About 3km east of the old city, at Ahar, is Udaipur’s royal cremation ground , with 372 cenotaphs of maharanas and queens of Mewar forming a spectacular city of snowy domes built over 400 years. Nineteen maharanas were cremated here, and the most striking cenotaph is that of Maharana Sangram Singh (r 1710–34). The newest, erected in 2004, is that of Udaipur’s last maharana, Bhagwat Singh (r 1955–84), father of the current head of the ex-ruling household. A return trip by autorickshaw should cost around ₹120, including waiting time.
The beautiful Ayad Jain Temple , 300m back towards Udaipur, is also well worth a look while you are here.
Ahar was also the site of ancient settlement that predated Udaipur by three-and-a-half millennia. Just 150m along the road from the royal cremation ground, the Ahar Government Museum contains copper and pottery objects more than 3300 years old, plus sculptures of Hindu gods and tirthankars (great Jain teachers) from the 8th to 16th centuries AD.
