Hin: जालौर jālaur
‘Jabal’s Town’ [Jabalipura, Suvarngiri/Songir] – City, District, Rajasthan
From Jalandhar/Jabal and Skt: pur →or/ore, ‘fort’, ‘town’.
Jalore as a fort and a town dates back to the 8-9thC. There is a temple to the west of the town on Kalashachal Mountain , built by Raja Ratan Singh in the 12-13thC. On the way up are the ‘footprints’ of Jalandhar/Saint Jabalji, a Nath yogi who meditated and performed austerities in a cave on the mountain.
The town was also known as Suvarngiri or Songir, after the ‘Golden Hill’ [Skt/Hin: svarṇa/sonā, ‘gold’; giri ‘mountain’, ‘hill’] on which the fort stands.Its position on a steep rocky outcrop made it one of the most impregnable fortifications in India.
Jalore is nicknamed the ‘Cradle of the Marwari Horse’ after the warhorse breed renowned for its endurance and loyalty.
The modern city is the granite capital of Rajasthan, most of the state’s granite quarries are within a 300km radius of Jalore, producing 20 varieties of world-class granite.
