Desert Tales 2

Beautiful stone sculptures of deities.

This is Rama, a reincarnation of Vishnu, and this sculpture is quite unique because it depicts him with a beard. Beards were big in these parts in those days, especially as the Mughal influence kicked in.

Royal crash zone

The women of the court would sit up here on comfy mattresses with lots of pillows, and watch the world go by way below.

This painting depicts a coronation procession, the statue in front is Gangaur, a fertility goddess.

This is a stone model of the whole fort complex. Even the model is an intricate work of art, and gives you an idea of the incredible complexity and scale of the old city.

It also demonstrates how much Indian tourists love dark pants.

Actual toilet signs.

And here’s a few pics from the royal court, from when the Maharawal and his family still lived here, along with their countless slaves and servants.

Brolly brigade

Military manoeuvring

Hugely overloaded elephant slave

The royal palanquin, and its wrinkled bearers

A Rajput Love Story

This picture depicts a scene from a very well known Rajputi folk tale, the story of Mumal and Mahendra. It’s a wonderful (but predictably tragic) story, and I really want to tell it to you …

So get yourself a cuppa, sit back, and imagine you’re sitting around a fire in the Rajasthani desert, under a huge star-filled sky, and an old woman is sitting nearby, telling everyone this story, one which her grandmother told her when she was just a little girl ….

Once upon a time in the Thar Desert, there was an extremely beautiful Rajput girl called Mumal, whose beauty and charm came to be known throughout the vast desert kingdoms. She was of marrying age, and she wanted to marry, but she didn’t want to marry any old Gam, Deepak or Hari - she wanted someone special, someone who would totally win her heart with his exceptional bravery and intelligence.

So Mumal, who knew she was in high demand around the place, constructed a maze of dangerous physical obstacles around her haveli palace, through which many princes and nobles tried to pass, in order to reach her and ask for her hand in marriage. But they all failed. Obviously they weren’t brave or smart enough.

One day a man called Mahendra, who was the son of a king, was hunting nearby, and he and his party rested on the banks of the river. Mahendra was a Mewari, from the Jaisalmer region, but he’d travelled away from his kingdom and was hunting in Mumal’s adjoining kingdom of Sind, which is now Pakistan.

Mahendra was already married, and had a bunch of wives back at home, all of whom were probably cooking, cleaning and looking after the kids at the time of his hunting expedition.

Actually, no they weren’t, he was a prince, so the slaves did all that stuff, the wives were probably just lazing around eating grapes and getting their henna redone, or getting more piercings through their noses and screaming at their slaves because it hurts.

Mumal saw Mahendra from her high haveli window, and she liked the look of him, so she sent food and water to him and his party. Her messengers also told Mahendra he was welcome to spend the night at her palace, but if he wanted to he’d need to pass through a dangerous labyrinth to get there.

Mahendra had already heard of the famous beauty Mumal, and, in all his greatness, he got through all the dangerous obstacles to her palace completely unscathed. Not a scratch.

This caused Mumal’s heart to start beating like a racing camel’s, and she immediately decided to accept Mahendra as her consort. They spent the night together, up there on the beautiful palace rooftop, under the star-filled desert sky. And I bet they did more than just hold jewelled hands.

Mahendra returned to his palace the next morning, completely smitten, and immediately found himself a strong, reliable and fast camel who could get him over to Mumal’s comfy pad within a few hours. He called his new camel Cheetal.

From then on, every night Mahendra would make the journey across the desert to Mumal’s kingdom, and spend the night with her. Needless to say, he always brought his shiny crown jewels with him. Afterwards he’d speed home on Cheetal and be back in his own bed before dawn, and pretend as if nothing had happened.

After many months passed, Mahendra’s father, the king, became concerned that none of Mahendra’s wives were getting pregnant lately, and he wanted to know what was up (or not up).

Some in the royal court had already gotten wind of Mahendra’s exploits with Mumal, and they told the king exactly what was going on. The king was outraged, but knew he couldn’t just order Mahendra to stop seeing Mumal. He needed to be a bit smarter about it.

So the king ordered that the camel Cheetal’s leg be broken, so Mahendra could no longer get to Mumal’s quickly. Poor Cheetal. He’s the real victim in this tale.

That night Mahendra had no choice but to jump on another, slower camel, Slothal, and he headed off to Mumal’s after dark anyway.

Ok ok I made up that camel name myself, but Cheetal's speedy name is real.

When Mahendra didn’t arrive on time Mumal got bored waiting for him, and decided to play a game with her sister, Sumal. Sumal dressed as a man, and they pranced around the haveli palace, play acting as man and wife.

Still Mahendra didn’t arrive.

Eventually Sumal and Mumal got so tired of waiting for him that they both fell asleep on Mumal’s bed, with Sumal still dressed as a man.

You can guess what happened.

Mahendra turned up, saw Mumal in bed with who he thought was a man, and then left in a complete huff, convinced that she was cheating on him. I’m sure it didn’t occur to him that he himself had been cheating on his umpteen wives every night for the past many months, and that he was actually being a complete bloody hypocrite. And not that anything happened anyway. Mahendra left his riding cane on the side of Mumal’s bed before he left, just to let her know he’d been there.

And he never showed up there ever again.

What a guy.

Mumal, of course, was completely distraught by what had happened, and by Mahendra’s continued absence, and she tried to explain the misunderstanding to him. But Mahendra, hero that he was, refused to even listen to her.

So, in her intense agony, and in order to prove her innocence, Mumal lit a massive bonfire and decided to jump right into the middle of it.

Hmmm. How does that work?

Mahendra, on hearing this was happening, was horrified, and realised he was actually being a complete dick, surprise surprise. He raced to Mumal’s fire, but it was all too little too late.

When he saw his beloved barbecuing away in there Mahendra decided it wasn’t fair that she got to have all the fun, so he jumped right in to join her.

And that was the end of their hot sizzling love affair, it all ended up in smoke.

And that, unfortunately, is where this grisly tale ends.

There’s no magic happy ending.

Sorry, but everything in this story happened well before happy endings were such a thing.

And the morals of the story? Well …

a. Men can be royal wankers sometimes.

b. Self-immolation is for mugs.

c. It’s easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than it is for it to stop a stupid king from breaking its leg, and then, the very next day, getting itself eaten in large bowls of spicy camel curry because it was no longer regarded as useful.

http://buymeacoffee.com/krolesh9

Go to Part 3