Jaisalmer history: from a desert capital to a living fort

Rawal Jaisal and the founding of the fort

The city takes its name from Rawal Jaisal, a ruler of the Bhati Rajput clan. Most histories date the founding of his fort to 1156 CE. A few sources give other years, including 1196, so treat the exact date as traditional rather than certain.

Jaisal chose Trikuta hill, a low ridge with three peaks rising from flat desert. It gave a clear view of approaching riders, and the local yellow sandstone was right there to build with. That stone is why the fort glows gold in the late afternoon, and why people call it Sonar Qila, the Golden Fort.

Before Jaisalmer, the Bhati capital was Lodurva, a short drive to the north-west. Tradition says Lodurva was exposed and hard to defend, so the court moved to the new ridge. Today Lodurva is known mainly for its rebuilt Jain temple; you can read more on the Lodurva page.

The Bhati Rajputs

The Bhatis trace their line to the Yadavs and, through them, to Lord Krishna. This is a family tradition, and it shaped how the rulers saw themselves: as guardians of a frontier between the Indian plains and the routes to Sindh and beyond.

The ruler carried the title Rawal, later Maharawal. The royal family still has a presence in the city, and the palace inside the fort now runs as a museum. The Bhati kingdom stayed small and thinly populated, but it sat on a road that mattered, and that road paid for almost everything you see today.

Sieges, jauhar and saka

Like other Rajput forts, Jaisalmer faced long sieges. Local tradition speaks of two and a half sakas in its history. A saka was the last stand of the men, who rode out to fight knowing they would not return. It was often paired with jauhar, in which women chose death by fire rather than capture.

The first is usually linked to a siege by the forces of Alauddin Khalji around the end of the 13th century. A second is placed in the 14th century. The "half" saka is said to have happened in the 16th century, when the men fought but the jauhar did not take place. Exact dates and details differ between chronicles, and much of it comes to us through bardic accounts.

These are painful memories for local families, not dramatic tales. If a guide tells the story at the fort, listen with the same respect you would give a war memorial.

Caravans and merchant wealth

Jaisalmer sat on caravan routes linking India with Sindh, Persia and Central Asia. Camel trains carried spices, silk, opium, salt and dry fruit, and the rulers collected duties on the goods passing through. This trade, more than war, built the city.

Three communities stand out:

• Oswal Jains financed the carved Jain temples inside the fort, built over several centuries.
• The Patwas, a merchant family, built the cluster of five mansions known as Patwon ki Haveli in the first half of the 19th century.
• The Paliwal Brahmins farmed and traded in villages around the city, including Kuldhara. Their story is told in our Kuldhara guide.

The havelis show what this money could buy: stone screens as fine as lace, balconies on carved brackets, and courtyards that stay cool in summer.

The ministers and Salim Singh

Powerful ministers (diwans) often ran the state day to day. The best known is Salim Singh, who served in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. His mansion, Salim Singh ki Haveli, with its peacock-shaped roof brackets, still stands below the fort.

His reputation is harsh. Popular accounts say he taxed traders and villagers heavily, and he is the villain of the Kuldhara legend. How much of this is recorded fact and how much is later storytelling is hard to separate, so read it as a mix of both.

In 1818 Jaisalmer signed a treaty with the British, which kept the ruler on the throne under British supremacy, as in most Rajput states.

Decline, Partition and the wars

From the 19th century, sea trade through Bombay and the growth of railways made the old desert routes less useful. Customs income fell and many merchant families moved to other cities, leaving their havelis to caretakers.

After independence, the state joined the Indian Union and became part of Rajasthan in 1949. Partition in 1947 closed the border with Sindh, now in Pakistan, and cut off what was left of the caravan trade. Jaisalmer turned into a remote frontier district.

That frontier saw fighting in the 1965 and 1971 wars. The belief that shells fell harmlessly around the Tanot Mata temple dates from 1965, and the defence of Longewala took place in December 1971. Both sites are now visited by many Indian travellers; see the Longewala War Memorial page and our border-area permit guide.

UNESCO status, a living fort and film tourism

In 2013, Jaisalmer Fort was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List as one of the six Hill Forts of Rajasthan, alongside Chittorgarh, Kumbhalgarh, Ranthambore, Gagron and Amber.

It is also a living fort. Families still live, pray and run shops inside its walls, which is rare for a monument of this age. That life comes with strain. The fort was built for a place with very little rain and no piped water. Modern plumbing, guesthouses and drainage leaks have let water seep into the sand and rubble foundations, and parts of the walls and bastions have weakened or fallen over the years. Conservation groups and residents have worked on drains and repairs, but it is a long job.

You can help: choose stays outside the fort or ones that clearly manage water well, keep showers short, and never climb on fragile parapets.

Tourism took off after Satyajit Ray's 1974 Bengali film Sonar Kella ("The Golden Fortress"), set partly in and around the fort. It still draws many visitors from Bengal, and you will hear the title mentioned by guides and shopkeepers.

Jaisalmer timeline

Dates below are the ones most often cited. Where sources disagree, we say "around".

To see this history on the ground, start with our Jaisalmer Fort page and the fort ticket guide.