Jaisalmer, Rajasthan

	Jaisalmer, Rajathan
Home \| Rajasthan \| Ajmer \| Taragarh \| Bikamer \| Jaipur \| Udaipur \| Jaisalmer \| Jodhpur \| Mount Abu \| Pushkar

In the remote westernmost corner of Rajasthan, a good 100km beyond its closest neighbor Pokaran, Jaisalmer is a desert town par excellence, its sand-yellow ramparts rising out of the arid Thar Desert like a vision from Scheherazade . Put off by reports of rampant commercialism, many travelers never make the long detour out here, but in spite of all the souvenir shops, hotel touts and large tour groups, the town remains one of India's most enchanting destinations.

Villagers from outlying settlements, dressed in dazzling red and orange odinis or voluminous turbans, still outnumber foreigners in the bazaar, while the town's exquisite sandstone architecture is quite unlike anything else in India. Staring west at sunset time, when the palace, 99 bastions and delicately sculpted temple towers of the citadel are suffused with honey-colored light, you'll see how Jaisalmer came to be known as the "Golden City".

Rawal Jaisal of the Bhatti clan founded the town in 1156 as a replacement for his less easily defensible capital at nearby Loduvra, 16km west. A brahmin hermit had told him Lord Krishna and Arjuna came here once, and that they'd prophesied a ruler would one day build a fort along the ridge, known at that time as Trikuta, "Triple-Peaked Hill".

There were constant wars with the neighbouring Rajput states of Jodhpur and Bikaner until eventually, in 1294, Muslim invaders attacked and conquered Jaisalmer, inducing large-scale johar (voluntary death by sword and fire) by the warriors and their womenfolk. In the fourteenth century the Bhatti Rajputs retook the city, but provoked a second sacking when they challenged the Muslims at Ajmer.

Relations with the Muslims improved, and in 1570 the ruler of Jaisalmer married one of his daughters to Akbar. From the seventeenth century the town prospered as a market centre for traders on the overland routes between India and Central Asia; the magnificent havelis of the merchants bear witness to those times. However, with the emergence of Bombay and Surat as major ports, overland trade diminished, and so did Jaisalmer's wealth. more...