Barmer

About 35 kilometres from Barmer, near the village of Hathma, stands a group of five ancient temples whose intricate stonework has earned them the nickname the Khajuraho of Rajasthan. Folklore, rather than history, explains their ruin. As the story goes, a wandering ascetic camped here, and while he was away his disciples fell ill; only a potter woman cared for them. Returning, he cursed the village to turn to stone, sparing the woman on condition she flee without looking back. Curiosity got the better of her, and she too was petrified. It is said that villagers still avoid lingering here after sunset.

Set in the low hills of Mewanagar near Balotra, this is among the most revered Jain pilgrimage sites in India. Local tradition says the settlement was once known as Viramapur, and traces the shrine's story back to the third century BCE. The sanctum holds an old black-stone image of Lord Parshvanath. During centuries of raids the idol is said to have been hidden away for safekeeping, then brought back and re-enshrined in the fifteenth century, when the temple was renovated. The guardian deity, Nakoda Bhairav, has a reputation for granting wishes; devotees insist nobody leaves empty-handed.

Four kilometres from Balotra and some 97 from Barmer, the temple at Jasol honours Majisa, the folk goddess of western Rajasthan. Tradition names her Swaroop Kanwar, a Bhati of Jaisalmer — sung as a princess — married to Rawal Kalyan Singh of Jasol. A jealous co-wife, the stories say, poisoned her little son Lal Singh, and the grieving queen is said to have died soon after. She is believed to have appeared later to a Dholi singer, and the rulers of Jasol then raised a shrine in her memory. Manganiyar musicians still sing her devotional songs in the courtyard.

Barmer's old citadel crowns a hill in the middle of town. It is said that Rawat Bhima raised it in 1552, after shifting his capital from Juna — the older Barmer, whose ruins lie some 25 km away. He built partway up rather than on the summit, where the slope itself was defence enough; from the ramparts, watchmen could follow movement across miles of open desert. The summit itself holds the shrine of Jogmaya, the Garh Mandir, while Nagnechya Mata, revered as kuldevi of Barmer's rulers, has her temple lower on the same hill. The height that once served sentries now gives visitors a sweeping view over the city.

Barely a short drive from the city, the tall dunes at Mahabar offer the desert experience most travellers associate with Jaisalmer. Nothing here holds its shape for long: strong Thar winds have been redrawing the crests for centuries, so the ridges of sand look different from one season to the next. It is said that in earlier times trading caravans crossed the desert along these very tracks, camels strung out across the sand. Today the dunes draw visitors in the late afternoon, who come for a camel ride and the long golden light of sunset.

Outside Pushkar, very few temples anywhere carry out the formal worship of Brahma, and Asotra's shrine is one of them — it is widely spoken of as the second great Brahma dham after Pushkar, though that ranking is a matter of repute rather than record. It owes its existence to Sant Khetaram ji Maharaj, who by tradition was told in a dream that a temple to Brahma should stand on this spot. He saw the work through to its consecration in 1984, and it is said that he took samadhi the very next day, his life's task complete.

Khed, on the bank of the Luni river, looks like a quiet village today, but tradition holds that it was once the earliest capital of the Rathore dynasty. Chronicles say Rao Siha and his descendants took this territory and set up their rule here before Marwar's centre of gravity shifted elsewhere. Alongside the remains of the old fort stands the well-known Ranchhodrai temple, dedicated to Vishnu, which still draws pilgrims from far afield. Local lore has it that the sand dunes rolling around the settlement keep any number of historical secrets buried beneath them.

This hill fort at Siwana, in Balotra district, is by tradition credited to Veer Narayan Panwar, though sources place him variously in the tenth century and the eleventh. Its position mattered enough that it is said to have been called the key to Jalore fort, and Marwar's rulers fell back on it when their own strongholds failed them. Siwana is remembered above all for the siege of 1308, when Alauddin Khilji's army closed in. Satal Dev fell that year, and the ballads name Someshwar beside him in a shaka, a last stand the region has kept alive ever since.

Pachpadra is one of Rajasthan's best-known salt lakes, a shimmering flat where sand and crystal blur into one another. It is said that some four hundred years ago a Bhil man named Pancha dried out this marshy ground and settled the land around the lake, and that the place has carried his name ever since. Salt is worked here by the Kharwal community using a method passed down through generations: branches of the morli shrub are set in the brine, and crystals gather along them. The salt that results is prized for its unusually high sodium chloride content.