Rajasthan is a state in northern India. It covers 342,239 square kilometres (132,139 sq mi) or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the largest Indian state by area and the seventh largest by population. It is on India's northwestern side, where it comprises most of the wide and inhospitable Thar Desert and shares a border with the Pakistani provinces of Punjab to the northwest and Sindh to the west, along the Sutlej-Indus River valley. It is bordered by five other Indian states: Punjab to the north; Haryana and Uttar Pradesh to the northeast; Madhya Pradesh to the southeast; and Gujarat to the southwest. Its geographical location is 23°.3' to 30°.12' North latitude and 69°.30' to 78°.17' East longitude, with the Tropic of Cancer passing through its southernmost tip.
The Meghwal or Meghwar people live primarily in northwest India, with a small population in Pakistan. Their traditional occupation was agricultural farming, cattle-herding and weaving. Meghwals are known for their contribution to embroidery and the textile industry. Most are Hindu by religion, with Rishi Megh, Kabir, Ram Devji and Bankar Mataji their chief gods.
Jodhpur District is a district in the State of Rajasthan in western India. The city of Jodhpur is the administrative headquarters of the district.
Komal Kothari (1929-2004) was an Indian folklorist and ethnomusicologist. Komal Kothari had devoted his life to investigation and documentation of folk traditions of western Rajasthan. Kothari received the honour of Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan from the Government of India. Komal Kothari painstakingly worked to preserve the cultural memory and made numerous recordings of folk music. He studied Langa and Manganiyar communities of folk musicians of Thar desert. Komal Kothari was not only a scholar but also a man of action. He co-founded Rupayan Sansthan - Rajasthan Institute of Folklore, in 1960 in the village of Borunda. The institution houses a repository of recordings by Kothari and works to collect, preserve, and disseminate the oral traditions of Rajasthan. Kothari was co-editor of the journal Lok Sanskriti, a journal based on the theme of folk culture. Besides, Kothari arranged international performances of folk artists from Rajasthan in several counries. His monograph on Langas, a folk-musician caste in Rajasthan, was enlivened by an accompanying album of recordings of twelve folk songs sung by Langa artistes. His understanding of desert culture and its connections with ecology endeared him to the environmentalists. He planned a museum based on the ecology of the broom’, to show the technical use of specific types of desert grass for specific purposes. His vision was actualised in the form of Arna Jharna - The Thar Desert Museum of Rajasthan in Borunda, near Jodhpur. Kothari was a scholar of patterns of culture and his expertise enriched both folklore studies and history.
Kathputli is a string puppet theatre, native to Rajasthan, India, and is the most popular form of Indian puppetry. Being a string marionette, it is controlled by a single string that passes it from the top of the puppet over the puppeteers.
Vijaydan Detha, also known as Bijji, was a noted Indian writer of Rajasthani literature. He was a recipient of several awards including the Padma Shri and the Sahitya Akademi Award.
Rajasthani literature written in various genres starting from 1000 AD. But, it is generally agreed that modern Rajasthani literature began with the works of Suryamal Misran. His most important works are the Vansa Bhaskara and the Vir Satsai. The Vans Bhaskar contains accounts of the Rajput princes who ruled in what was then Rajputana, during the lifetime of the poet (1872–1952). The Vir Satsai is a collection of hundreds of couplets.
Charan is a caste in South Asia natively residing in the Rajasthan and Gujarat states of India, as well as the Sindh and Balochistan provinces of Pakistan. Historically, Charans have been engaged in diverse occupations like bards, poets, historians, pastoralists, agriculturalists and also administrators, jagirdars and warriors and some even as traders.
Duvidha (transl. Dilemma) is a 1973 ghost movie directed by Mani Kaul, based on a Rajasthani story of the same name by Vijaydan Detha. The film stars Ravi Menon and Raisa Padamsee in lead roles. The film was critically acclaimed and won the director the National Film Award for Best Direction and Critics Award for Best film at the 1974 Filmfare Awards. This film was remade in 2005 as Paheli, starring Shahrukh Khan and Rani Mukherjee in the lead roles.
Dhani or Thok is a type of hamlet, the smallest conglomeration of houses, in sandy Bagar region of northwestern states of Rajasthan, Haryana and Punjab in India. Per Census of India, 70% of Indians live in villages. 80% of the villages have a population of less than 1000 people and each consists of a cluster of hamlets. Most dhanis are nucleated settlements, while others are more dispersed. A dhani could be as small as one isolated house for a single family or a small cluster of several houses which could grow in number with successive generations, and even become a village by itself. All families living in a dhani are relatives or at least are of the same caste. An isolated collection of several of dhanis, which could be few hundred meters apart, constitutes a gram panchayat village community. A typical dhani in the arid zone of Rajasthan is a cluster of huts with a boundary made of dried shrubs around it and with owners' livestock such as goats, sheep and camels inside the bara. Dhani are atypically mud huts in Rajasthan. Houses in dani nowadays are made of modern brick and mortar, specially in affluent higher-per-capita-income states of Haryana and Punjab, and some richer families of Rajasthan.
Rajasthani people or Rajasthanis are a group of Indo-Aryan peoples native to Rajasthan, a state in Northern India. Their language, Rajasthani, is a part of the western group of Indo-Aryan languages.
The Rajasthani language movement has been campaigning for greater recognition for the Rajasthani language since 1947.
Kaanchli: Life in a Slough is a 2020 Indian period drama film that was produced and directed by Dedipya Joshii, and stars Sanjay Mishra, Shikha Malhotra, Lalit Parimoo and Nareshpal Singh Chauhan. The film was co-produced by Shobha Devi and presented by Anup Jalota. It is based on a story by Vijaydan Detha, a folk-story writer from Rajasthan, India, whose stories have been adapted into many films including Shah Rukh Khan's Paheli. Kaanchli, whose theme is social welfare, tells the story of a strong, self-reliant woman's struggle for survival.
Detha, or Detho, is a Charan clan (gotra) in Sindh province of Pakistan, and in Indian states of Rajasthan, and Gujarat.
Chandi Dan Detha is an Indian agriculturalist and Padma Shri recipient who is known for pioneering work in the field of agriculture and transforming the desert village of Borunda. Chandi Dan was elected the first Sarpanch of the village panchayat in 1955 and served four terms till he retired. He is also known for founding the premiere Rajasthani folklore institute, Rupayan Sansthan. He was also a member of the Research Advisory Committee (GOI).
Arna Jharna Museum is a folk museum located in a village called Moklawas near Jodhpur in Rajasthan. The museum opened in 2000 under the aegis of Rupayan Sansthan. It is a Museum of Folk Culture envisioned by eminent folklorist and ethno-musicologist, Padma Bhushan Komal Kothari. Arna Jharna literally means Forest and Spring. Its location showcases the terrain of Marwar region through rocky outcrops, desert cacti, and ravines.
Khejarla is a village in Bilara Tehsil of Jodhpur District. This village has its own gram panchayat. This village is a hotspot of tourist and Rajasthani culture. In this village, there are an ancient fort and old temple which is known as Bhesad Mata Temple. This temple is so many old. Most of the people in the village are engaged in subsistence farming. The village's terrain is rich in limestone and marble. Bilara, Pipar and Borunda are major nearby cities.
Ghana magra or Ghana mangra is a village in Bilara tehsil of Jodhpur District in Rajasthan. This village is near State Highway 86C. This village have its own gram panchayat. This village is very near to Tilwasni village. There are Bishnoi, Kumhar, Jaat and Rajput are in majority. This is a rural village of Rajasthan. This village farmers like to do farming. Most of farmers prefer tubewell for irrigation.
