SUNDAY TIMES
FEBRUARY 22 1998
Painted Towns Of The Desert
Jan Balodis


 THE OLD fort rises from the drab desert landscape silhoueted against the clear blue of a cloudless sky.

Its not untill you draw closer that you realise its surrounded by a town with two and three storey buildings, narrow streets, market place piled with vegetables and brightly coloured fabrics.This is one of the painted town of the Shekhawati region of the Indian desert state of Rajasthan.
This group of six or eight towns, a living museum dating from the 15th century to the days of the British Raj, can be visited over a few days using the town of Nawalgarh as a base. Unlike the bejewelled lake cities and palaces of Jaipur, Jodphur and Udaipur, these more modest towns are a showcase of the lives of dynasties that began to gather their riches by trading with or extracting tolls from caravans passing through on the legendary Silk Road.

The fierce, battling Rajputs warriors of the region were united under the victorious chieftain Rao Shekha in the 15th century and the area was given its name, Shekhawati, the garden of Shekha. But it was not until the 129th century that the towns expanded and became covered with the paintings that make the facades and interiors unique.
With the establishment of the great ports of Bombay and Calcutta under the British, the Overland trade routes became more or less obsolete. So the thakurs of Shekhawati. Known as Marwairs, moved themselves and their business acumen to where the action was and went on to establish some of India's great trading houses and industrial enterprises. They might no longer live in the little towns in the desert of Rajasthan but their family havelis or mansions, cane to represent the measure of their prosperity.the architectural style was for a traditional way of life.

First enter through a handsome stout door into the courtyard where visitors are received and business done on white sheet-covered cushions in the surrounding rooms. Through another set of studded double doors is the courtyard and rooms which sequestered the women of the family. A hidden fight of stairs gave the women access to little galleries above the meeting rooms where, unseen, they could see and hear the event taking place below. Rooms on the upper floors have windows projecting above the streets where its possible to sit and enjoy the activity below.

The earliest frescoes in the towns were done in the manner common to Italian frescoes- executed while the lime plaster still wet. The natural pigment was applied as a paste mixed with lime-water and curds and worked into the surface. As the surface dried a chemical reaction bonded the colour pigment and the plaster together. These old paintings use the dull colours obtained from the earth and have now faded somewhat.

As wealth and positions dictated, chajers, or builders of the mason caste, were engaged to build grander havelis, with them came the chiteras, or painter caste space, on the walls, balconies, ceilings, arches and pillars, Frescoes and paintings depict scenes from the great Hinduepics, from local folk legends and from the activities of daily life. They painted other buildings in the towns too, the temples, the domes of cenotaphs and the rims of the wells. Early in the 19th century a deep blue became available and continued to dominate into the 20th century when it was joined by a wide range of colours which did not react well with the wet plaster. A new technique was introduced. The new colour were applied on to dry plaster in the protected interiors.