India, a land of great beauty and history… but it is also a land of many a legend! Some mysterious… some haunting!! While ghosts are known to be sighted across the country, here’s one place that has even been mentioned by Wikipedia! Here we take you to the mysterious land of Rajasthan, a land known for its folklore, sandy deserts & havelis, palaces and historical ruins! Herein lies the historical ruins of a city rumored to be the most haunted place in India… A city which according to legends and local folk tales fell prey to curses and black magic leading to its complete destruction! This is Bhangarh a city that one passes by when travelling from Jaipur to Alwar. The place even has a signboard put up here by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) at the main gate stating (among others): “Entering the borders of Bhangarh before sunrise and after sunset is strictly prohibited.” While the reasons behind this may be many – speculating from wild animals to safety concerns as there is  no artificial lighting, tourists and visitors are left wondering given the legends behind the place. While according to the Government of India rules there has to be an office of Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) beside every historical structure in India, even government authorities did not dare to open an office here. One can find their office about one kilometer away from the ruins of Bhangarh with even this office being close to a temple as a result of the myth.

A flourishing kingdom in the 17th Century, something led to its evacuation and today it is just a city of ruins with there being different legends to explain why this place is deserted. One such legend takes you back to the first half of the 17th century.  Madho Singh of Amber, who was the brother of Raja Man Singh, a General of Emperor Akbar built his capital here with the sanction of an ascetic Baba Balanath. It is said that the baba who meditated there warned him that the day the shadow of his palace touched him, the city would be no more! In his ignorance, Ajab Singh, one of the dynasty’s later descendants, raised the palace to such a height that the shadow reached the forbidden place leading to the devastation!

Another popular legend about Bhangarh speaks about the King of Sindh, who in order to avenge his insult from the queen of Bhangarh started to learn black magic. A battle between Bhangarh and Sindh led to the destruction of the kingdom and the King of Sindh died cursing Bhangarh. Since then no living soul has been able to survive in the village.

Another legend goes on to talk about a beautiful princess! A princess so charming that there was no match for her in entire Rajasthan. When the princess was merely eighteen years old, she started getting wedding offers from other States. A magician (tantric) named Singhia from the same region was desperately in love with the princess but knew the king would never even allow him to see the princess. One day he happened to see the princess’s maid in the market buying scented oil for the princess. Seeing this he came up with a wicked plan of getting the princess. Using his black magic powers he put a spell on the oil which would hypnotise the princess when she touched it and she would immediately come towards the tantric. However the princess threw it on the block of a stone as soon as she got her hands on the bottle! As soon as the oil touched the stone, the stone started rolling towards the wicked tantrik Singhia crushing him to death. While dying Singhia cursed the palace that everybody in the palace would die and their souls will stay there for centuries without rebirth. The very next year there was a battle between Bhangarh-Ajabgarh and no one survived in the battle or in the palace, not even the princess Ratnawati.

People who visit Bhangarh purely out of curiosity and out of tourist interest say that there is a strange feeling in the atmosphere of Bhangarh, causing a sort of anxiety and restlessness. Bhangarh was also cursed by a prime minister who said that no one would settle there in future and whoever dared would die as well. The local folks say the curse was enough for the whole town to vacate and leave it overnight. According to the story of the curse, if the town was ever rediscovered the township would not be found, but only temples would show up. True to the story only temples dot the landscape and even far up on the mountains only shrines can be seen.

It is said by the local villagers that whenever a house has been built there its roof has collapsed. Strange as it seems, once inside Bhangarh one notices all the houses are without a roof and even at the closest village where people reside, they still have roofs made of straw but not bricks.

Though it is home to many an ancient temple and Muslim shrine, which includes the Dev Narayan Temple, Gopinath Temple, Lord Hanuman Temple, Someshwar Temple and Lord Shiva Temple, this culturally rich but isolated village is a village engulfed in the serenity of seclusion. Dare to visit it as one of your excursions from Jaipur, but we have only one thing to say to you… Don’t wait to stay after dark…