Kuldhara

The people who built it

The Paliwal Brahmins settled this part of the Thar centuries before the abandonment and farmed ground that should not have supported them. Their reputation rests on water: wells, stepwells, and the covered storage tanks called kunds, worked to catch and hold what little rain arrives here.

1825

In 1825 Kuldhara emptied, and so did about 83 villages around it. Two explanations sit in the literature and they are not exclusive.

The first is water and tax. The supply was falling, agricultural output with it, and the revenue demanded by Jaisalmer State did not fall to match. Leaving was the rational response to a bill that could no longer be paid.

The second is Salim Singh, the Diwan of Jaisalmer, whose demands on the Paliwal community and whose reported designs on the daughter of a village elder are held to have made staying incompatible with the community's standing.

The curse

The version sold at the gate is that the departing villagers cursed the ground so that nobody could ever live there again. It attaches to Kuldhara alone rather than to the 83 other villages, which is the first sign of where it came from. Paranormal groups have run overnight investigations on the site and the district has been content to let the reputation do its work.

What is on the ground is a grid. The lanes run straight, the house plots are still legible, and a restored temple stands among roofless walls of dressed sandstone.

Open 8am to 6pm, with entry closing before dark. The fee is small, commonly quoted between 10 and 30 rupees per person, with a separate charge for a car.

Most people come out from Jaisalmer on a half day that also takes in the Sam dunes, and 45 minutes to an hour covers the site comfortably. There is no shade in the lanes and nothing sold inside, which matters more between April and June than at any other time of year.

Some houses have been consolidated for visitors. Others are open ruins with unstable walls and no barriers, and the ground underfoot is uneven throughout.