Chapter 1: Bhangarh Fort
Hundreds of thousands of tourists visit Bhangarh fort in Rajasthan each year, and they all hear the same thing, "No one who enters the fort at night comes out alive". It is believed to be one of the most haunted places in India, due to its ruined condition and multiple ghost stories being tied to the fort. Even the archaeological survey of India has a sign outside the fort warning tourists not to enter the fort at night. But is it really haunted? are the ghost stories just warnings so people can stay safe?
THE STORY OF BHANGARH: Bhagwant Das, the king of Amer built a city for his son, Madho Singh, the brother of Man Singh, one of king Akbar's closest generals. The fort was built near the Aravalli hills and had 9000 houses, a grand royal palace with seven floors, multiple temples, large houses for ministers and generals to live in a market where people and merchants from all around India came to trade. Though Bhangarh was such a lively city during the medieval era, if you visit it now, the city is in ruins and strangely, none of the houses in the city have a roof. There are two main stories on how Bhangarh got destroyed.
1.THE CURSE OF BABA BALUNATH:
When Madho Singh was looking for a location for Bhangarh, he found a suitable location, but a sage called Baba Balu Nath lived there already. Madho Singh asked the sage's permission before building the city, and the cage agreed, on one condition: if any of the buildings were tall enough to cast a shadow on the sage's house, the city would be destroyed. Madho Singh happily agreed to this condition and constructed the fort with 4 floors, so it didn't cast a shadow on the sage's house. Some years later, Madho Singh's grandson, Ajab Singh made the fort have seven floors, covering the sage's house in shade, which activated the curse of Baba Balunath and led the city to be destroyed.
2.SINGHIA AND RATNAVATI:
According to this legend, there was a tantric (a type of wizard who uses black magic) called Singhia who lived in Bhangarh. One day, he saw the king's daughter, princess Ratnavati, and fell in love with her at first sight. However, Singhia understood that the princess would never fall in love with a tantric like him, so, one day, when Ratnavati went to buy perfume, Singhia used black magic to turn the perfume into a love potion so when Ratnavati used it, she would fall in love with Singhia. Ratnavati quickly understood what the tantric was trying to do and instead of using the perfume, she smashed the entire perfume bottle into a large rock. The love potion worked perfectly, just not in the way Singhia intended it to. The magical rock, now overwhelmed with love for Singhia started rolling towards him. Right before being crushed by the rock he cursed the city so it would be completely destroyed (except the temples) killing everyone living in the city, and none of the people would be able to be reborn.
Bhangarh fort haunted stories:
there are many stories about Bhangarh fort, like when three boys entered the fort at night and passed away in a car accident on the same day, or when a girl started ripping her wig and dancing as if she was possessed during a movie shooting, or how another director managed to stop heavy rainfall by praying in Ratnavati's room.
