12. CURSED GROUND

Bhangarh Fort, once renowned for its grandeur, is now infamous for a lover’s curse that continues to haunt it to this day. But Bhangarh in not the only place in Rajasthan associated with curses and resulting ghost sightings. Kuldhara and Kiradu also have similar rumors attached to them. The stories of all three places warn of dire, and supernatural, consequences if anyone should try to re-populate them today. So, what are the common threads that connect Bhangarh, Kuldhara and Kiradu, the three cursed grounds of Rajasthan?

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‘Rumors’ shines a light on the darkest corners of India, where fact and fiction combine into magical and haunting stories.

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Written and voiced by Chandrima Das, a best-selling author, storyteller and an avid collector of dark tales. Follow her @hackiechan on all social media platforms.

Produced by Aishwarya Javalgekar
Sound design by Aditya Arya
Artwork by Artisto Designz

Disclaimer: This show is for entertainment purposes only and is not intended to outrage, insult, defame, or hurt any religion or religious sentiments, beliefs, feelings of any person, entity, class or community and does not encourage or propagate any superstition, black magic and/ or witchcraft. While every effort has been made in research, we do not make any representation or warranties with respect to the accuracy, applicability or completeness of the content.

Transcript

This show was made for entertainment purposes only. It is not intended to outrage insult, defame or hurt any religion or religious sentiments, beliefs feelings of any person, entity, class or community and does not encourage or propagate any superstition black magic and of witchcraft. listeners should exercise their discretion

00:24

in the arid deserts of Rajasthan, forts, villages and temples where 1000s of people once lived, now stand desolate and empty.

00:35

These ones beautiful structures have been reduced to crumbling reminders of a prosperous past.

00:43

Rumors attached to these ruins speak of frightening curses as the cause of abandonment.

00:50

They even warn of dire and supernatural consequences if anyone should try to repopulate these places today.

01:00

hungered called Hara Guirado let's take a tour through the cost grounds of Rajasthan.

01:33

This is rumors? I am Chandra Das. Join me as I shine a light on the darkest corners of India, where facts and fiction combine into magical and haunting stories.

02:06

Rajon penguins and das of Umbar in Rajputana was a content man. Long ago, his father, Raja piramal, had forged an alliance with the powerful Mughal empire.

02:21

Raja piramal had fought beside the Mughals as their staunch ally and even gave his daughter in marriage to Emperor Akbar.

02:31

This daughter became Maryam Zamani, now wrongly known in popular culture as Judah by

02:39

She held the title of Molokai Hindustan, the Empress of India. She was mother to Akbar's firstborn son Salim, and the sister of Raja Bhagwan Das of Amber.

02:53

Bhagwan Das was a general in adverse armies and had been given the title of Amir Umrah.

03:00

Through association with the Mughals, the rajas of amber had cemented their wealth and power.

03:08

Roger Bhagwan Das had two sons and a daughter. The oldest son, Man Singh, would inherit his title as the Raja of amber and go on to become one of the Navratna has on nine most extraordinary courtiers in outbursts royal court.

03:27

Bhagwan Das his daughter, man poverty by was married to Prince Salim, who was heir to the throne, and would go on to rule as the Hungee.

03:39

Is having secured strong legacies for his older son and daughter. Bhagwan Das wanted to do the same for his younger son, mod Hussein.

03:49

He decided he would carve out a residence and a capital city for Madhu and selected a tract of land to build a fort near the Yarra Valley range, green and beautiful. This looping tract of land even had a pond. It seemed like the perfect place except for one problem.

04:11

This land was also the spot where the revered guru Bala Knut lived and meditated.

04:20

Before they began construction for the fort, Bhagwan Das and his son Madhu Singh, approached the revered mystic to seek His permission,

04:30

by look not thoughtful thoughtfully considered their request, and decided to allow construction of the fort. But they had to meet one specific condition.

04:41

No house built inside this fort could be taller than bollock nuts house, which stood on top of the hill that would overlook the fort. If any house was constructed so high that its shadow fell on his home. The fort town would then be destroyed

05:00

Madho Singh accepted guru bollock knots condition and construction began. The fort was completed in 1573. Madhu Singh followed the condition and ruled peacefully for many years, until his son chatra. Singh succeeded him chatter saying continued in the same vein as Madhu Singh, but chatra Singh son, or job Singh wasn't quite as traditional. Ajit Singh was known as a rebel who didn't believe in following the rules. It isn't fully clear what transpired between father and son. But at some point, our job Singh walked out of his father's estate. He built a fort of his own, not too far from Chapter Six Ford and named it a job guard.

05:50

After a job Singh finished the construction of a job GERD Ford, his father, chatra Singh, began to feel insecure. He could only see problems with his own fourth structure whenever he compared it with a job guard. The fourth defenses were not as strong and in case someone mounted an invasion, they stood a good chance of breaching his walls. So chatter Singh decided to add taller columns to his forte. This would help his soldiers look further shoot at a greater distance and improve the forts defensive capabilities.

06:29

But with the passage of time, and all the drama from this family conflict, EVERYONE FORGOT guru bollock knots words. The new columns were tall,

06:41

tall enough to cast a shadow upon the mystics hut on top of the hill.

06:49

A few years after the new columns were completed, charter Singh died of natural causes. After his death, the population within the fort began to decline. More and more households shifted over to the neighboring fort have a job GERD.

07:08

In 1720, a neighboring King Raja Jai Singh invaded this scantily populated fort and attached it to his estate. A feminine 1783 forced the remaining villagers to move out and seek new avenues.

07:25

The fort became completely vacant.

07:31

It turns out that this fort could never be populated again.

07:36

Today, all the houses in the village near the fort are without roofs. If a roof has ever constructed, it collapses within days.

07:47

No one knows what causes this phenomenon. But each broken roof gives strength to the belief that Guru Ballack knots prophecy is at work. People in the area convinced that the land is cursed.

08:03

This place is none other than pondered, known as one of the most haunted places in India.

08:15

Hunger is popular as a tourist spot, but even more as a spooky story.

08:22

Just as the forts columns had once overshadowed guru bollock nuts had hungers association with the supernatural, overshadows its reputation as a historic monument. Horror films have used pungle as a setting it's Lord finds mentioned in popular horror literature, and even horror podcasts. So it's no surprise that the fort's haunted reputation now attracts more tourists, Ghost Hunters and thrill seekers than ever before.

08:54

It's not easy to get to pongal. Fourth, a three hour drive from Jaipur on questionable roads. Many tourists even attribute their punctured tires on this road to the supernatural presence within punkers walls. Though there are no hotels nearby, there are enough places to stay within a short drive. At the entrance to the fort, standing like an ominous sentry is a board by the Archaeological Survey of India, or asi. The board is written in Hindi and the instructions roughly translate to entering the borders of punker before sunrise and after sunset is strictly prohibited.

09:40

Legal action will be taken against anybody who does not follow these instructions.

09:50

The ESI declared pondered as a protected monument way back in 1951. With the demarcation of the monument is still not complete.

10:00

Which may explain the board at the entrance.

10:04

Whatever the reason, the ASI Board certainly fuels Pangos haunted reputation instead of a concrete time such as 6pm or 6am. The board links visiting us to the presence of daylight. As soon as darkness falls, the fort is barged to visitors. A very spooky atmospheric element. Indeed.

10:30

The main gate with the ASI Board is not the only point of entry to the fort. There are four other gates with no scary warnings. Inside the Forbidden City is surprisingly intact. Temples palaces and have Ailey's still stand in good condition.

10:48

At the entrance of the main gate is a temple complex with deities such as Hanuman and gopinathan. The residents of the priest called Puru hijiki. Whaley is also here.

11:00

The Royal Palace is located at the extreme end of the forts limits. But the most creepy structure and hunger is a small stone hut, known as tantric Chatri. It overlooks the fourth, a grim reminder of Guru, bollock Nath and his curse upon the town.

11:22

The tale of chatteris things violation of Guru Balloch Nordstroms is not the only Lord about pangur. Another folktale seeks to explain congers demise, and this one is centered on chatra sings daughter and Egypt sing sister, Princess Ratna witty.

11:41

This law also speaks of a curse, but not one that resulted from a broken promise. This curse comes from a fatal attraction.

11:56

Princess rock novelty was much younger than her stepbrother Ajab Singh, and was as liked by the people of pongo. As a job Singh was disliked.

12:08

Tales of her beauty and delightful temperament had spread far and wide, and she received many marriage proposals.

12:17

Princess retinopathy was so beautiful that she became known as the jewel of Rajasthan.

12:24

But beauty was only Ratna with these exterior. It didn't define her. Her heart contained a deep interest in the dark arts and the occult.

12:36

driven by a desire for this powerful knowledge, she found a teacher. He was a tantric priest named Cynthia.

12:46

Cynthia would regularly visit Princess Ratna with the in her chambers to teach her the dark arts. Over time, seeing her began to fall in love with her. But he was not blind. Cynthia was smart enough to see that Ratana with he didn't share his feelings.

13:05

Like many a desperate man, trapped in the spell of one sided love. Cynthia decided to use his magical powers to change the situation in his favor.

13:17

Instead of letting his feelings fade away with time, he decided to make Ratna with the fall in love with him.

13:27

One day, Cynthia spotted Princess Ratna with these made buying perfume for her in the Johari bazaar.

13:34

This was his opportunity.

13:37

He cast a spell on the perfume, so that when Ratna with he applied it on herself, she would instantly fall in love with him.

13:47

With the maid had noticed him murmuring and casting the spell. She promptly went and told Ratna with the about it. Disgusted and scared retina with the threw the bottle out of the window. It fell upon a boulder, and the perfume was absorbed into the rock.

14:06

Instead of retina with the it was now the boulder that became uncontrollably attractive to Cynthia. It rolled down the slope and chase the tantric until it caught up with him. Cynthia was crushed under the weight of the boulders loving embrace as he lay dying. The tantric cost the princess her family and the entire village. And curses uttered with a dying breath have immense power.

14:39

The next year, a battle was fought between the forces of hunger and other good princess RETNA with the perished in the battle, and so did most of them hunger army.

14:52

Some believe that it is in chaos curse that still haunts the fort. His dying wish has condemned it forever.

15:01

And it's only destiny is to be inhabited by coasts.

15:10

Why does this Lord around Pongal persist?

15:14

One reason could be that it serves as an easy to understand explanation for why the place was abandoned, and why it cannot be resettled. The original fault looks like it was abandoned in a hurry. And no one seems to remember exactly why.

15:33

Today the land is fertile, and the structures are in good condition. But no matter how hard people try to resettle here, they can't, the roof literally collapses on them.

15:48

In this gap between Present day reality, and truth lost in history, stand the stories of hunger being a cost ground.

15:58

But bunker is not the only uninhabitable cost land in Rajasthan. The other well known cost ground in the state is the abandoned village of kohara.

16:12

Over 500 kilometers west of Jaipur at the other end of Rajasthan, called Hara is one of many abandoned or Coast villages in the state, like Bungard. This heritage site is also maintained by the ASI. The ruins of 410 buildings can be found here, and other 200 buildings are on the outskirts of the village.

16:39

Records show that called Hara village was originally settled by a community of Brahmins called poly walls, who had migrated from Poly to the GSL may region

16:50

a man named Cardin had excavated a pond named the InSAR in the 13th century, providing a water source in the desert.

17:00

A short of water access in the middle of the desert. People settled here and formed the village of kohara.

17:08

The villagers were mostly agricultural traders, bankers and farmers, called Hara grew and prospered under the state of Jessel made till about 300 years ago.

17:20

Taxes from the village went to the state of Jessel made, of which Salim Singh was the Prime Minister. The villagers had moved on from the southern SAR pond and irrigated their fields with water from the nearby cockney River and several wells.

17:37

At some point, however, this water supply began to dry up,

17:43

agricultural production dropped, but Salim Singh kept increasing their taxes.

17:50

Frustrated, the villagers began to call him Zalim Singh.

17:57

When the village failed to pay up for several months, xylem Singh finally showed up with a battalion of soldiers.

18:06

His roving I fell on the daughter of the mukhiya of village headman and his dark heart filled with desire.

18:17

Salim Singh offered the villagers a deal.

18:21

He was willing to forego the taxes they owed to the state. If the villagers gave this girl to him,

18:29

but if they didn't, he would destroy the entire village. He would bleed them dry with higher and higher taxes.

18:39

The village had man looked selling thing in the eye and said,

18:44

Come back tomorrow.

18:46

I need time to prepare to give my daughter in marriage to you.

18:52

That night, the villagers held the council and arrived at a hard decision.

18:58

They would not bend to saline things threads.

19:03

The next morning, soldiers arrive to take the girl away.

19:08

They found the village empty. All the villagers had left their ancestral homes and vanished overnight.

19:17

They say that before leaving the villages performed one last act of vengeance.

19:24

They put a curse upon gold Hara.

19:27

No one would ever be able to settle in their village,

19:32

called Hara village remains barren. Even today.

19:41

Historical records tell a slightly different tale. It was estimated that the 17th and 18th century population of Caldera was about 1500 people.

19:53

In 1815, the recorded population was around 800, which declined to 36

20:00

Haven't people in 1890

20:03

these population records show that the village was not abandoned overnight, but over the course of 100 years,

20:11

but there are some corroboration with the legend. By 1815, most of the wells in the village had dried up. By 1850, only the stepwell and two other deep whales were functional. When the village was surveyed in the 1990s, the only water remaining at the site was stagnant water in some portions of the dry riverbed. This gradual reduction in water supply would have definitely affected the agricultural productivity of the village. Without a corresponding reduction in tax from Jessel made state, the resulting financial crunch would have been enough to force the poly walls to abandon cuchara Salim Singh may as well have existed, as could is cruel demand for excessive taxes.

21:04

The Curse of the villagers has stood strong over the years. Today called harass it's abandoned and for loan. Street does dusty roads with intermittent rows of mud houses, cul de sac lanes, sandstone walls, and a temple mutely stay back. Unable to translate a painful secret they once witnessed into words.

21:30

The air seems to carry a deep, heavy sadness, and a few ghosts.

21:37

Tourists report that walking through cold Hara gives them a strange feeling that prickly sensation on the back of the neck. A sick feeling that insists you're being constantly watched by something on earthly

21:54

people who have tried to stay there at night report having experienced a paranormal phenomenon that forced them to leave.

22:03

Paranormal experts and ghost hunters who visited the site recorded high levels of activity here.

22:12

But the residents of nearby villages don't believe in these ghost stories. Some even confess that they propagate these stories just to attract tourists. And perhaps it has worked. Noticing the influx of visitors to cold Hara in 2015. The Rajasthan government decided to actively develop the village as a tourist spot. The plan includes visitor facilities such as a cafe, a lounge, a folk dance performance area, night state court cottages and shops.

22:46

Will the state government be able to resurrect caldera village as a tourist spot and break the cause?

22:55

With all the noise and people coming in with the coasts that attracted the tourists in the first place, stick around in Caldera,

23:04

who knows?

23:08

caldera and pondered may have been abandoned by the original residents, but tourists haven't quite abandoned them. The stories of these places live on and circulate. But this is not true of another abandoned site. The Corrado temples in balmy district

23:29

no one has the Cogito of Rajasthan. The ruins of Corrado have been a topic of discussion among historians and history enthusiasts for a while.

23:39

Some believe that this group of 108 temples was built between the 11th and 12th centuries by the Parma dynasty, while others believe they were constructed much earlier in the 10th century, by Vassals of the Chalukya or the Solanki kings.

23:57

Today, out of those 108 temples, only five are left in various stages of ruin.

24:05

The Somesh were temple dedicated to Lord Shiv, is the only one among the five that has managed to retain some of its architectural integrity. It's beautiful, detailed carvings, our generate the comparisons with Cogito.

24:23

As you may have guessed by now, there's a curse upon these lands. Much like pangur fault, no one stays around these temples after sunset. Locals believe that anyone who violates this rule will be turned into stone.

24:43

According to legend, King so make sure of the carrot clan rule this place in the 12th century. Though it was a prosperous land, the king and his people were worried about the Turks invading the kingdom from the west.

24:58

So King Somesh

25:00

I invited a great sage to his kingdom to bless the land and ensure their protection.

25:07

The sage came and performed a set of rituals at the Corrado temples. After completing these, the sage asked one of his disciples to remain behind and continue this tradition and the Corrado temples.

25:22

As time passed, and the day is turned to months and years, the locals forgot about the disciple that Kira do.

25:30

The man fair in, no one came to check on him. No one volunteered to help him.

25:38

After several days of suffering, a potter's family finally found the disciple.

25:45

They took care of him and nursed him back to help.

25:49

The sage came to know what had happened with his disciple. He became furious. He asked the potters family to leave the village, and then lay the curse upon those who remained the whole village and all the people who lived in it would turn to stone.

26:08

It is believed that the sages wrought upon the village and the Guirado temples still remains.

26:18

Call them uninhabitable places now cost ground. Such places make you wonder what kind of terrible tragedies took place here? Why were these places abandoned? And why can't they be resettled?

26:35

History and Geography may hold the answers.

26:40

The desert region of Rajasthan has no dearth of coast villages.

26:46

The scarcity of water, the threat of war and other historical and environmental reasons may explain the abandonment of hunger cold Hara and Corrado.

26:57

But these aren't easy for common folk to understand or accept.

27:03

It takes a well formulated story to address our emotions of loss and grief,

27:10

and the story that spreads upon the collective imagination as readily as butter on bread.

27:18

People need to make sense of tragedy and rejection.

27:23

folk stories of caste grounds allow them to reframe the struggles and inexplicable issues encountered in resettling these sites as punishments.

27:34

In the honor oriented culture of Rajasthan, breaking an oath or promise is seen as a grave crime, making the natural disasters that follow, easier to process.

27:47

But punishment can only be meted out by a source of power. And it can't be the gods who were already being appeased in the temples.

27:57

So the wrath of a powerful man becomes the cause of the tragedy. Whether it was the wrath of the sage, the spurned lover, or the greedy ruler, the Lords of ponder, cool Tara and Kira do warn us against displeasing a man with great power.

28:15

And this lesson might still apply in the 21st century. powerful men do occasionally unleash curses and chaos upon the world, through their decisions and actions. Today, it affects the lives of not just 1000s but millions of ordinary people.

28:34

Of course, we no longer call such powerful men, magicians or kings. We call them billionaires and politicians.

28:49

Thank you for listening to rumors, a fact and fiction combine into magical and haunting stories.

28:58

I'm Chandra Madonna's collector and Teller of dark tales, and the creator of this podcast in collaboration with bound, a company that helps you grow through stories

29:11

produced by Ashari as our maker and sound designed by other Aria.

29:18

Join me every Friday on this quest into the lesser known side of the subcontinent. Subscribe rate and review for new episodes every week.

29:29

Sleep safe tonight.

29:32

Who knows what awaits in the dark?