The inhabitants of most historical monuments you see today, be it a palace or a fort, have been forcibly evacuated from there by the invaders.
Kuldhara in Rajasthan is probably the only place in the world where an entire population of over 17,000 people vacated en masse, of their own accord, and disappeared into the thick of a mysterious night.
It was with a great sense of excitement that I visited the twin-villages of Kuldhara and Khaba, 30 kms to the west of Jaisalmer in Rajasthan. These two villages, along with 82 other villages, were deserted overnight by the Paliwal Brahmins who lived here for over 5 centuries: from 1291 AD to 1825 AD.
As a Rajasthani folk song about this mass migration goes, ’Let’s leave the calves in the stables, let’s leave the cradles, let’s leave the milk boiling on the cooking fire; let’s leave all that we have here, never to come back again.’
The Paliwals were astute businessmen who controlled the trade on the Silk Route to Iran and the Arab lands. They were also visionary farmers who knew a lot about water conservation and rain harvesting, and miraculously cultivated wheat and gram in these harsh deserts. Then what made them make the supreme sacrifice of deserting their homeland, leaving behind the colossal wealth they had created over five centuries?
Stories abound. One says that Salum Singh, the prime minister of the King of Jaisalmer, was so envious of the prosperity of the Paliwals that he levied taxes so atrocious that they became the last straw on the camel’s back.
Another one says that Paliwal women were stunningly beautiful, but the beauty of the Chieftain’s daughter had to be seen to be believed. And the Rajput King of Jaisalmer was so smitten by her that he had decided to kidnap her and forcibly marry her. Be that as it may, the heads of all the 84 villages decided to leave their homes overnight, never to return. But before they left they buried their treasures, giving a damning curse that those who make an attempt to settle down in these villages will drop down dead.
And the third story goes that once in a while, skeletons of human bodies are found in the by-lanes of this ghostly village.
On my way out, I saw the Cactus Park near the main gate of Kuldhara village. And I wondered. Is the cactus symbolic of the survival spirit of the Paliwals who thrived in the harshest of conditions? Or is the thorn on the cactus symbolic of the harsh treatment meted out to them by the rulers of Jaisalmer? Maybe for all you know, it’s both.
