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Sunday, December 12, 2010

the tales of Romance, in the golden sands of Rajasthan

Among desert foliage is this sterling temple of the artistic excellence from Gurjara Partiharas
The jewels of Osian
Art blooms in desert, Osian



the osian is supposed to be the village from where all Oswal jains seem to have emerged. A temple sculpture in Osian. 55 km from Jodhpur is the sleepy village of Osian. old artistic havelis, lovely children who ask for pens to write their homework for school, saturated in the smiles and laughter.Very popular old temples from 11to 12 century by Gurjara Partiharas. Schiya Mata temple is the new name of this ancient temple and a lot of devotees flock here, and so is the case with ancient Jain temple that has ongoing renovation to preserve this great heritage of Jainism. Again a lot of devotees who have a nice clean place to stay over night by the temple run --Dharm (religious)+sala ( place)and to perform the oblations to the Tirthankars.
Jai Jinendra. The best of dried vegetables with exotic desert names come from Osian which is a centre of trde in these colourful desert vegetables.

Saturday, December 11, 2010

whispering desert sand


Mehrangarh fort, Jodhpur



if you travel through Rajasthan you feel lost, the rainbows that stay in sky you see them descend earth. The turbans and the vivacious enchanting colours of women's attire are veritable rainbows in motion. The ubiquitous gold of the sun embraces the the timeless particles of sand and all turns into an ethereal golden kingdom. Among this land dwell people who are the subject of fairy tales--nay, they create exotic tales of valour, love, devotion, and a magical land of mythos.
To see only their grand forts among brute massive daunting rocks you see but a little of their soul. To peep in their soft and poetic heart you marvel how they chiseled hard stone to create butter soft lattices and jharokhas through which mysterious beauties surveyed the world. They say the world is a shadow, but only in Rajasthan you can see in the architecture the seduction of sinewy rough, sun into shadowy feminine softness of somnambulant shade. Paulo Coelho weaves the magic of desert and oasis in his novel The Alchemist; in Rajasthan they transformed the desert into earth-buried treasures of water in the vast network of step-wells locally called bawaris.
Rajasthan has been endowed with challenges in its landscape--the endless desert is diluted with rocky mountainous terrain. But what can daunt these hardy breed of humanity. The very rocks they hewed from the chest of earth and imbued soft lilting poetry and music in the stones. Go travel out to Osian temples 55 kms from Jodhpur and to the ancient capital of Jodhpur at Mandore, climb the Mehrangarh fort and you will find hard and rough in the ramparts of the fort and velvety sublimity in temple sculptures. this is what Rajasthanis are-- sturdy and rough on the outside like the landscape and soft inside like the spiritual art of their beautiful temples.