Havelis Travel Video Guide

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The streets of Jaisalmer are flanked with numerous honey-pale facades, covered with latticework and floral designs, but the city's real showpieces are its havelis . Each of these extravagant mansions, comprising three or more storeys around a central courtyard, was commissioned by a wealthy merchant during the eighteenth or nineteenth century. Their stonework was the art of silavats , a community of masons responsible for much of Jaisalmer's unique sculpture.

The large Patwon-ki-Haveli (daily 10am-5pm; Rs10), not far from Narayan Niwas Hotel in the north of town, was constructed over fifty years by the Patwa merchants, traders in brocades and opium. Five separate suites with individual entrances facing a narrow street are connected from within, and all have flat roof areas - the views are excellent. Traces of stylish wall-paintings survive in some rooms. The building's most striking features, however, are its exuberantly carved jarokhas , or protruding balconies. To ensure a clear view of them from the street, Indira Gandhi had one of the more modern buildings opposite demolished (its owners were compensated) following a visit here.

Salim Singh's small haveli provides Jaisalmer's only favourable memory of the tyrannical Salim Singh Mohta, who became prime minister in 1800 after his father was murdered for publicly challenging a Rajput prince to repay a loan. From an early age, Salim seemed hell-bent on avenging this crime, impoverishing Jaisalmer's citizens through vigorous taxation and extortion rackets, and holding the royal family to ransom by raising interest rates on their huge loans. He was eventually stabbed by a furious Rajput, and his wife made sure the wound wouldn't heal by infesting it

with poison. Their curious family home is topped with small blueish domes; its upper floor, enclosed by a protruding balcony, is best seen from the roof of Natraj Restaurant . The house is still lived in, but you can go inside. On the road to Malka Pole, you pass the decorative facade of the late-nineteenth-century Nathmalji-ki-Haveli , also built for a prime minister of Jaisalmer. No visitors are allowed, so you won't be able to view the skilful paintings on the interior walls.

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