Guest Post: A visit to the Bhangarh Fort

Bhangarh Fort

My whole body has been shaking for an hour now. It’s as if all my body parts have been jumbled up aching every bit every inch. My car can’t find a patch to smooth the tyres and give my bones some relaxation. Before making the trip to Bhangarh Fort, I googled about the place and read about the spooky stories related to the fort paying little attention to one of the comments that gave the exact picture of the journey as I had experienced.

My sudden holidays had forced me to make a short trip to the Sariska Tiger Reserve. But the main attraction of the trip was to visit the horror fort that I had read about so many times.

The D-Day had finally come and I started for the fort early in the morning. Due to the crowded roads, I reached my destination at around 11am. It is not allowed to enter the fort past 5pm as it is said that at night there are ghosts flying all around.

As I got out of my car, I was greeted by so many banyan trees and monkeys at the entrance gate. The sun was bright above but the path down was shady. As I entered through the gate, on the right side there was a Hanuman temple that was being frequented regularly by the priests. It was really unusual that an extinct fort would have an active temple at the entrance.

Hanuman temple at the Bhangarh Fort

I went ahead and climbed the stairs to the temple. My excitement turned to horror seeing a huge depression in the ground and no statue of God anywhere around as far as the eyes could see. It looked like God had de-materialized himself. Astonished, I came down and moved towards the fort.

The surroundings at Bhangarh Fort..

While walking, I saw that there were small double-storey rooms on either side. I could see the stairs going up but to nowhere in particular. All these rooms were cut from the top as if slashed by a knife.

Amused, I wanted to know how could the bricks at the top be so weak that they broke down but everything was fine on the ground floor. It was the same story for all the rooms. On entering the main fort, I found a local boy talking to me,”Ma’am, do you want a guide? I will tell you the true story.” I was surprised. I didn’t know from where did he appear when I could not see anyone else around. But I ended up hiring him as I was curious to know the story behind the fort.

The double storey rooms at Bhangarh Fort

And then he began.

A place lost in the shade

The first legend claims that a king named Madho Singh raised the Bhangarh fort after obtaining due permission from an ascetic named Bala Nath who lived there; having agreed to a condition which said that the shadow of the fort must never fall upon the home of the ascetic. But as fate would have it, one of the ambitious successors of Madho Singh added to the fortifications vertically, thereby causing its ominous shadow to engulf the abode of the ascetic. Lo and Behold, once it came to pass, the fort was doomed within no time. The alleged prophecy stood fulfilled, and the Bhangarh Fort became haunted.

A place caught in a limbo

A second legend (more popular than the first one) behind the Bhangarh Fort claims that Princess Ratnavati of Bhangarh was responsible for the apocalyptic situation which befell the fort. A local black magician fell in love with her (the princess is believed to have been very beautiful) and once tried to bewitch a cosmetic she was supposed to use, to make her fall in love with him. The princess smelled suspicion and foiled the entire conspiracy of the black magician by pouring the bewitched cosmetic over a massive stone boulder, which then supposedly crushed the magician to death. Before the magician breathed his last, he placed a curse upon the entire landscape that no soul would ever be able to live in peace there. The entire landscape around the Bhangarh Fort has been haunted since.

I got my answer from the first story. Maybe that is why the entire fort is broken from above. Some other guide later told me that he also takes tourists to the fort at night. I wonder how is that even possible. He has felt the presence of ghosts around and experienced some horrifying activities happening at night.

Bhangarh Fort at night

Was he cooking up stories or there was a bit of reality? Before I could clear my doubts, he vanished into thin air.

Coming back towards the end, I suspected that there were no lamp posts in the fort. The fort shines gloriously under the moon every night with no artificial lights. That was pretty strange.

There was one more temple at another corner. I went up there and was a little more prepared this time. But this time there was a God’s statue there but that was locked.

In the day, there is a lot of movement here. People visiting the fort and schools coming for sightseeing. But as the sun sets…..

There were mixed feelings inside me. I saw that Hanuman temple again wondering whether the aura of this temple doesn’t allow the spirits to go out into the city.

Many questions were still unanswered.

Was there anybody who could see the bewildered look on my face and soothe me a little?

Has someone come out alive after visiting this place at night?

Contributed by: 

Geethica’s writings are reflections of her views towards life. She believes that whatever happens only happens for a reason. And the best happens when it is not seen. Because holding on believes that there is a past; letting go knows that there is a future. Her piece of work gives her a second chance that life denies.

Her words help her build her character each and every day. She reads new articles every day and learns something new from them. And she is also trying to write regularly. She is a keen observer of the happenings around her and is always ready to pen down those observations beautifully.

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