Kuldhara - The Ghost Village in Rajasthan
The charisma of the ghost villages is very different from
that of the ruined fortresses. The ghost villages give us a chance to look
closely into the lives of the people who once resided there. Rajasthan has no
scarcity of such villages. Two of the most famous ghost villages is Bhangarh
and Kuldhara, probably because of the folklore associated with them. Almost 18
kilometers from the beautiful city of Jaisalmer, Rajasthan, Kuldhara Village is
most conspicuous for being deserted by all the villagers in just a single
night.
Kuldhara is a lonesome place with a deserted look that
brings grieve to one’s mind when one thinks about the doomed fate of hundreds
of villagers who were compelled to leave their ancestral land. It is not only
the stories that make Kuldhara spooky but also the place itself. Series upon
series of mud houses with ruined walls and no roofs, standing tall like the
skeletons of an unfortunate past. From the date it has been deserted, the
village remains barren, lying same like the villagers had left it centuries
ago! It is believed that people who try to stay in the area during the
night-time, experience strange paranormal activities.
The story of this village dates back to the 1800s, when it
was a prosperous village of the Paliwal Brahmins. According to the popular
folklore, the villagers were supposed to pay the taxes levied on them to the
minister of the state, Salim Singh. While visiting Kuldhara, Salim Singh’s eyes
fell upon the chief’s beautiful daughter and he expressed his desire to marry
her. He threatened the Kuldhara villagers that if they refused to give him the
girl, he would levy exaggerated taxes on them. Instead of marrying his daughter
to the minister, the chief of the village along with those of 84 adjoining
villages decided to leave behind Kuldhara and migrate to some other place. No
one saw the villagers leave nor did anyone know where they all went. But how
could so many villagers vanish in a single night? This still remains a mystery!
Another probable reason can be the huge amount of taxes
levied on the villagers by Salim Singh. The taxes became heavy-handed to the
extent that the villagers decided to migrate to some other place.
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