Journeys Through Rajasthan (From The 16th to 21st Centuries)

Book Specification

Book Description

About the Book

Rajasthan has been romanticized through the centuries as the land of kings and warriors, forts and palaces, daredevil Rajputs sporting brilliantly coloured turbans, the place where more fairs and festivals are celebrated than there are days in the year.

But it is also a harsh, hostile and merciless land where the hot winds blow, where creeping sands, shifting sand dunes, devastating droughts have repeatedly altered the destiny of its people.

How does one travel through such a collage of contradictory images? Journeys through Rajasthan shows you Rajasthan through the eyes and imaginative universe of some of India’s most talented writers and feted travelers including poets, journalists, novelists, explorers, historians, a wildlife enthusiast, a photographer, a foodie, a naturalist, a bird lover and a princess. Their stories, each located in a different part of Rajasthan, are informative, sensitive, humorous, even dark, and at times deeply moving.

Journeys through Rajasthan is an invaluable companion for both the wandering traveler and the armchair one interested in the imaginings, memories, dreams and discoveries that emerged from the skilled pens of those who chose to look beyond familiar picture- postcard images of a fabled land.

About the Author

Amrita Kumar hails from Todgarh in the remote highlands of Rajasthan, a village named after James Tod, her forefathers playing host in the early 19th century to the historian as he penned his Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan. Her wanderings through Rajasthan were the inspiration behind her novel Damage, published by Harper Collins in 2009. She has also co-edited Lest we Forget, a book of essays on the Gujarat riots, published by the television company World Report in 2002. She has been vice-president and senior editor Osians Literary Agency, managing editor ,Encyclopaedia Britannica, associate editor Penguin India, and editor-in-chief Roli Books. She has also been a copywriter with an advertising agency, research-writer for the Department of Culture, editor of a design magazine, and an editor with The Times of India.

Foreword

Rajasthan, Rajputana, land of kings, bards, minstrels and enchanting folklore, a kaleidoscope of colour – my birthplace, my home and the seat of my ancestors. A land like no other, which conjures up all that the mind of an avid traveler can dream of and even more. The land whose history stretches back to the Indus Valley Civilization (archaeological sites at Kalibangan in Northern Rajasthan) and the lost river Saraswati, Mt. Abu, the seat of sages in the ancient Aravalli ranges, and Brahma’s sacred lake of Pushkar. Even while straddling its magnificent past, Rajasthan embraces the present with effortless grace – momentous developments like India’s first nuclear test at Pokhran, economic reforms, modernization of agriculture, and the IT revolution.

There is a couplet in Rajasthani – KOS KOS PAE PANI BADALE CHAR KOS PAE BANI, meaning every mile the taste and depth of water changes and every four miles the dialects, signifying the diversity of Rajasthan. From the vast sandy stretches of the Thar desert to the tiger reserves and bird sanctuaries, from the eternal haunting beauty of its temples, forts and palaces to the earthen charm of its villages, Rajasthan encapsulates the magic of this rich cultural diversity and extraordinary spirit of its people, reflected in all aspects of their life and in the unhurried pace of organic growth and development. Above all, it was the special relationship between the erstwhile rulers of Rajasthan and the thirty-six communities of priests, merchants, agriculturalists, craftsmen and tribals that shaped this unique evolution of the modern state of Rajasthan,The idea of this anthology is brilliant and timely. Amidst the profusion of coffee table books on Rajasthan, it fills an important vacuum by bringing together eminent writers from diverse backgrounds and varied views to share their personal experiences. Their stories are authentic, real, spontaneous, and a part of the story of Rajasthan – including the traditional and the modern, urban and rural, wealthy and impoverished – has evolved naturally out of their narrative. The addition of ancient accounts makes the reading more comprehensive and pleasurable. Indeed, it would be impossible to encompass Rajasthan within any Single anthology but this volume is to be seen as an intimate set of revelations that a reader can easily relate to and would, I hope, inspire him to