Bada Bagh, also called Barabagh (lit. "grand garden" in Hindustani) is a garden complex located about six kilometers north of

Jaisalmer Jaisalmer , nicknamed "The Golden city", is a city in the Indian state of Rajasthan, located west of the state capital Jaipur. The town stands on a ridge of yellowish sandstone and is crowned by the ancient Jaisalmer Fort. This fort contains a ...

in the Indian state of

Rajasthan Rajasthan (; lit. 'Land of Kings') is a state in northern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the largest Indian state by area and the seventh largest by population. It is on India's northwestern si ...

. Overlooking a mango grove sits a set of royal

chhatri ''Chhatri'' are elevated, dome-shaped pavilions used as an element in Indo-Islamic architecture and Indian architecture. Originating as a canopy above tombs, they serve as decorative elements. The earliest example of chhatri being used in the ...

cenotaph A cenotaph is an empty tomb or a monument erected in honour of a person or group of people whose remains are elsewhere. It can also be the initial tomb for a person who has since been reinterred elsewhere. Although the vast majority of cenot ...

s constructed by the

Maharajas Mahārāja (; also spelled Maharajah, Maharaj) is a Sanskrit title for a "great ruler", "great king" or " high king". A few ruled states informally called empires, including ruler raja Sri Gupta, founder of the ancient Indian Gupta Empire, a ...

of the Jaisalmer State in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries CE.Bada Bagh
Department of Tourism,

Government of Rajasthan The Government of Rajasthan is the supreme governing authority of the Indian state of Rajasthan and its 33 districts. It consists of an executive, led by the Governor of Rajasthan, a judiciary and a legislative. Jaipur is the capital of Raja ...

website.

History

A descendant of Maharawal Jaisal Singh, the founder of Jaisalmer State, Jait Singh II (1497–1530), commissioned a dam to create a water tank during his reign in the 16th century CE. This made the desert green in this area. After Jait Singh II's death, his son Lunkaran (1530-1551) built a beautiful garden by the lake and a memorial

cenotaph on a hill overlooking the lake. Later on, many more cenotaphs were constructed here for Lunkaran and other

Bhattis Bhati is a clan of Rajputs History The Bhatis reportedly originated in Mathura through a common ancestor named Bhati, who was a descendant of Pradyumn. According to the seventeenth-century Nainsi ri Khyat, the Bhatis after losing Mathura ...

. The last chhatri, meant for Maharawal Jawahir Singh, dates from the 20th century and remains unfinished after Indian independence.

Description

Bada Bagh is situated on a small hill. The memorial

cenotaphs have all been carved out of

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...

blocks, but have been built in at least four different sizes - for the ruling kings, their queens, their princes, and other royal family members. Each cenotaph has a marble slab with inscriptions about the deceased royal and a symbolic image of a man on a horse.

References

External links

Bada Bagh Garden Complex with Rajput Royal Cenotaphs
Gardens in Rajasthan Tourist attractions in Jaisalmer district History of Rajasthan 1740s establishments in India Cenotaphs in India Monuments and memorials in Rajasthan 18th-century establishments in India Tourism in Jaisalmer Rajput architecture Buildings and structures in Jaisalmer {{Rajasthan-geo-stub