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For
what is referred to as
a desert, Rajasthan is amazingly populated : its
landscape scattered with a number of villages and
hamlets, telltale signs of tree groves and
population of cattle being the only indication
that there is such a settlement in close proximity,
The typical village has always been difficult to spot
tell one is actually upon it, Its simplest hamlets,
the most basic from of civilisation 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 are covered with a
plaster of clay, cow dung, and hay, making a termite
free facade that blends in with the sand of the
countryside around it, Boundaries for houses and land
holdings, called barras, are make of the dry branches
of a fettle like shrub the long sharp thorns a
deterrent for straying cattle.
A village that is even a little larger may have pucca
houses, or larger living units usually belonging to
the village zamindar family.
Each village is a multicommunity settlement, the
various castes creating a structure of dependence
based on the nature of the work. The Village
settlement are usually the Rajputs, the warrior race
whose kings ruled, till recently, over these lands.
The rajputs served their kings, joing their armies and
raising their cavalries, but and attendant pursuit was
as agriculturists.
AGRICULTURAL PRACTICES
Though
there are vast tracts of the desert in western
rajasthan the ecological environment is semiarid in
eastern Rajasthan, where rivers and a lasher green
cover are present there is more rain, and the seasonal
crops are plentiful. In these harsh climatic
conditions, women tend to the cattle and their
milking, while the elderly or the young take them out
to pastures for grazing.
Rajasthan's
settlements don't have oasis that are typical of their
counterparts around the world. Water is trapped into
man made ponds, but this is intended for daily use and
cannot be used for farming it would not be enough to
begin with, Three important crops grown here are wheat
corn and millets, with the last being used for baking
breads in the villages, while those in larger towns
show a preference for wheat flour.
ON
A CAMEL SAFAR
T here
can be no better way of experiencing life in the
desert that through a journey into its hinterland on
camel back , Special tours can be arranged so that you
can camp close to a village , participating in aspects
of village life without disturbing it in turn.
A camel is not the easiest animal on which to ride,
but then the option of waling in the sand is an even
tougher one. The rocking motion of the camel takes
getting used to and at first the time seems to pass
very slowly. This is not surprising for the only
constants seem to be the discomfort caused by the
camel's movement and the unchanging panorama of sheets
and waves of sand with a little scrub.
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