Main Bazaars In Rajasthan

Manak Chowk Market (Jaisalmer)
Main market place called Manak Chowk, which is the centre of local activity। From Manak Chowk, one can walk into the lanes where the famous carved havelis are to be found.

The chowk was once a Sadar Mandi (grain-market), and a beehive of activity. Merchants from far away lands like Persia, Iraq, Egypt and Arabia used to visit the city to trade. Jaisalmer in those days was not dissimilar to the great silk route’‘ from Europe to China and made the town fairly prosperous. However, with the development of other trading centres in India in the port cities of Bombay, Cochin and Madras, the importance of Jaisalmer as a conduit for trade between India and the rest of Asia declined. This led to a large number of people migrating from the town; the population of Jaisalmer declined from 35000 in 1815 to only about 22,355 according to the 1981 census.

At Manak Chowk you’ll get the impression that you are sitting in a time machine and have gone back into the past – women dressed in brightly coloured ghagharas (long skirts) and odhanis (long scarf), their limbs decked with ivory and silver ornaments। Manak Chowk hosts the relics of a bygone age.