Transcription
This fort is situated in the Aravalli mountains of Rajasthan. The main gate has a warning. It is written in clear words, that it is forbidden to enter here after sunset. This warning was not given by a random security guard or a scared villager. It was given by the Archaeological Survey of India.
But one night, three people ignore this warning and plan to enter the fort. How they would enter the fort, and spend the night there, occurred right before the eyes of the guards. They had also heard this saying, which had been heard by everyone around them since childhood. That whoever stayed in the fort at night, never returned alive. But the three of them thought it was just a story. Fear was in their minds. And that is why they moved on. The sun set in the evening. In the dark of the night, the three of them set foot inside the fort. They had a torch, but the darkness was so intense, so intense that the light of the torch only reached a few feet away. Darkness was all that was left. As they walked, a sudden shock struck. One of them slipped and fell down. Into an old, dry well. He was badly injured. The rest of them, in a hurry, took him out of the well and put him in the car. They decided to take him to the hospital. But before the car reached the hospital, there was an accident on the way. All three died on the spot. The locals believe it was not an accident. It was the curse of the fort. They stopped at the fort at night and broke the rules, and the cost of breaking those rules was paid by the fort.
Hello! This is the story of the Bhangarh Fort. Every year, lakhs of tourists come here. But no one stays after sunset. Locals say that at night, there are cries of women here. Screams and more screams. No one goes at night. It is scary, but what can you do? I cannot see, but I can hear something. But the real story of Bhangarh is much more interesting than the legend. The biggest secret of this fort is not what you see at night. It is what is hidden in history.
The story of Bhangarh begins in 1573. Amer's king, Bhagwant Das, decided to build a new city for his younger son, Madhav Singh. Madhav Singh was the younger brother of Man Singh. The same Man Singh who was one of the closest generals of Mughal Emperor Akbar. Madhav Singh built a fort in the Aravalli mountains. It was not a small fort. It was an entire city. At its peak, there were more than 9,000 houses in Bhangarh. Its royal palace was seven floors high. There were many temples, like the Gopinath Temple. There were palaces where ministers lived. And there was a market where merchants from entire Rajputana used to come. Thousands of people lived here, traded, and lived their lives.
But today, if you go to Bhangarh, you will notice something strange. No house built in the fort has a roof. The entire structure is standing. The walls are intact. But there is no roof above. Locals say that whenever someone builds a roof, it falls down. A broken wall. There are houses, empty houses, and deserted streets. Inside the palaces where people used to live, only stones are left. In the temples where worship was done, only grass has grown. How did a city of 9,000 houses suddenly become ruins?
The locals of Bhangarh narrate two stories about this. And both stories end with the same thing. A curse. The Curse of Baba Balunath. The first story is about a sage. It is said that when Madhav Singh chose the location for Bhangarh, a sage named Baba Balunath used to meditate there. Madhav Singh asked the Baba for permission to build a fort. The Baba gave permission but on one condition. The height of the fort should not be such that its shadow falls on his house. If this happened, the entire city would be destroyed. King Madhav Singh accepted this condition. Initially, only four floors were constructed in this fort. So that the Baba's house would not be covered in shade. But later, Madhav Singh's grandson, Ajab Singh, extended the fort to seven floors. The Baba's house was covered in shade. This was the only condition that was broken. And according to the story, Bhangarh was destroyed. This is the first story.
But the second story is even more terrifying. According to it, there was a tantric named Singhia in Bhangarh. He was an expert in black magic. He saw the daughter of Chhatar Singh of Bhangarh, Princess Ratnavati. She was famous throughout the kingdom for her beauty. Singhia knew that because he was a tantric, the princess would never accept him. So, he used black magic. One day, Princess Ratnavati went to the market and stopped at a perfume shop. Singhia saw an opportunity. He turned the bottle of perfume into a love potion. The plan was that as soon as the princess wore the perfume, she would fall into Singhia's trap. But Ratnavati understood the trick. She threw the bottle of perfume onto a big rock. The black magic worked, but instead of Ratnavati, it worked on the stone. That magical stone, which was now overwhelmed with love for Singhia, rolled toward Singhia, and crushed and killed him. But before he died, Singhia cursed them, saying that the entire fort would be destroyed, except for the temple. No one living in the palace would survive. And no one would be reborn. It is claimed that the next year, there was a fierce battle between Bhangarh and Ajabgarh. And Princess Ratnavati died. Bhangarh was completely destroyed. And according to the people, Princess Ratnavati, Singhia the Tantric, and the other people who died here, were never reborn because of the curse. The souls of all these people are still wandering in the Bhangarh Fort. This is why it is said that these souls scare people at night. And this is why anyone who stays here at night, never returns alive.
And this is not the only story. The entire internet is filled with such haunted stories of Bhangarh. Locals say that sometimes women cry, and sometimes women break bangles. Sometimes, they hear the sound of a wedding, and sometimes they hear screams, as if someone is begging for help. Tourists say that while roaming around the fort, they feel as if someone is following them. Without any source, the smell of perfume appears. Even today, the sound of bells and anklets is heard near the dance house. And it is a fact that the fort's guards do not go inside at night. There are 10 people here at night. Do they stay? Yes, they stay here. They do not go inside? No, there are 10 people here. They do not go inside. They do not go inside? Because of the cries and blood. The sound of screaming.
Many people on social media claim that scientists installed devices to record paranormal activity in the Bhangarh Fort. And they detected negative energy here. Bollywood could not even escape from Bhangarh. Many scenes from the films of Shahrukh Khan and Salman Khan, like Karan Arjun, were shot in the Bhangarh Fort. During a song shoot, the film's heroine, Mamta Kulkarni, let her hair down and danced as if someone had possessed her. In 2014, the director who made the movie Trip to Bhangarh, Jitendra Pawar, also made a terrifying claim. According to Pawar, when he was going to Bhangarh for the first day of shooting, the car's brakes suddenly failed. The driver somehow stopped the car in the jungle. But after a few minutes, the brakes started working again. Similarly, one day, it started raining heavily. The shooting stopped. And Jitendra Pawar went to the room of Princess Ratnavati. He prayed. And suddenly, the rain stopped. Similarly, in another story, a person stayed with his friend in the Bhangarh Fort at night. He thought someone was standing at the window. But he did not see anyone. Then a black cat came out of the window. According to him, this cat was visible from Bhangarh for 100 km. We were in the parking lot, and we saw the same black cat from the car that we saw inside Bhangarh. We saw the same cat for 100 km while crossing the road. At least 8 times. What are you saying?
But the most disturbing story of Bhangarh is that of journalist Pallavi De Purkayastha. Pallavi was returning from Bhangarh Fort with her partner in the evening. When suddenly, her scooter shut down. There was petrol in the tank, the headlights, horn, and speedometer were all working, but the engine would not start. A person nearby was watching this, and without touching the scooter, he started the engine instantly. And then he said, "They want you." Pallavi's partner asked who. The person turned back and said, "You know who." Because of such stories, Bhangarh is known as the most haunted place in India and Asia. Lakhs of tourists visit. But only during the daytime.
So the question arises, are all these claims true? Is Bhangarh Fort really a haunted place? Are the souls of Princess Ratnavati and the Tantrik really wandering there? There is one thing that I haven't told you yet, which changes the story. But before I tell you the twist, I must say that in this video, people in Bhangarh are afraid of things that are not there. Invisible Threats. In real life, there are such invisible threats on the internet. When you connect to any Wi-Fi, your activity is tracked. Your ISP is checking which websites you are opening. Advertisers are tracking what you are searching for. And there is a risk of hacking on public Wi-Fi. The solution to this problem is today's video sponsor, NordVPN. NordVPN secures your entire internet activity with military-grade encryption. Your real IP address is always hidden. Your browsing history can never reach your ISP. And no hacker on public Wi-Fi can see anything. Apart from this, NordVPN has more than 110 servers. You can connect to shows on Netflix in the US, which are not available in India. The UK library, Japanese anime, everything is unlocked. Locations can be spoofed through VPNs. I have provided a special link in the description, nordvpn.com/dhruv. You get a big discount by taking a 2-year plan from there, and 4 extra months are free. And if you do not like it, there is a 30-day money-back guarantee. There is no risk of losing a single rupee. So if you need it, do try it. On NordVPN.com/Dhruv.
Now, let's get to the twist. Princess Ratnavati, who is a legend based on Bhangarh's haunting, has no verified historical record of her existence. You heard it right. There is no historical record, nor is there any contemporary document. Regarding Ratnavati and the Tantrik Singhia mentioned, no one knows whose daughter the princess was, whose wife she was, or when this story took place. There is no historical proof of Baba Balunath being a saint. These stories are folklore. They have been told to one generation after another. And each time they are told, the stories become a little more dramatic. The whole foundation of haunted Bhangarh is based on characters who may not have existed before.
So, a big question still arises. The voices that people hear, the shadows that tourists talk about, the story of "They Want You," how can so many people be wrong? Here, I want to tell you a shocking fact. When someone says he saw a ghost in Bhangarh, or felt something strange, it is not necessarily that he is lying. It is possible that he really felt something like that. But the reason for this is not supernatural. Rather, the reason is science.
In the 1980s, an engineer from Britain, Vic Tandy, got proof of it in a very strange way. Tandy was working in his laboratory one evening when he suddenly felt uncomfortable. His body was cold, he was sweating, and the hair on the back of his neck stood up. Tandy thought someone was looking at him. Then he saw a gray shadow from the corner of his eye. The shadow was slowly clearing up. But when Tandy looked at it, the figure disappeared. There were rumors in the lab that this place was haunted. Tandy never paid attention to them. But now, he felt he had seen a ghost. He ran home in fear. The next day, when Tandy returned to the lab, he noticed that the fencing foil in the equipment was vibrating. A newly installed fan was generating an infrasound of 19 Hz. This was the frequency which made Tandy think someone was watching him. This was the reason why he saw a shadow. When they turned off the fan, the infrasound disappeared. And the ghost disappeared. Infrasounds are sound waves below the frequency of 20 Hz. Human ears cannot hear them, but your body can feel them. Sound of this kind makes your body feel vibrations. You feel dizziness, anxiety, and a strange feeling that someone is watching you. The same is true for Bhangarh. When the wind blows through the old stone buildings, infrasound is naturally generated. Apart from this, minor earth movements, earthquakes, and shifting stones also produce these low-frequency sounds. If you look at the map, Bhangarh is in the Alwar district of Rajasthan, in Seismic Zone 4. A high earthquake risk zone. In the Aravalli mountains, falling stones and minor earth movements are very common.
The second phenomenon involves Electromagnetic Fields, or EMF. In the 1990s and 2000s, some researchers had a theory that places considered haunted were locations with unusually high levels of electromagnetic fields, which could confuse the human brain. However, when other scientists tried to test this theory, they did not get clear results. This is just a theoretical science that has not been confirmed yet.
In 2012, the head of the Indian Paranormal Society, Gaurav Tiwari, and his team went to Bhangarh. They stayed in the fort all night. They had all the equipment said to detect ghosts: EMF readers, thermal cameras, and audio recorders. Throughout the night, Gaurav Tiwari asked questions in the dark. "Did Rani Ratnavati live here?" "Is Tantrik Singhia close by?" After the investigation, the result was that nothing was found. Gaurav Tiwari himself said, "I will not find any ghost." "Will you find a ghost with me?" "No, you will not find one." "Only langurs, peacocks," "jackals," "hyenas, and panthers will be found." "And I will find that." "No ghost will be found." Those who are considered experts in finding ghosts say that there is no ghost in Bhangarh.
But there is another experiment in science that can completely settle this issue. In 2008, researchers from Goldsmiths University in London conducted an experiment called the Haunt Project. They took an ordinary, empty, white room. Nothing old, no scary atmosphere. They installed hidden devices that produced EMF and Infrasound, and then they called people and said, "Sit in this room for 50 minutes and tell us how you felt." The results were shocking. More than 20% said that they thought there was someone else in the room. Many felt dizzy. And 8% felt terror. In a room where literally nothing was there except for EMF and infrasound. But the real shock came when the researchers analyzed the data. They found that whether the devices were on or off, people's experiences were almost the same. The people who were suggestible felt the most strange things. The role of the ghost, bigger than EMF and infrasound, was suggestibility. This means that if you tell people they are going to a strange place, they will actually start feeling strange.
There is a saying in our country, that fear is the only way a ghost becomes a ghost. If you believe in ghosts, or if you are told that ghosts live here, then a moving tree also looks like a moving ghost. Think about it. Before going to Bhangarh, what do tourists learn? That this is India's most haunted place. That this is India's most terrifying and haunted fort. You watch thousands of videos on YouTube, listen to stories, scroll on Instagram, and your brain is already in haunted mode. If you look at a normal shadow, you will think you saw a ghost.
There is a phenomenon in psychology called Pareidolia. In this, our brain starts to see faces and figures in random shapes. In 1976, the Viking Orbiter took a photo of Mars. And in the photo, a face was seen. Everyone saw it. People wondered what it was. What a big mystery! Do aliens really exist? But the reality is that our brain has developed in such a way that we see faces everywhere. Our brain tries to find faces in everything. Even if there is no face there, in the shadows of broken walls, in the dark corners of old pillars, your brain automatically starts seeing human figures. The truth is that the combination of infrasound, EMF, suggestibility, and pareidolia, is what is called a ghost.
You might ask why the Archaeological Survey of India put up a signboard stating that it is forbidden to enter after sunset. Many believe this signboard is official proof that Bhangarh is haunted. But the real reason behind it is safety. The Bhangarh Fort was declared a centrally protected monument in 1951. The structures here are completely broken. Walls can fall at any time. And there is no lighting at night. But the even bigger reason is that the Sariska Tiger Reserve is only 50 km away. Sariska is spread over 866 km2. Since 1978, under Project Tiger, it has been a Tiger Reserve. There are Bengal tigers, leopards, hyenas, monkeys, and many other animals. These animals often come near the Bhangarh Fort, and hunt at night. And do you know those strange sounds people cite about this fort? Sometimes crying, sometimes laughing. Actually, they are the sounds of hyenas. Watch more videos of the real sounds of hyenas. Actually, it sounds like someone is screaming or crying from afar. Apart from this, monkeys live inside the fort. When they move at night, trees shake and leaves rustle, making it seem like someone is nearby.
ASI has stated that Bhangarh is not haunted. In 2016, ASI's Deputy Superintendent of the Jaipur Circle, archaeologist B. R. Singh, said that the fort was not haunted. He stated that these are misconceptions. In an investigation by India Today, officials and local guides said there is nothing haunted here. Animals are what make it unsafe at night. A local woman also says she has been living near the fort since she was four years old. There are no ghosts, only wild animals. The real danger at night is not from ghosts, but from tigers, leopards, and falling walls. And that is why the ASI put up a signboard. The signboard also states that animals are not allowed to enter the fort. And the Kevda trees belong to the ASI. This shows that this is an administrative notice, not a warning about ghosts.
Now let's return to the story I told you at the beginning. The story of the three people. Who were they? No one knows. What were their names? No one knows. When did they die? There is no news report about it. No police FIR. There is no documentation of it. This story is also folklore, which was created to fuel the Bhangarh myth. This saying, that no one returns alive after a night in Bhangarh, is also a complete lie. Many people have spent the night here, and they are still alive.
But there is one mystery that has not been solved yet. How did a city of 9,000 houses actually collapse? The real story is as dramatic as a curse. Madhav Singh had settled in Bhangarh. After that, his grandson, Ajab Singh, built another fort nearby called Ajabgarh, and started ruling from there. The importance of Bhangarh gradually decreased. And in 1720, the King of Amer, Sawai Jai Singh, attacked Bhangarh and Ajabgarh and took control. Sawai Jai Singh settled in Jaipur. And Bhangarh became a secondary town. But famine completely destroyed Bhangarh. In 1783, due to unusual El Niño events, North India faced a severe drought. It is called the Chalisa famine. Because it occurred in the year 1840 of the Hindu calendar. It was not an ordinary famine. It was so dangerous that in the Doab region and Punjab, half to two-thirds of the population died. There was already a shortage of water in Rajasthan. And when this famine hit, it became impossible to live in cities like Bhangarh. People left the city in search of food and water, and Bhangarh turned into ruins. There was no curse, nor any black magic; political decline, war, and a devastating famine turned a thriving city into a ruin.
You might think that if the truth is so simple, then why are the ghost stories of Bhangarh still alive? The first reason is human psychology. Humans naturally remember stories more than facts. You might forget that Bhangarh collapsed in 1783. But a sorcerer performing black magic to win a princess and cursing the entire city while dying, is a story you will remember for life. Our brain wants to hear a narrative. "People fled when the time came" sounds boring. But a sorcerer cursing the entire city feels satisfying, because there is a villain, a cause, and a clear narrative. These stories make us feel in control and help us find order in a random world. According to author Anuradha Goyal, when a historical site is abandoned and people do not know the history, a mystery is created. Over time, layers are added, and the site turns into a ruin. This deepens the mystery and makes people feel it is haunted.
The second reason is tourism. The "India's most haunted place" tag attracts lakhs of tourists to Bhangarh every year. The local economy depends on these stories. And no one is interested in debunking them. The third reason is social media. On social media, everyone wants to share their haunted experience in Bhangarh. If you go to Bhangarh and nothing supernatural happens, no one will want to hear about it. But if you go there and say, "I felt something strange," or "My phone battery suddenly drained," that video will go viral.
Scientist Marie Curie famously said, "Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood." Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less. There is no need to fear anything in life. You just need to understand it. The better you understand it, the less you will fear. What did I tell you? Do not be scared. Ghosts are not real. I have explained this in detail in this video as well. You can understand it better by clicking here. The NordVPN link is in the description below. Thank you very much. The NordVPN link is in the description below. Thank you very much.