| Rajputana (now Rajasthan) in northwest India, the “land of the sons of kings,” once encompassed about twenty princely states. Founded in 1156 by Rao Jaisal, a ruling rajput who established the Bhatti clan, the fortress of Jaisalmer was strategically placed on the route used by the spice caravans traveling from central Asia to India. The citadel’s crenellated ramparts recall the attacks and endless sieges of the conflicts between the Bhattis and the Muslims of the sultanate of Delhi, when the rajputs and their wives demonstrated their bravery by preferring jauhar (collective self-immolation by fire) to surrender. In the sixteenth century, the maharawals of Jaisalmer resisted the Mogul offensives and then accepted imperial rule. The city prospered, and the gilded sandstone facades of the sumptuous haveli, merchants’ houses in the lower town, were decorated with golden lattices, balconies with small, finely carved columns, and delicate tracery in stone. The development of sea trade routes in the nineteenth century led to the decline of Jaisalmer, which now is but a timeless mirage on the edge of the Thar desert.
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