Where to Stay in Jalor, State of Rājasthān

What is Jalor known for?

Jalor is called the Granite City for the quarries that work the hills around it, and the same rock carries the fort above the town on Songir, the hill known as the Golden Mount. The other name is older. Jabalipura, after the sage Jabali, is what this place was called when Uddyotana-suri finished the Kuvalaya-mala here.

What are the main landmarks in Jalor?

The fort is the whole point. It stands on Suvarngiri, the hill also called Songir or the Golden Mount, and it is what made Jalor worth taking for eight centuries of rulers. Below it the Jawai Nadi runs through the town.

The granite hills around supply the quarries, and Bhinmal carries its own long history as the seat the Pratiharas held.

What is the history of Jalor?

Jabalipura was flourishing by the eighth century, and Uddyotana-suri composed the Kuvalaya-mala here in 779 under the Gurjara-Pratihara king Vatsaraja. The Pratiharas ruled it then. The Parmara emperor Vakpati Munja then took the region and divided it among his princes, giving Jalore to Dharanivraha Parmar and Abu to Aranyaraj, which ended some two hundred and fifty years of Pratihara rule at Bhinmal.

Kirtipala, youngest son of Alhana, seized the town in 1181 and founded the Jalore line of the Chauhans; his successors held it as a tributary of the Delhi Sultanate, and Udayasimha took Nadol and Mandore back from the Turks. The line ended with Kanhadadeva, who resisted Alauddin Khalji.

Where is Jalor?

Jalor lies in western Rajasthan south of the Sukri, a tributary of the Luni, with the Jawai Nadi running through the town itself. Granite hills stand around it, one of them carrying the fort. Jodhpur lies well to the north. The country around is the dry western edge of the state, where the quarries rather than the fields set the economy.

What is the climate of Jalor?

Jalor sits in the subtropical dry belt of western Rajasthan, so the year is built around heat and the monsoon rather than any cold season. Summers are severe. What rain arrives fills the Jawai Nadi and the Sukri for a short while, and the granite country holds little of it, which is why quarrying rather than farming carries the district.

How do you get to Jalor?

Jodhpur is the practical starting point for Jalor, lying north of it on the roads through western Rajasthan, and Jaipur is the longer haul from the state capital. Roads run west and south towards Bhinmal and the border country. The town is the district headquarters, so the surrounding villages come in to it.