Rajastan

Introduction to Rajastan

Take a desert - burning sand in the long summers, large tracts of dune-decked plains, with scare water and even scarcer vegetation- and create a habitation with the mind's eye, if you can. And then come to Rajasthan to see if your imagination can begin to match where reality takes over.

Aeons ago, it is believed, Shri Ram drew an arrow in his bow. The target was Lanka, the island capital where his wife was held captive be the demon king Ravana. However, such was the power of its annihilation that the gods pleaded with Ram to desist from his intended purpose. Unfortunately, the arrow, once drawn, could not be withdrawn. Ram pointed the arrow at a distant sea, and let it escape. The heat generated by the arrow dried the sea, and in its place there arose a desert, dry, arid, and hot.

Not surprisingly, myth and reality coalesce. Fossils excavated in the Thar desert reveal the remains of marine life. And the sand on the surface of the desert ripples and moves, forever creating new layers of waves as the wind dances across its surface. For in its unconscious heart, perhaps, lies the memory of the sea that once shimmered in its place.

It was to this arid desert, centuries ago, that man journeyed. Its earliest inhabitants were part of an urban civilization that arose 4,500 years ago. Recent excavations of the remains of the Indus Valley Civilization reveal that the settlements penetrated deep into the heart of the desert. Archaeologists and art-historians have theorised that the citadels and the manner of building along narrow lanes that dissect each other at right angles are uncannily similar to more recent settlements.

The Indus Valley civilization went into decline, the causes for which still remain unknown, though there is academic speculation on everything from earthquakes to invasions as the probable cause. It is easy to imagine that nothing but the desert winds howled here for centuries. In other parts of the world, other civilizations arose, and with them developed a sophisticated network of trade that linked different continents. When maritime activity arose, for the most part Europe was linked to Asia along a trade rout that traversed West Asia and journeyed through the vest spaces of the desert to the rich plains of Hindustan, and then on to the Hindukush mountains and beyond, to China.

These caravans attracted supporting commercial services, and the sarais of the desert soon became settlements. The invaders followed. And then came the settlers who, in return for the protection they offered these caravans, levied a tax on the goods they carried through their territory. So began the transformation of the desert.