Travelling in Rajasthan in February 2008
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The first thing I sight in Mandawa town are a pair of peacocks strolling freely on the main road. They don’t seem much different in their attitude from roosters in villages that fearlessly wander in search of something to peck. They laze on the unmetalled road undaunted, callously moving to a corner when my bus roars into the scene with its high decibel engine. The driver honks at men, cows and peacocks alike, warning about the entry of his brute tin drum that cares little for anything on the way.
Mandawa’s two main roads are just wide enough to let a bus barely make it through, squeezing between gutters on either side. If two wide-bodies of equal might encounter each other in this constrained space, they get into a battle of furious honking until one of them surrenders and retracts. The small town often gets filled with the noise of bus drivers in conflict that gets broadcasted to everyone in town.
The town has peacocks not just wandering on the roads, but also painted on the walls of its crumbling old havelis (mansions) that are covered in colors from corner to corner. In fact, Shekhawati region that encloses Mandawa is sometimes referred to as the world’s largest open air art gallery. Large havelis dot the town that once used to house big families of traders, with each inch of the walls elaborately painted with floral designs, images from Indian mythologies, and portraits of people who framed the history of Shekhawati.
Shekhawati’s good days date beyond two centuries when traders from Delhi used to take this route to reach ports of Gujarat. Passing traders brought prosperity that came in the form taxes collected from wayfarers. Increasing disposable income lead to flourishing population of artisans who decorated the towns with rich colours and painted houses of merchants living opulent lives.
But Shekhawati’s date with fortune had to end with the changing political landscape in Delhi as well as in neighbouring regions of Rajasthan. Kingdoms of Bikaner and Jaipur on either sides of Shekhawati lowered taxes and wooed traders. And later, in the days of dominance of the British, the Mughal empire crumbled and old systems of trade ceased to exist. But the infallible and enterprising Marwari merchants survived the blow and migrated to the new centers of trade – Mumbai and Calcutta. As they prospered in the new cities in the 19th and early 20th century, they propelled money into their homelands to build lavish Havelis that stood as symbol of their pride and success. With local artisan employed to beautify these buildings, Shekhawati emerged as the open art gallery that it is today.
It is easy to stumble upon these richly painted havelis in Madawa. I walk past a few of these crumbling colourful structures as I get down from the bus and onto the dusty street, trying to find my way to the hotel. But the surprise comes when I set into the veranda of my hotel whose walls make a good attempt to match the decor of the old Havelis. Its concrete walls are typical and boring and doesn’t have much in comparison to the thick plasters and wooden supports of the havelis, but the frescoes on them make an honest attempt to brighten the atmosphere. Next to the bed in my room is an erotic image – not usually seen on the walls of havelis – of a young Rajput royal man with his lady, in their intimate moment. I do not know if the uneasy expression on the face of the young man in the painting is a failure of the painter or a job very well done, but the painting definitely surprises me in a time when eroticism is becoming less acceptable in India than in the ancient times.
Thus began my explorations of painted towns of Shekhawati.
Continued at Havelis of Shekhawati
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