Jaisalmer Off The Beaten Path Tips by Willettsworld Top 5 Page for this destination

Chhatrel

After visiting the Parshvanath Temple at Lodurva, our driver took us to this little desert village called Chhatrel where he lived and where he was picking up his sister from and dropping her off at some wedding ceremony elsewhere. We wandered around the village which was split into two parts based on the Hindu and Muslim religions. The village featured traditional homes made out of mud and dung and topped with sticks as well as houses made out of more western/conventional materials such as bricks and concrete. This is what I had hoped to see whilst in India and I loved seeing how they were built as well as meeting the families who lived in them.

Lodurva

Next stop after Bada Bagh was Lodurva which was the ancient capital of the Bhattis Rajputs. It was once a flourishing city but lost most of its splendour when the Bhattis shifted their capital to Jaisalmer in the 12th century. The city is much older than Jaisalmer and was sacked several times, most notably by Mahmud of Ghazni in the 11th century when he was en route to Somnath, and then by Mohammad Ghori in the next century. The latter invasion persuaded Jaisal to abandon Lodurva, and he shifted his capital to Jaisalmer, making Bhoj the last ruler of Lodurva.

There's not much to see in the area today except for a couple of temples in which the Parshvanath Temple is the most notable. The Parshvanath Temple is the main Jain temple which predates the temples of Jaisalmer just as the town itself is more ancient. The temple was destroyed in 1152, but was reconstructed in 1615 by Seth Tharu Shah and further additions were commissioned in 1675 and 1687. Its Torana Dwar or main archway is probably the most ornate of its kind in Rajasthan and interestingly, the sentry outside (an elderly guy who you pay and who watches over your shoes) is a Rajput and not a Jain. The inner sanctum of the temple contains an image of the prophet Parshvanath (the 23rd Jain Tirthankar) in black stone with a multi-hooded serpent canopy. The whole complex was renovated in the 1970's and the temples are gleamingly clean and fresh which really shows off their beautiful golden sandstone carvings. More photo's can be found in one of my travelogues.

Camera: Rs50.

Ramkunda

After visiting Bada Bagh, our next stop on our car tour as part of our camel trek was a place called Ramkunda which is about 12km from Jaisalmer. Here, there is a temple that was built by Maharani Mansukhi Devi in the 17th century and is dedicated to Lord Ram. The temple features beautifully carved out of yellow sandstone, statues of four-armed Ganesh, Mahisasur and Bheru. It is the oldest Ram temple of the desert. The temple monument itself has some inscriptions written on the walls and outside on the Govardhan Pillars which were added to the complex in the early 18th century. No one was there when we visited so we had the whole place to ourselves which made a change as temples are usually very crowded in India. It looks as though a priest lives here as we saw cooking pots and empty cans in a kitchen area.

Bada Baga

The Bada Baga (meaning Big Garden) is located about 6km north of the fort on the horizon with the wind farm located behind it. This was the first place I visited on my camel trek. It was built by Maharawal Jait Singh II between 1513 and 1528 and completed by his son Lunkaran, after his death. The Bada Bagh complex consists of a tank, a dam, a garden and the Chhatries (cenotaphs) of the Bhatti dynasty. These memorials represent a combination of Paliwal, Mughal and Rajput styles of architecture. The site of the Chhatries is also called the Sunset Point.

Camera: Rs50.