Bhangarh is a fort located in Alwar district in the state of Rajasthan is approximately 80kms from the main Alwar City and is known for its ruins. Staying in the premises of the fort is not allowed before sunrise and after sunset as the ruins are said to be haunted. So, are they really haunted? I decided to take a look myself.
There are many myths related to the ruins and fort of Bhangarh which say that the place is cursed. The Archaeological Survey Of India (ASI) was suppose to setup an office in the fort but the government did not dare to do that and the nearest office of ASI is around a kilometer away from the ruins of Bhangarh. ASI has put a signboard near the ruins which says “Staying After Sunset Is Strictly Prohibited In The Area”.
The local folklore has it that the whole town was vacated overnight due to a curse. According to the story of the curse, if the town was ever rediscovered no traces of township would ever be found but only the temples would show up.
The premises of Bhangarh includes a number of temples most of them are “Hanuman Mandir” — which means the Temples Of Lord Hanuman in Hindi.
According to the myth, the charm of Princess of Bhangarh Ratnawati was matchless in the entire state of Rajasthan. At an early age of eighteen the princess started getting wedding offers from different states. In the same region there also lived a tantrik (a magician using black magic) named Singhia who was desperately in love with the princess. One day, he saw the princess’ maid in the market buying scented oil for the princess. He used his black magic and put a spell on the oil which would hypnotise the princess by her mere touching the oil and she would immediately walk towards the tantrik. But when princess got the oil, she threw it on the block of a stone as she had seen the tantrik eying the oil. As soon as the oil touched the stone, the stone started rolling towards the tantrik Singhia and crushed him.
While dying, Singhia cursed the palace that there will be such an incident that everybody in the palace would die and their souls will stay there for centuries without rebirth. The very next year there was a battle between Bhangarh-Ajabgarh and no one survived in the battle nor in the palace, not even princess Ratnawati.
Just like this one there are many more stories. So are these stories really true and are the souls of the people of the “Kingdom Of Bhangarh” still stuck in the city and have not crossed-over? I went there to “investigate” the truth.
After a long 6 hours drive on a motorbike I finally managed to reach the “Abandoned City Of Bhangarh”. It looked just like another fort to me — the only difference was that it was all in ruins. I had a word with an old man standing on the entrance of Bhangarh. I asked him if he ever felt or saw anything strange or anything like a ghost? No, he said. “I stay here all the time, I live here but i never saw anything”.
So, is it that all we have heard about Bhangarh are mere stories? After talking a while with the old man I started the investigation of the city. The city was surrounded by a long ruined walls.
Walking on one of the wall (pictured above) I found atleast 2 Hanuman Mandirs (Temples) and a place with a green flag (looked like some sacred place to me)
Following the place was a big broken door way called the “Ajmeri Darwaza”.
It was almost 1:30 PM and I had to see the entire place, so I started walking in the city again and this time I used the ruined “Ajmeri Darwaza”.
My next stop would be one of many temples in the city. The temple was located at around 600-700 m away from the Ajmeri Darwaza.
The city has almost 5 temples scattered throughout the place — located at different spots.
Here are few pictures of the first temple I saw. Guess what??? It was again a Hanuman Mandir with beautiful architecture on the roof from inside and other parts of the structure.
On one side of this temple was another temple which looked even older than this one but — significantly — the level of damages were less. However, I found nothing in the temple. It was all empty. Here are few pictures.
After having a look at the temples and ruins of few broken houses I walked towards the area of attraction of most of the tourists. The Fort of Bhangarh. The fort had a long wall on one side which started from the palace ground level and went on almost till the mid of a hill. And a huge beautiful garden in front.
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So I started walking into the fort. Just like any other fort of the era, the Fort of Bhangarh has a typical made of mountain rock and the entrance has the regular slope like pathway but still was a beautiful looking fort.
The steep pathway would lead to the main entrance of the fort — the regular way which everyone uses. But I decided to use a different way. I saw a staircase on the right side of the fort so I decided to use those stairs.
It was pretty dark in there but the stairs lead me to the first floor of the fort. It was all broken there. In front of me were the stairs which would lead me into the fort hall on the right was a broken staircase which lead to the roof which had something like a stage on it.
After clicking some picture I went into the fort and started checking out things.
ITS BEEN A LONG STORY ALREADY AND THERE IS NOTHING HAUNTED IN “THE MOST HAUNTED PLACE” IN INDIA. NO GHOSTS, NO HAUNTINGS, NO PEOPLE DIEING, NO STREAMS OF BLOOD… I WILL NOT DISAPPOINT MY READERS.
The two pictures above show the entire fort building. I clicked a series of pictures starting right from the chamber on the extreme left of the left picture till the chamber on the extreme right of the picture on the right side. I found some weird effect in the pictures which i took in the last two chambers which are right behind the walls of the second pic.
The dark room you see at the end of the corridor was the most suspicious place I found in the fort. There was an underground chamber in the room. I took around 8-10 pictures of the chamber and found a strange “ORBS” in the picture.
These two pictures have almost identical angle and were shot in a sequence with time difference of mere 2-3 seconds — but, the difference can be seen. But the best part of this trip was the room next to this one. The second room also had a similar underground chamber in it and what my camera shot this time were not orbs. I am still trying to figure out what it was. Have a look at it (THE PICTURE ARE IN THE ORDER AS THEY WERE SHOT).
Have a look at the green patch next to the staircase — after clicking the first picture for a moment I thought it was some piece of cloth or some green color plastic bottle but when I tried to see the place under a flashlight I found nothing green there. So, I went to the other side of the stairs but still was not able to see anything green. I clicked one more picture but from the other side this time but no green patch this time.
I went back to the left and clicked one more picture and the green patch was back.
The interesting part of the story is that the pictures which have the green mark in them have been shot from different angles but the shape of the mark is consistent in all the pictures.
I believe if this would have been some kind of reflection it would have changed its shape when the flash light struck it.
For the time being I would say that I don’t know what these effects are but I am pretty sure this is not reflection of the flash gun.
I clicked a number of pictures after the ORBS picture and found similar effect in many pictures. I GUESS THE GHOSTS WERE FOLLOWING ME.
IF ANYBODY HAS ANY INFORMATION ABOUT THESE EFFECTS, PLEASE LET ME KNOW ( prateek [at] neviomedia.com ).