"Patwon Ki Haveli,” or the Mansion of Brocade Merchants is a cluster of five large havelis in Jaisalmer. Built in the local yellowstone, the Havelis shine gold in the desert sand and sun.

Jaisalmer lies on the border of India and has always been a busy trading town. These havelis of the merchants are witness to the flourishing trade in this area. Jaisalmer has extreme scarcity of water and thus minimum water was used for construction. These structures are created with stones fixed into one another like jig-jaw puzzles, some places screwed (like the small knobs in this window) and larger stones are clipped together with metal.

Intricacy, riches… that is how Medieval Rajasthan operated. Though the delicate carving is more than decoration, each of these carvings tend to work as strainers for desert sand, with a little angled slope inside each of them. The sand particles thus stay out of homes and a cool breeze caresses the dwellers.

Commissioned by the merchant Guman Chand Patwa in 1805, the tale says it took almost 55 years to complete just the first haveli. Patwon Ki Haveli is actually the first and the largest haveli to be constructed in Jaisalmer.

History says that Patwa was an extremely wealthy man and a well-known trader of his time building a luxurious palace with story one for each of his five sons. The entire family dealt in gold and silver threads that were used in embroidering clothes.

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