Khimsar - A Small Sand Dunes Village In The Midst of The Great Indian Desert

With the invasion of Mohammad Ghori in 1194, the Kanauj king, Jaichand was defeated whose grandson Sheoji in 1226 in search of a fresh battlefield moved to region around Mandore & conquered some parts of it until 1395 when the twelfth ruler of the dynasty, Chunda acquired full territorial rights of the region around Mandore and it was thereafter known famously as the Rathore Dynasty. In 1459, Rao Jodha was advised to shift his capital base to some hilltop to avoid rising war pressure from external enemies. Subsequently, he built the fort of Mehrangarh and named the human settlement which flourished around it as Jodhpur under the legacy of his own name. In 1465, Rao Bika, the eldest son of Rao Jodha left Jodhpur and built a small fort Rati Ghati in 1485 at a site near to the famous rat temple of Karni Mata which eventually developed itself into Bikaner. Another son of Rao Jodha, Rao Karamsji got encouraged by both his father’s and his brother’s endeavours of building forts and palaces and he moved towards Nagaur which lies somewhere in the middle of the two fort cities built by his family, Jodhpur and Bikaner and built a fort near to the presently lying sand dunes village of Khimsar. It didn’t had any ladies wing however till the middle of the eighteenth century when a zenana mahal was added to the existing structure and the royal family moved here thereafter. Another regal wing was added to it by Thakur Onkar Singh in 1940s. 

Different staggered and distant lying houses and other structures were rising into their existence simultaneously as the development of the fort was undergoing but it remained sparsely populated owing to the characteristics of the site - a state of geographical bewilderment and a small sand dunes village sprouted itself over the period of time in the form of Khismar. The fort was subsequently converted into a heritage hotel offering a chance to the visitors  to experience the lifestyle of the royal families of medieval times. 

Khimsar lies around 100 km North-East of Jodhpur on Jodhpur-Bikaner highway and beholds in itself contrasting images of a beautiful royal palace built to showcase power and wealth on one hand and village shelter houses on the other in the midst of the Great Indian Desert. The material used for construction of the houses is earth and thatch in general which are known to provide a cooling effect which is much needed in the heats of a desert. There also lies a BlackBuck Reserve in its vicinity which has three species of antelopes in itself - the BlackBuck, the Chinkara and the BlueBull. As defined by one of the writers, Khimsar is ‘rustic in appearance, in consonance with its surroundings & these luxurious huts which has been designed to remain eco-friendly’ adds to the overall beauty of the desert which provides in a glimpse of eternity and infinity like the sky above does for keen eyes. 

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