A dam, a garden and a son's memorial
That is why Bada Bagh is so moving. It is a dynasty's family album in stone, laid out in rows, ending in mid-sentence.
The builder: Maharawal Jait Singh II ruled Jaisalmer from the end of the fifteenth century until about 1530. Like every desert ruler, he knew that water was power.
The dam: north of the city, rain running off the surrounding ground gathered in a shallow valley. He built a dam to hold it back and create a tank.
- Built
- Early 1500s, then added to for four centuries
- Built by
- Jait Singh II and his son Lunkaran, then later Bhati rulers
- Open
- An open-air ridge; we visit at sunrise or sunset
- Allow
- About an hour
- Best time
- The last hour before sunset, October to March
- Photography
- Welcome; ask us before bringing a drone
- Getting there
- About 6 km north, 15 minutes by car
- A green valley: behind the dam the water seeped into the soil, and for the first time in living memory the valley could grow fruit trees and crops. Local people still call the dam after him.
- The son: Lunkaran, who ruled until about 1551, finished what his father began.
- The garden: he laid out a garden beside the water, the bada bagh or big garden that gives the place its name.
- The first chhatri: on the low ridge above, he raised a chhatri in his father's memory, placed so it looked down over his father's work, the dam and the green valley it had made.
- What a chhatri is: literally an umbrella, a domed pavilion on pillars built over the place where a ruler was cremated, or in his memory.
- Cenotaph, not tomb: Hindus cremate their dead, so nobody is buried here.
- Four centuries of memorials: later Bhati rulers followed the custom, and the ridge filled with memorials to Maharawals, their queens, their sons and other members of the royal family.
- Grand and simple: some are raised on high platforms with many pillars. Others are small and plain.
- The last one: begun in the twentieth century for Maharawal Jawahar Singh, who ruled until 1949. It was never finished, and its pillars still stand without a dome.
- Why it stopped: after independence the princely states were merged into the new India, the old privileges ended, and the custom of building royal chhatris here quietly stopped.
- Read more: our page on the Rajput dynasties places the Bhatis among Rajasthan's ruling houses, and our journal note on what a chhatri is explains the tradition across Rajasthan.
Walking the ridge, terrace by terrace
The lower terraces
The climb: the path rises gently from the entrance onto the first terraces.
- Close together: the chhatris stand side by side, many on stepped platforms, their domes at slightly different heights.
- Walk slowly: notice how the size of each one varies. That was deliberate, as we explain below.
The great cenotaphs of the rulers
- Further up: the largest memorials, for the Maharawals themselves, with many pillars, broad platforms and carved domes.
- Look up: stand inside one. The ceilings are carved in rings of petals and geometric patterns that narrow towards the centre like the inside of a flower.
The memorial stones
The slab: inside many chhatris is a carved and inscribed slab recording the person remembered there.
- The horseman: the most common image is a man on horseback, the classic Rajput symbol of a warrior and ruler.
- With a guide: ours can read the inscriptions and will tell you who is remembered where, and which figures belong to queens and princes.
The unfinished chhatri
- Find it: the memorial begun for Maharawal Jawahar Singh. Its platform and pillars are in place, but it was never completed.
- Why it matters: a small and very powerful reminder of the moment the old world ended in 1947 and 1949.
The view from the top
Turn around: from the highest terrace, the dam and the remains of the garden lie below you.
- The horizon: the desert runs flat beyond, and in the far distance you can sometimes make out Jaisalmer and the fort on its hill.
- The turbines: on the ridges around you, the white towers of modern wind turbines turn slowly, a strange and rather beautiful contrast.
The dam and the garden below
The reason for everything: below the ridge are the dam and the old garden that explain all the domes above.
- Wet years and dry: in a good monsoon year water still gathers behind the dam and the trees are green. In dry years it is a quieter, dustier place.
- Walk down: ask your guide to take you to it, because few visitors bother.
How to read a chhatri
Three parts: the platform at the bottom, the pillars on top of it, and the dome above.
The pillars: four for a small memorial, many more for the grandest.
The dome: the umbrella that gives the chhatri its name, usually with a deep stone eave, the chhajja, around its edge to throw shade.
- Platform
- A raised stone base, sometimes several steps high
- Pillars
- From four up to many more
- Dome
- The umbrella, with a deep eave, the chhajja
- Stone
- Yellow Jaisalmer sandstone
- Sizes
- At least four, by rank
- The stone: the same yellow Jaisalmer sandstone as the fort and the havelis, carved with the same skill.
- Size tells rank: the memorials come in at least four sizes, for ruling kings, their queens, their princes and other members of the royal family.
- Top to bottom: a ruler's chhatri is the largest, with the most pillars and the highest platform. A queen's is smaller, and so on down.
- The court in stone: the rows picture the court itself, with its strict order of rank, laid out on the hillside for eternity.
- Pot bases: the pillars often stand on bases shaped like pots, the symbol of plenty, with capitals of carved brackets.
- Finials and lotuses: the domes are topped with a stone finial, and their ceilings are carved in circles of lotus petals.
- The personal story: it lives on the memorial slabs, with their horsemen, sun and moon symbols and inscriptions.
- Sun and moon: carved together, they promise that the memory will last as long as they do.
- Beyond Bada Bagh: our page on Rajasthani architecture shows how the same forms appear in temples and palaces across the state.
The rulers remembered on the ridge
Jait Singh II, the builder of the dam
When: he reigned at the turn of the sixteenth century, and his memorial began it all.
- Remembered for: water more than war. His dam made the valley below the ridge fertile.
- His place: his son honoured him by putting his memorial where he could look down on it for ever.
Lunkaran, the son who made the garden
When: he ruled in the middle of the sixteenth century, a dangerous time on the desert road.
- The half saka: tradition links his reign to the strange half saka of Jaisalmer, when an Afghan chief is said to have tried to take the fort by trickery.
- Humayun: his reign also saw the years when the fugitive Mughal emperor was wandering in the Thar.
- His gift: the city's royal garden, and so, in a sense, this whole memorial ground.
Mulraj II and the British treaty
When: Maharawal Mulraj II reigned at the end of the eighteenth century and into the nineteenth.
- The treaty: in December 1818 he signed with the East India Company, making Jaisalmer a princely state under British protection.
- His minister: his long reign was also the time of the notorious prime minister Salim Singh, whose haveli still stands below the fort.
Jawahar Singh, the last of the line
When: Maharawal Jawahar Singh reigned from 1914 until 1949, through the last decades of the Raj and the first years of independent India.
- The merger: his reign ended when Jaisalmer joined the new state of Rajasthan.
- The full stop: his unfinished chhatri ends the dynasty's story on this ridge.
- The family today: the royal family continues, and its members still live in Jaisalmer.
How the desert remembers its dead
Kings and heroes: kings were given chhatris, but ordinary heroes were remembered too.
Hero stones: a man who died defending his village, his cattle or his people might be given a memorial stone, carved with a figure on horseback or on foot, and set up where he fell.
Living shrines: some became shrines, where villagers still offer flowers and light lamps.
- On the road: our guides point them out on the drive to the dunes, and they are often more moving than the grand memorials.
- Memory in song: the bards and genealogists of Rajasthan, and the hereditary Manganiyar musicians of the Jaisalmer and Barmer villages, sang the names and deeds of their patrons' ancestors at weddings and births.
- Stone and song: sitting among the chhatris, you sit among the stone versions of those songs, kept generation after generation.
- Listen for the names: if you hear the Manganiyars sing in the evening, some of the names belong to the people remembered on this ridge.
- Jodhpur: the white marble memorial of Jaswant Thada stands below Mehrangarh. Read our guide to Jaswant Thada.
- Udaipur and Bikaner: the Maharanas are remembered at Ahar, and Bikaner's rulers at Devi Kund Sagar.
- The most dramatic: every Rajput city has its royal cenotaphs, but Jaisalmer's stand on a bare ridge in open desert.
- Compare them: on our desert triangle journey you pass through these cities, and it is worth seeing them side by side.
The desert around the ridge
The country north of town: stony, flat and open, dotted with the thorny khejri tree.
The khejri: the tree the desert depends on for fodder, shade and the sangri beans of its most famous dish.
Why the dam was a gift: rain is rare and comes in short, violent storms. Water that would have run off in an afternoon was held, and the ground stayed damp long enough to grow trees and crops.
- The land
- Stony, flat and open
- Key tree
- The thorny khejri
- Rain
- Rare, in short, violent storms
- Birds
- Larks, shrikes, winter raptors
- Bring
- Binoculars
- See it working: after a good monsoon, look for the line where the green ends. The old ruler's work is still doing its job.
- Birds at the cool hours: larks sing from the stones and shrikes perch on the bushes waiting for insects, in the cool of morning or evening.
- Winter raptors: in winter, birds of prey hunt over the open ground.
- More wildlife: a day in the Desert National Park, south-west of the city, is one of the great experiences of the Thar.
- The wind turbines: some visitors find them an intrusion. We have come to like them.
- An old story: they are its latest chapter, the desert people finding ways to harvest what the land gives them, whether rain or wind.
The best hour and the best season
Arrive an hour early: the low sun lights the cenotaphs from the side, the shadows between the pillars grow long and blue, and the stone turns from gold to deep orange.
Stay on: after the sun has gone, watch the sky change behind the domes.
Sunrise: lovely too and far quieter, with the light coming from behind the ridge and the domes in silhouette.
- Best hour
- About an hour before sunset
- Quietest
- Sunrise
- Season
- October to March
- Evenings
- Jacket in December and January
- Summer
- Sunrise only, May and June
- For photographers: some prefer sunrise, because the site is almost empty.
- October to March: warm days and cool evenings, and in December and January you'll want a jacket once the sun goes down.
- Reliable skies: winter skies are usually clear, so the sunsets rarely disappoint.
- April to June: from April the heat builds, and in May and June even the evening is hot, so come only at sunrise then.
- After the monsoon: after a good one the garden below is green, the dam holds water and the desert's colours are softer.
- Month by month: our best time to visit Jaisalmer guide has the details.
How to visit Bada Bagh well
The drive: about fifteen minutes by car from town. Your driver waits at the entrance. We often combine it with Lodurva or Amar Sagar.
Footwear: wear comfortable shoes. The paths are uneven stone and sand, and the terraces are linked by steps.
Access: the site is on a slope with steps between terraces, so it can be hard going for travellers who use a wheelchair.
- Drive
- About 15 minutes from town
- Shoes
- Comfortable, for uneven stone and sand
- Shade
- Little on the ridge in the afternoon
- Drones
- Restricted near the border districts
- Less climbing: the lower terraces give a good view without much effort. Our page on accessible travel has more advice.
- Respect: this is a memorial to the dead. Please don't climb on the domes or sit on the memorial slabs, and keep your voice down if a family is visiting.
- Photography: welcome. Our photography tips cover sunset light.
- Drones: another matter, as there are restrictions near the border districts. Ask us before you bring one.
- Pack: water, a hat and a scarf. There is little shade in the afternoon, and the wind can lift the sand.
- Sellers: they sometimes wait at the entrance with souvenirs. A polite no is enough.
What most visitors miss
The faces of the riders
Look closely: some horsemen on the memorial stones are worn smooth, but others still show the turban, the sword and the shield.
- A companion: sometimes a figure walks alongside the rider.
- Each one personal: every one was carved for a particular person.
The order of the rows
- Stand back: notice how the chhatris are arranged by size and rank.
- The old court: it is the closest you can come to seeing its hierarchy.
The garden that started it all
- Few go down: very few visitors walk to the dam and the garden.
- The heart of it: without them the cenotaphs would not be here. It is the most important part of the story.
The quiet after sunset
- When the crowds leave: the ridge goes quiet and the first stars come out.
- Stay twenty minutes: it is one of the most peaceful moments in Jaisalmer.
An evening at Bada Bagh, the way we plan it
For our guests we sometimes arrange a quiet hour here with a local historian or one of our senior guides. It turns a ridge of domes into a family history, and it is the best introduction to Jaisalmer we know.
The stories they tell: the warriors, the builders, the ruler who welcomed the British and the last one who saw the princely state end.
- Music at sunset: on special occasions we arrange for Manganiyar musicians to play as the sun goes down.
- A sundowner: or a simple one nearby with the cenotaphs on the skyline, always with care for the site and its rules.
- After dark: we drive you back to town past the lit-up fort, or straight on to a desert dinner.
- Read more: our pages on the Manganiyar singers and a private dinner in a palace, or ask us to plan your evening.
Nearby sights to pair with Bada Bagh
Our half day: Bada Bagh ends a half day outside the walls. It sits north of town on the way to Amar Sagar and Lodurva.
- The rhythm: the cooler hours at the old capital and its Jain temple, rest through the heat, then the ridge at sunset.
- The morning before: the fort and havelis fit best then, when the lanes are quiet.
Vyas Chhatri
Where: closer to town, on the ridge just north of the fort, a cluster of chhatris named after the sage Vyasa looks straight across at the walls.
- Why go: the classic place to watch the fort at sunset, and busier than Bada Bagh.
- Our pairing: Bada Bagh for the sun, Vyas Chhatri for the first lights of the fort.
Lodurva
- The old capital: the Bhati seat, about fifteen kilometres northwest of Jaisalmer, abandoned when Rawal Jaisal moved to his new fort.
- What survives: little except its rebuilt Jain temple, with a finely carved gateway and a hush the town never has.
Amar Sagar
- On the way to Lodurva: a royal tank with steps, a small palace and a beautifully carved Jain temple.
- Together: with Lodurva and Bada Bagh, an easy, quiet half day outside the city.
Jaisalmer Fort
- Full circle: the rulers remembered here lived on the hill. Visit the fort in the morning and Bada Bagh in the evening, and the dynasty's story comes round.
Gadisar Lake
- Another work of water: south of town.
- A perfect day: sunrise at Gadisar and sunset at Bada Bagh.
Where to stay nearby
Suryagarh: for most guests we book Suryagarh, about thirteen kilometres west of town on the Sam road, a modern fortress built in Jaisalmer stone with a pool, a spa and wide courtyards.
The Serai: for couples, The Serai is SUJAN's tented camp on private desert land off the Jodhpur road, around forty minutes from town.
- Most guests
- Suryagarh, about 13 km west
- Couples
- The Serai, around 40 minutes
- Dunes
- Sam, or quieter Khuri
- Sand outside your tent: if you want dunes rather than scrub, we arrange a night at Sam or the quieter Khuri.
- Compare the options: our guide to luxury hotels in Jaisalmer.
- Fit it in: our Jaisalmer itinerary shows where Bada Bagh fits into each plan.
