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PEOPLE

For what is referred to as a desert, Rajasthan is fairly populated; its landscape scattered with a number of villages and hamlets, telltale signs of tree groves and populations of cattle being the indication that there is a settlement is close proximity.

The typical village has always been difficult to spot till one is actually upon it. The simplest hamlets, the most basic from of residence with a way of life that has probably remained unchanged since centuries, consists of a collection of huts that are circular, and have thatched roofs. The walls covered with a plaster of clay, cow dung, and hay, making a termite-free (antiseptic) façade that blends in with the sand of the countryside around it. Boundaries for houses and land holdings, called baras, are made of the dry branches of a nettle-like shrub, the long, sharp thorns a deterrent for straying cattle.

If a hamlet looks bleak, it is hardly surprising: the resources for building these homes, which are the most eco-friendly living unit, are made with what is available at hand. In Rajasthan, particularly in its western desert regions, every twig has a value.

A village that is a little larger may have pacca houses, or larger living units, usually belonging to the village zamindar (landowner) family. Consisting of courtyards and a large nora or cattle enclosure attached to one side or at the entrance, these house are made of a mixture of sun baked clay bricks covered with a plaster of lime. Floors are made with a mixture of pounded lime, limestone pebbles, and water.

Decorative facades in such units are notable for their textures in plaster and the use of simple lime colors to create vibrant patterns. These homes capture for many of its residents, the only comos they know. For the women, but for visits within the village community, the only social occasions were the pilgrimages, usually combined with fairs.

It is when the village dwellers step out of their homes that the stark desert breaks into a feast of color, turbans bob past in saffron and red; skirts billow beneath the veil.

The jewellery that glints on their foreheads and arms adds to the kaleidoscope of their magentas and oranges, their blues and greens. Trims of gold ribbon add to this feast of color, and bangles jangle, not just on wrist, but all the way up to the arms above the elbow. Into the bleak, baking hamlets of the desert, the people live a live life that is palpable, carrying in their jaunty strides, the spirit that is their destiny.

Each village houses several communities, the various castes creating a structure of interdependence based on the nature of their work. While changes are being wrought in this structure, with ceiling on land holdings, and with the young seeking employment opportunities in towns distant from their villages, the social fabric has still not been fractured. At the head of the village settlement are usually the Rajputs, the warrior race whose kings ruled, till recently, over these lands. The Rajputs served their kings, joining their armies, and raising their cavalries, but an their extensive fields, and kept cattle for dairy produce: in fact, the cattle density in Rajasthan is very high, and milk from desert settlements is supplied to the large cities close to the state, including Delhi.

A visitor will find smoke still curling from the kitchen window-modern; gas-fired stoves have still not arrived in the villages of the desert. The postman carries mail on camelback. Most villages now boast electricity, though strong gusts of wind can interrupt its supply, so that the twinkling lights of kerosene lamps still illuminate the night. The government has provided telephone lines, and even the smallest village has at least one would the villagers have for telephones, where their neighbor’s are no more than a shout away? The television is a new marvel in their homes, something they watch when there is electricity, but from which they are strangely detached: it reflects, after all, cultures far removed from their own. And a network of roads means that they can travel more easily between villages, and to the neighboring towns. There was a time, till a few decades ago, when villagers would sing of rain to children because it was a rare visitor: today, with the increasing green cover, as a result of the network of canals and of electricity-fed tube wells, rain is less of a rarity.

Children are no longer surprised at the fact of motorized transport. They are beginning to forget too the fierce desert storms that would shift entire sand dunes and snuff out everything in their way: once again, the increasing fields under green cover, and the spread of the habitations has put a check on the harsh winds that once raced through empty landscapes. Life in the desert is in a stage of transition: but the traditions remain-they gave desert life its unique flavor.