Jaisalmer

Jaisalmer was founded in 1156, when Rawal Jaisal of the Bhati Rajputs moved his seat from Lodhruva to a triangular hill of yellow sandstone called Trikuta, more easily defended against raids from the west. The kingdom lived off the camel caravans that crossed the Thar between the ports and cities of India and the markets of Sindh, Afghanistan and Central Asia, taxing goods that passed and occasionally plundering them. Sieges followed: the Bhatis fought the armies of the Delhi Sultanate in the 13th and 14th centuries, and the town's traditions record the rite of jauhar and the fall of the fort more than once.

Later centuries were more settled. The state came to terms with the Mughals and in 1818 signed a treaty with the British. Merchant families, above all Jain traders, grew rich on the caravan trade and built the carved havelis of the 18th and 19th centuries that remain the town's finest architecture. Prosperity ended as sea trade through Bombay drew traffic away, and then decisively in 1947, when Partition closed the border with Sindh and cut the caravan routes for good.

The wars of 1965 and 1971 made the district strategically important, bringing a permanent military and air force presence and better roads. Nuclear tests were carried out at Pokhran, about 110 kilometres east in the same district, in 1974 and 1998. Tourism grew from the 1970s and now sustains the town, although water piped in for hotels inside the fort has strained its medieval drainage and foundations, prompting long-running conservation work.

Jaisalmer's identity is Bhati Rajput and mercantile at once: a warrior clan's fort above a town built by Jain and Hindu traders whose wealth came from moving other people's goods. The Jain temples inside the fort, with their crowded carvings and old manuscript library, and the merchants' havelis below it are the products of that second tradition, and Jain vegetarian custom still influences what is cooked and sold in the lanes.

Music is the desert's great art. The hereditary Manganiyar and Langa musician communities of the Jaisalmer and Barmer country play kamaicha, khartal and harmonium at weddings and festivals and now on stages abroad, and their songs are what visitors hear at the dune camps. Kalbelia dance, listed by UNESCO as intangible cultural heritage, and puppetry belong to the same regional repertoire. The Desert Festival in February gathers folk performers, camel events and turban contests.

Craft is the other living inheritance: mirror-work and embroidered textiles, patchwork quilts, camel leather, silver jewellery and stone carving, still practised by families in the town and villages. Turbans, worn in styles that identify district and community, and the bright skirts and veils of women's dress are everyday rather than ceremonial. Hospitality to travellers has a long history here, and so does hard bargaining; both are part of how the place works.

Jaisalmer town has about 78,000 residents, and the surrounding district, the largest in Rajasthan by area, is one of India's most thinly populated. Several thousand people live inside the fort itself, in houses their families have occupied for generations, which is why it is described as a living fort. Most households in the wider town depend on tourism, the armed forces, government service, trade or livestock.

The rhythm of the year is sharp: a busy season from October to March, when guesthouses, camel handlers, jeep drivers and camps all work, and a long, very hot lull in summer when many businesses close or run on a skeleton staff. Days begin early and slow to a halt in the middle of the afternoon. Herding of goats, sheep and camels continues in the villages, along with limited farming that depends on the monsoon and on canal water.

Water is the central problem of life here, as it has always been: supply is piped from far away, wells and old tanks such as Gadisar still matter, and the strain of tourist demand inside the fort has become a conservation issue in its own right. Wind and solar farms have spread across the district in recent years, adding construction and maintenance work, and the border location keeps the army and air force among the biggest local employers.

Cooking here is desert cooking at its most extreme, built on pulses, gram flour, dried beans and berries, milk and ghee, with fresh vegetables historically scarce. Dal baati churma is the standard feast: wheat dough balls baked hard in coals, broken into ghee and eaten with lentils and a sweet crumble. Gatte ki sabzi simmers gram-flour dumplings in a spiced yoghurt gravy, and ker sangri combines a small desert berry with the dried bean pods of the khejri tree, both gathered and dried for months of use.

Bread is often bajre ki roti, made from millet, eaten with garlic chutney, white butter or buttermilk. Kadhi, a yoghurt and gram-flour soup, appears at most meals, and Jain households cook without onion or garlic, which has shaped many restaurant menus in the old town. Meat is less common than in Jodhpur, although laal maas, the fiery Rajput mutton curry, is served in tourist kitchens.

Sweets and drinks are the treat. Ghotua and similar gram-flour sweets are made in the bazaar, malpua and ghevar appear at festivals, and makhania lassi, thick with butter and saffron, is the town's answer to the heat. Tea comes strong, sweet and spiced, drunk many times a day, and camel milk is sold in the villages around.