined, haunted place.  The village used to be the residence of the rich and learned paliwal Brahmins. The daughter of the village chief was a doe-eyed beauty who'd just stepped into her sixteenth year. The notorious king of Jaisalmer happened to lay his eyes on this beautiful girl and wanted to take her as his wife. The king was famous for his debauchery and some loyal friend tipped the chieftain about his mal-intentions. The entire village of Kuldhara evacuated bag and baggage in one night and all that remained was an empty village without a single soul. As the paliwal Brahmins left, they cursed death upon anyone who ever came to live in that village. As we entered inside we saw an entire village--empty with broken walls and bricks strewn all around. A self-sufficient village with a deep well, a few temple like structures and houses. Home to people several centuries ago, complete with sleeping, cooking and bathing areas. The dusty little village had long narrow lanes crisscrossing everywhere -don't know whether it was the heightened senses but one could really feel strange faces peeking from behind the walls.  It is eerie to walk around this dead village where no one is living even now.