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Imagine a place so steeped in art and culture that it’s known as the world’s
largest open air art gallery! That’s Shekhawati, a province tucked away in
the vast semi-desert countryside of Rajasthan, about 125 kms from Jaipur.
The Aravallis run through this region and the presence of this rocky barrier comes
as a surprise in this flat and arid landscape, dotted here and there with picturesque
dunes and colourful Havelis.
A peep into the culture of Shekhawati gives us insight into the life of everyday
India, seen through the lens of art and architecture. It helps us understand the
vivid tapestry of Rajasthani and Indian life as it was lived in the glorious days
of yore and continues to date!
The fine art that is displayed on the Havelis or mansions of Rajasthan leaves every
visitor dumbfounded. Here you can savour art that is a part of everyday Indian life
through the comparatively recent paintings of these Havelis. This art form now briskly
going into extinction was patronized by families, some of whom still continue to
be India’s leading merchants and bankers. This region has been the home to
the Marwari community, which for more than a century, has been the backbone of commercial
entrepreneurship in India.
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The genealogies of the trading and industrial houses of the country indicate that
most of them have their roots in some town or village of Shekhawati. The area being
totally arid and local opportunities extremely limited, the enterprising menfolk
moved out of their homeland to try out their luck, and the rest is history recorded
on the picturesque walls of Shekhawati - a history of wealth and a lively ostentatious
life style.
At the turn of the 19th century new motifs began appearing, characteristic of the
Raj’s influence upon Indian culture. Cars, planes, portraits of the Haveli
owners primly dressed, gramophones and English ‘sahebs’ in hunting attire
- all pose brilliantly in their massive wall canvases. The region thus came to have
a veritable wealth of wall paintings in town after town, village after village,
which in its abundance is unmatched in the world.
A walk through the towns and villages of Shekhawati is no less an experience than
a walk through the famed portals of any great museums anywhere in the world!
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