There are a few places in Jaisalmer that are worth visiting. Our first place of visit was about 15 km away from the main city: a village, now abandoned, called Kuldhara, the biggest of a cluster of 84 which was inhabited by Paliwal Brahmins back in the 1800s. Historical evidence suggests the Paliwal Brahmins were a dab hand at trading, and had wealth to rival that of Jaisalmer itself. At this juncture, legend takes over. The story goes that then Prime Minister to the king, Salum Singh, had his eye on the Kuldhara chieftain’s daughter. Being from a lower caste, the chief refused the match, which led to the minister threatening the chieftain with death, giving the latter a 24-hour deadline to change his mind. The chieftains of all the villages convened an emergency meeting, and decided that the best course of action was to leave and never return. So they took all their riches they could carry, and buried the rest. Their final act was to lay a curse on the village, which would afflict anyone that would try to inhabit it or dig up their treasure. Apparently, the ghosts that supposedly reside there are the villagers returning after death to protect what is rightfully theirs.
The village and the story were all but forgotten for the best part of 200 years, until, in 1998, a couple of foreigners were spotted using metal detectors to find the treasure and carrying various gold and silver articles out by some villagers in the surrounding area. The police were alerted, and they caught the foreigners red-handed, and tossed them behind the bars. This incident brought the village to the government’s attention, which then secured its perimeter, renovated some of the structures, and turned it into a tourist destination, with all the trappings including a nominal entrance fee. Sadly, there were no reports regarding whether or not the thieving foreigners suffered a curse or were haunted by ghosts of Brahmins past.
From the haunted village we went to Vyas Chhatri, set atop a hill overlooking the rest of Jaisalmer. The place is dedicated to the titular sage, best known for writing the epic Mahabharata. The festival of Guru Purnima is also celebrated in his honour. The Chhatri itself is quite beautiful, with detailed stonework adorning the building, and a fantastic view to boot.
