The Royal Cenotaphs Of Rajasthan

Travelogues on Rajasthan often brim with effusive praise for its palaces and castles. But every royal city has another common feature: cenotaphs. Anubhuti Krishna follows the trail.

- Anubhuti Krishna

AROUND 10 KILOMETRES from the city of Bikaner stands a sprawling compound. Enclosed by a low, white boundary and surrounded by a barren desert, the compound is home to dozens of domes of various sizes. The structures wear hand-painted frescoes inside and hand-carved motifs outside. A small shrine of a local deity stands nearby, as if protecting the structures from the vagaries of nature. But this is no palace or castle. These are cenotaphs of the royal family of Bikaner.

Traditionally erected to honour the memory of a person or a group of people, cenotaphs literally translate to empty tombs. While they are seen throughout the world, in India they are mostly found in the central and western states, with the largest and most ornate ones spread around Rajasthan. Every major town that has been a seat of power— Jaipur, Jodhpur, Jaisalmer, Udaipur, Bundi, Bikaner—is home to cenotaphs, or chhatris as they are called in India.

I first learnt about them about 10 years ago. I was on a trip to Jodhpur and was staying with a family in the old city. Their home, one of the many that form the Blue City, was narrow and high, and the only way I could get some fresh air on those stuffy August evenings was to get to the rooftop. There was another reason to climb the steep flights of stairs though: the view. Late in the evening, the Blue City would twinkle on one side of our residence, and on the other stood a glistening marble structure. Tall, majestic, and ornate, it looked like an ostentatious temple to my untrained eyes. I learnt from my hosts that it was actually a cenotaph, the final resting place of the famous Jodhpur king Jaswant Singh II built by his son, Maharaja Sardar Singh.