Bhangarh fort – not haunted but unexplained science

 Kshitiz Gaur

In last so many years, I was getting videos and articles on different social media about the HAUNTED FORT in Rajasthan ‘Bhangarh’. I was curious to see this fort because the more the information about ghosts coming on social sites the more rumours I was hearing about it. I searched on Google about the Bhangarh fort and there were same stories of ghosts and haunted place. Being a student of logic and reasoning, I had the desire to witness the real ghost, ghost that is royal and still living in a fort of Rajasthan.

 

There were stories that whoever remained inside the fort after evening will not be found alive.  Another story emerged that a group of youths tried to remain inside the fort after evening and next morning they all were found dead on the main gate. Another story came that a group of people went inside a cellar of the found had not returned back.

 

The most interesting story was of the curse and that no one can construct a roof in the premises of the fort as it is cursed by a tantric. Many people tried to construct a roof in the region but next day their houses were found collapsed as there is curse of a tantric. The more I read such stories, the more interested I was to see this place and to meet a ghost because I never read or encountered any ghost theory in Hindu philosophy. 

 

In India, there are lots of ghost theories and every village have their own ghost and every village in Rajasthan has a haunted place. During my journalism, I covered many and many such haunted stories and discovered only superstitions. Lack of knowledge and belief resulted in deaths as during coverage of Bhilwara, I found that dozens of children died because they were taken for treatment to tantric and not to hospitals because tantric claimed to treat the pneumonia.  (Ghost stories attract people and so make self proclaimed godman important)

 

But Bhangarh was attracting me because of the roof collapse theory because of curse and because no one allowed to remain in the fort after evening and found dead.  I was keen to visit this place as I was really curious to see the real ghost and at last I was positive to encounter a real ghost.

 

Fortunately I got the opportunity with my friends to visit this marvelous and magnificent fort of Rajasthan which is situated in Rajgarh of Alwar district and surrounded by beautiful nature. The place was magnificent, attracting and also narrating the story of architecture and royal heritage of Rajasthan.

 

As we were moving to Bhangarh there were lush green hills surrounded from three sides and there were many ‘chattaris’ a traditional structure built on many hills. There was no explanation to villagers that who built those structures and why they are there. During the journey, we saw a fort and halted to know about it. Villagers said that it is Ajabgarh fort and we tried to climb the fort but there was no information about that fort neither villagers knew about it. The magnificent architecture of Mughal and Rajasthani art was standing in front of us but unfortunately we did not know the real history of it.

 

We went to Bhangarh and found a beautiful art of work and there was rupees 20 ticket per tourist and it was undertaken by Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). We stepped inside and as it is common there is a temple on the gate which is seen in almost every fort constructed in Rajasthan and then we marched forward to see the haunted fort. There were undeveloped construction in large numbers but they were not seen as destroyed by any curse but as it was reconstructed by ASI to preserve the history of the place.

 

The board on the gate stated by ASI that Bhangarh is an ancient fort (what these people do when they do not understand the difference between ancient and medieval history). Constructed in 1573 AD and there are Hindu temples of Gopinath, Shiva, Hanuman and Ganesha as well as local deities. Then there is information about the constructed of five gates   for protection. One of the officials told me that the fort was constructed by the ruler of Jaipur for his son but later destroyed by Mughal army. Another reason of destruction of the fort and the population was quoted as famine. But certainly there was no research or historic facts came out on the site.

 

The fort was beautiful and there is ramp to climb the ruins of fort and inside it there were ruins of rooms and many magnificent constructions with stones and paste of calcium but unfortunately there was no cleanliness as well as there were large number of bats inside those room and it was stinking badly.

Tourists coming to palace of Bhangarh were not at all interested to know the history of the fort but lured by the haunted theory. There was something worse about the place is the architecture as the volume of air decreased while entering inside the ruins because in two sides there were hills and on one side there was a gate and huge building. The column of air was not sufficient as the air was stopped by big gates.

 

We encountered an old rural woman who was charging two hundred rupees to narrate the haunted story of this ruined fort. She told us that a tantric came to this place and started loving the queen and when he asked the king to give her, the king denied and he destroyed the whole city and fort in one day through his power of occult (not magic). Even parking persons, vendors outside the fort stated same haunted story and with this haunted stories number of tourists increased to see this fort.

 

Looking to the adventurism of youths and some groups, ASI put the board not to trespass after sunset and before sunrise made prohibited. The rumours of ghost and tantric was talked at large that local people fear not to discuss. One Rameshwar Lal a shopkeeper in the town said that they see the ghost of tantric on the no moon night of every month and he was searching for the queen.

 

How depressing it was for me that there was no research about the fort or history of this place. There are history departments in many universities of Rajasthan but no department is eager to take up to study the real history of this fort. The ASI- central government agency has also not come out with the facts to make tourists more apprise about the facts.

 

I discussed the issue with some of my friends researching on such issues and they made the possibilities of and one of my friends Lalit Kumar Verma suspect that the history of the fort was hid by kings because of some reasons and such rumours were created to hide those secrets.

 

Another friend suggested the influence of wind engineering on architect and therefore less oxygen create suffocation inside if it is true that people do not stay during night. The column inside do not allow fresh air to come. I read and found that tall structures reduce wind tunnels and therefore they are not good to stay. 

Certainly, I am not biased but I am not comfortable with the haunted story of Bhangarh because I went myself and found a beautiful ruin of fort of Rajasthan, Rajputs who were warriors and brave and have magnificent history of this land. I feel that one day state government or any scholar of university must come out to do a research of the reason why Bhangarh fort was destroyed and give right message to the tourists coming to Rajasthan to know the bravery of people of this land.