Second legend is even more interesting, a story of one sided love that turned into obsession, the tale of Rani Ratnavati whose beauty, it is said, was unmatchable in whole of Rajasthan. While some believe that she was a princess of Bhangarh, it is also said that she was in fact herself the queen, married to the King.
When the princess turned 18, she started getting marriage proposals from princes of other states. Being a very beautiful woman, she had numerous admirers within Bhangarh as well and one such admirer was Singhia, a tantrik. He was desperately in love with the princess and desired for her even though he knew that she was way out of his league. People like him weren't even allowed to see the princess, let alone the thought of marrying her.
It is said that once the princess along with her maids and friends went visiting the market to buy some scented oils. Singhia spotted her at a shop and he got an idea by which he could meet the princess. He used his black magic and put a love spell on the oil which would hypnotize the princess by her merely touching the oil, and she would surrender herself. The princess foiled this plan though. She had seen the tantrik enchanting the oil, and she therefore threw it away, whereupon the flagon rolled over a stone. As soon as the oil touched the stone, it started rolling towards the wicked tantrik and crushed him. While dying, Singhia cursed the palace with the death of all who dwelt in it, without any rebirth in their destinies.
There is another version of this story as well. Per the second version, Singhia gave the scented oil to one of the maids to pass on to the princess. That maid bought the oil to the palace and handed it over to Ratnavati. But what Singhia didn't know that the princess herself was very well verse with the cult and she knew the tantra and spells herself. As soon as she touched the bottle, she knew what Singhia did. She had him captured and brought to the palace as a prisoner where she threw the oil on Singhia. As soon as the cursed oil touched Singhia, the person who himself cursed it, he died a very painful death and it was in his last few moments that he cursed Bhangarh.
The very next year, Bhangarh was attacked by the neighboring kingdom of Ajabgarh. There was a fierce battle which Bhangarh lost and Rani Ratnavati herself died in the battle. The town has been uninhabited ever since.
Another version is that when Ratnavati threw the oil away and as the oil struck the ground it turned into a boulder, which crushed Singhia. Dying, the magician cursed the palace with the death of all who dwelt in it.
Some even say that the princess Ratnavati has taken birth somewhere else and that the fort and the empire of Bhangarh is waiting for her return to put an end to the curse.
There remains to be however another version of this story wherever Ratnavati herself is blamed for the doom of this town. In the first version of this lore, Ratnavati before marriage was in love with a poor man in her father's kingdom. They both knew that their marriage was out of question as Ratnavati was a princess and her lover was just a poor farmer but still could not help but falling madly in love with each other. As it is often shown in the movie, Ratnavati would sneak out of the palace when no one was looking to spend time with the poor boy. On one such instance, they were both caught red-handed by Ratnavati's father, the king. Sensing that her lover would probably be hanged for the crime that he committed by falling in love with a princess, Ratnavati made a pact with her father that she would marry as per his wishes only as long as he forgives the boy and grants him his life. Her father agreed and she was married off to the King of Bhangarh but she always remained in loved with the same boy and could never give her heart to her husband. The boy too did not back out and followed Ratnavati to Bhangarh dressed as a poor beggar and Tantrik. Ratnavati too found out about his presence in Bhangarh and they started meeting each other again. As it happened before, they were again caught by the king, this time Ratnavati's husband who doomed them both to death. Watching her beloved getting beheaded right in front of her eyes, Ratnavati cursed the king and town of Bhangarh to perish right after her death.
Second version of this story is that Ratnavati was in love with Jai Singh of Jaipur and because of this love affair, he kept attacking the town of Bhangarh until it was in ruins. His sole intention was to kill the king, win over Bhangarh as a part of his kingdom and Ratnavati as his wife in which he finally succeeded but at the cost of Bhangarh.
Third version of this story is that Ratnavati was herself a sorceress and was accused of witch-craft. Ever since her marriage, young girls of poor farmers started to mysteriously vanish in middle of the night. Soon it was learnt that it was queen Ratnavati herself who was stealing and sacrificing the girls for eternal beauty. She was dragged out of her quarter and burnt alive. In her painful screams as flames started to consume her, she cursed the town of Bhangarh to doom and remain so forever.
These are stories from the past but this isn't where it all ends. There have been recent claims of people getting hurt and even dying because of the ghosts at Bhangarh. A
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