Mandore, the capital before Jodhpur

A dowry, a murder and a surprise attack

• Pratihara traces: they built a fort on the hill and temples around it, and fragments of their carving still turn up in the ruins.
• A local branch: after the great Gurjara-Pratihara empire broke up, a branch of the family held on here as local rulers.
• A dowry capital: at the end of the fourteenth century Rao Chunda of the Rathores allied with the Pratiharas, married a Pratihara princess and received the fort of Mandore as her dowry.
• A clan becomes a dynasty: it made the Rathores, until then chiefs among many, the masters of a real capital.
• Murder at Chittor: Chunda's son Rao Ranmal spent years at the court of Mewar. In 1438 he was murdered there on the orders of Rana Kumbha, who seized Mandore.
• Fifteen years in the desert: Ranmal's son Jodha fled and spent them gathering men and horses.
• The surprise: in 1453 Jodha took Mandore back by surprise.
• Why he left: it sat low beside its stream, with no cliff to protect it. In 1459 he moved to a high ridge south and began Mehrangarh.
• A place of memory: the new town took his name, and Mandore became where the Rathores remembered their dead.
• The other half: heading on to Mewar? Kumbha's fort at Kumbhalgarh completes the story.

The garden of royal memorials

• Ajit Singh's deval: the largest and most elaborate, for the king smuggled out of Delhi as a baby by Durgadas Rathore, who won back Jodhpur from the Mughals in 1707.
• Its form: a high plinth, a pillared hall in front and a tall curved spire, carved all over in red sandstone.
• Around it: memorials to other rulers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, some almost as grand, some smaller and simpler.
• What they record: each marks a royal cremation, and many record in carving and inscription the queens and women of the household who died on the king's pyre. Our guides explain it plainly.
• Still family memorials: no longer places of everyday worship, but treated with respect.
• Across Rajasthan: our piece on what a chhatri is explains how cenotaphs differ.

Why the cenotaphs look like temples

• The effect: a row of temples rather than a cemetery.
• The stone: easy to carve when freshly quarried, it hardens in the air.
• Look closely: bands of carving on the hall pillars, with lotus flowers, elephants, dancers, gods and geometric borders.
• Spires within spires: each carries miniature copies of itself, layered one above another, a classic temple device.
• The vocabulary: our architecture guide explains plinth, mandapa and shikhara.
• Compare afterwards: the old devals are heavy, red and temple-like. Jaswant Thada is white, light and open.
• Changing taste: between them, Rathore taste moves from the medieval temple to the delicate marble of the turn of the twentieth century.

The king in the tallest memorial

• Aurangzeb's move: he saw a chance to bring Marwar under direct Mughal rule and ordered the child raised at court in Delhi.
• Thirty years of raids: the child was raised in secret in the hills, while Durgadas and the Rathore clans fought ambushes against Mughal garrisons across Marwar.
• The return: after Aurangzeb died in 1707, Ajit Singh marched on Jodhpur and took it back. Fateh Pol at Mehrangarh still commemorates it.
• His end: he ruled until 1724, when he was murdered. His memorial is the grandest at Mandore.
• Durgadas's end: he died far from Marwar, at Ujjain, after falling out with the king he had saved.
• Not forgotten: his statue and memorial stand on the edge of Jodhpur.
• Read more: our Jodhpur royal family piece and Mughal and Rajput history essay.

A walk through Mandore, stop by stop

The folk heroes of Marwar

• Pabuji: said to have ridden out from his own wedding to rescue a herd of camels, and died in the fight.
• His epic tonight: still performed by the Bhopas, singer-priests who unroll a painted scroll and sing before it. Read the Bhopa and the phad.
• Ramdevji: honoured by Hindus and Muslims alike, he draws one of Rajasthan's largest pilgrimages to his shrine at Ramdevra, west of Jodhpur.
• Gogaji: worshipped across the north.
• At Mandore: the painted figures are the royal court's way of honouring village heroes alongside the gods.
• The style: bold, a little naive and very bright, best in the soft late light.
• A game for children: guessing which figure belongs to which story, while our guides tell who is who.

Mandore today, a Jodhpur picnic ground

• Everyone else: young couples between the flowerbeds, school groups racing from the cenotaphs to the Hall of Heroes.
• At the gate: vendors sell roasted peanuts, ice cream and balloons.
• Weekday mornings: far quieter, but you miss the best of its character.
• The Marwar Festival: around the October full moon, the Marwar Festival brings music and folk performances to the gardens.
• Hero fairs: local fairs honouring the heroes are held here through the year. Our guides will say whether one is worth the crowds.

The best hour and the best season

• Early morning: good for photographers who want the spires without crowds.
• Winter: green gardens and clear air.
• Summer: very hot by mid-morning, so we keep the visit short and early.
• Monsoon: the gardens and hills turn briefly green, and the stream below the fort may run, which few visitors ever see.
• Month by month: our best time to visit Jodhpur guide.

How long to allow

• A long afternoon: add tea or lunch on the terrace at Bal Samand Lake Palace, then drive back for the clock tower at dusk.
• Without the climb: guests who would rather not tackle the rough fort path can stay on the mostly flat gardens and lose very little of the story.
• With children: leave time on the lawns and for the langurs, which they will remember longer than any cenotaph.

How to visit well

• Take a guide: the site has few labels, and without the stories the cenotaphs are just handsome buildings.
• Shoes: comfortable ones, and good ones for the rough, uneven path to the hill fort.
• Langurs: keep food and plastic bags out of sight, and never feed them.
• At working shrines: remove shoes, including at the temple of thirty-three crore gods, and dress modestly.
• Mobility: the gardens suit guests with limited mobility, though some plinths have steep steps.
• Weekends or weekdays: weekends are lively and crowded, weekdays calm. Choose by what you want to see.

Tea, snacks and a long lunch

• Our picnic: kachoris, fruit and sweets from the old city.
• Or lunch by the lake: on the terrace at Bal Samand Lake Palace, a short drive away.
• On the way back: the old city's sweet shops are waiting with mawa kachori.
• A neat evening: gardens until the light goes, then the clock tower and Sardar Market for mirchi bada and lassi as the lights come on.
• The dishes: our food of Jodhpur guide has the places our family trusts.
• Royal evenings: our private palace dinner page explains how we arrange them.

What most visitors miss

• Pratihara fragments: in the museum, older than anything else you will see in Jodhpur.
• The Hall of Heroes at dusk: in the last half hour of light, when the colours glow.
• The families: sit on the grass for twenty minutes and you learn more about Jodhpur life than in any museum.
• Mandodari's legend: ask our guide to tell it on the spot, and why some families here don't celebrate Dussehra.

Who will love it, and who can skip it

• Families: children who have had enough of museums can run on grass and watch monkeys.
• Photographers: red spires against a blue winter sky.
• Repeat visitors: they often tell us it was the surprise of their second trip.
• Skip it if: you have only one day, or have seen several cenotaph gardens already and are short of time. See Jaswant Thada, closer to the fort, and save Mandore for a return.
• Heading north: to Osian or Nagaur, it is directly on your way, and an hour here costs you almost nothing.

What to pair it with

Where to stay nearby