What happened
Bhangarh, at the foot of the Aravalli hills on the edge of the Sariska reserve, was founded in the 16th century as the residence of Madho Singh, son of Raja Bhagwant Das of Amber. Behind the fort's gates lies an entire dead town: temples of Hanuman and Gopinath, palaces, merchants' houses, a bazaar and the ruined royal palace. According to one legend, an ascetic lived within the fort and decreed that no house should cast a shadow on his hermitage – when columns were added whose shadow fell on his dwelling, the town was doomed. Another tale tells of a sorcerer in love with a beautiful princess. He tried to give her a love potion, but she poured it onto a large boulder, which rolled down and crushed him. As he died, he cursed the town to eternal desolation. Today a sign from the Archaeological Survey of India at the entrance forbids staying in the ruins before sunrise and after sunset – which many take as proof that something sinister happens here after dark.
Witnesses
Local oral tradition, guides and tourists; Bhangarh has inspired many books and programmes about “Asia's most haunted place.”
Explanations and hypotheses
Historians link the town's decline to mundane causes: loss of political importance, warfare and water shortages, common to many abandoned settlements in Rajasthan. The ban on night-time entry is a standard rule for unlit monuments, all the more so as the fort lies on the edge of a reserve with wild animals. Both legends are typical origin stories explaining why a splendid town fell into ruin. Bhangarh's fame as a haunted site is largely a phenomenon of recent decades and of tourism.
Legend A story handed down through generations – it can be neither confirmed nor disproved.
Sources
- Rana Safvi, Bhangarh: the most haunted fort in India (The Hindu, 2017)
- The Rajputana Gazetteer (1880)
- Incredible India (Ministry of Tourism) – Bhangarh Fort
- Atlas Obscura – Bhangarh Fort
More: Wikipedia (en)