The Haunted village, Kuldhara.

          Lying 17km west of Jaisalmer, Kuldhara  has a story. Some 300 years ago, it used to be a prosperous village of Paliwal Brahmins under the state of Jaisalmer. According to the legend, the evil eyes of Salim Singh, the powerful and debauched prime minister of the state, fell on the daughter of the village head and he desired to marry her by force. He threatened the village with grave consequences if they did not adhere to his wish. Instead of submitting to the order of the tyrant, the Paliwals held a council and people of 85 villages left their ancestral homes and vanished. But this was not all; before leaving, they put a curse on Kuldhara  that no one will ever be able to settle in their village thereafter. To this date, the village remains barren; left almost the same as its inhabitants had left it centuries ago. It is also said that people who have tried to stay there at night have been chased away by strange paranormal phenomenon.

Another, more plausible reason can be that Salim Singh raised the taxes to such an extent that it became unviable for the local community to survive in the village; and they thus decided to migrate to greener pastures. However, people love the former story; after all, who doesn’t want a tinge of romance and mystery in their tales!