Abstract
The region of Rajasthan presents a contrasting picture of landscape and environment from the other parts of the country. Moreover, the Thar regions of it provide an interesting account of its progressive desiccation especially from the period of early medieval centuries which ultimately recommend the idea that ‘Man is the father of Desert’. It seems that the expansion of the ‘Great Rajputana Desert’ does not lay on the outcome of the large-scale behaviour of the atmosphere and its associated weather patterns. There is much wider agreement with the proposition that recent droughts have merely accentuated a process of ‘cultural desertification’. Too intense or unwise land use, in which there has been little or no investment in defences against environmental hazards or degradation, is commonly said to have exhausted the resilience of dry ecosystems. Drought has simply administered the coup de grâce, leaving ecosystems with more persistently or even permanently reduced productivity than they suffer from drought alone. In this set-up the study of Mayank Kumar focuses upon the pattern of human settlement and the way people depended upon an arid economy, further strengthens the idea that contemporary desertification episodes are the effects of interaction between mounting pressure on land and vegetation and the incidence of naturally occurring droughts, which are a normal part of the desert margin climates.
Historians rarely opted for such issues, thenceforth few studies are made on this subject of Rajasthan. The author is well aware about the value of the past works attempted so far, and has outlined their limitations too. However, the proposed study, like other works of the past, to clarify thesis points chiefly concentrates upon the western and desert parts of Rajasthan. Perhaps the environmental changes in the desert parts are more visible and comparatively enjoy the support of historical evidence. During the medieval period, unlike the Aravalli regions of Rajasthan, the process of desertification in the Thar arid parts remained a constant and growing geographical and physiological problem. During this period desert conditions crept into the new fertile or semi-fertile regions of Rajasthan and beyond that. The author has debated these issues with necessary details. When the capital towns of big empires of medieval times, like, Delhi, Agra and Lahore were becoming the centre of uncontrolled wealth, the resources in the Thar desert, due to the creeping of the sand, were becoming less and few. The significant aspect of Dr Mayank Kumar’s work is that his research findings are based not only on widespread survey works but also of use of all possible historical sources. His confidence on the historical potentialities of local literary sources, particularly the folk songs, which he quotes from place to place to justify his research, is noteworthy. Therefore, he could cover the long Mughal, rather medieval, period with ease and pointed out the character of ecological changes with authenticity and desirable description. And he could convincingly support the view of Eton that medieval ecologies were not static and human adaptations to the changes need to be accorded due recognition in historical writings. However the reliance upon the descriptions from vernacular literature is a risky affair, too, because it presents an isolated picture of a specific period. Unless we remain careful, we could miss the linkages and understanding of cohesive form of resistance put forth before the forces of degradation in environmental conditions. It is the core theme of a struggle fought between man and nature, which took place in the interior parts of deserts and hilly ranges.
Perhaps, this is a restricted explanation that ‘political power cannot be measured solely in terms of geographical expanse of a kingdom. A growing productive population settled in the ambit of a monarch’s capital was a more reliable indicator of a kingdom’s power’ (p. 237). It is set in the background of requirements of a centralised Mughal government. Moreover, there are some questions which need to be answered when we discuss it in the context of a government established entirely in an arid environment. The economy based on other than that of agricultural production, particularly concentrated on pastoralism in the tribal areas and distant trade routes, run through the outer limits of the territory, did play an equal role of measurement. The kingdoms of the Thar Desert spread both in Rajputana and Sind were governed on the principals of loose clan or tribal confederacy. At the time of crisis people generally supported their clan or tribal leaders. Migration within the territory equally affected the pattern of settlement and production in the state. Archival records generally talk about the people living in the Khalisa villages. Therefore, the investigation of measurement requires information also from Thakurai and tribal-administered areas. Even the Mughal government roughly estimated the income of Rajput kingdoms located in the desert areas. The author has rightly examined the previous works on the composition and stratification of society and their close proximity with the available natural resources of the region. Yet this question still remained to be investigated that under the spell of growing desiccation and presence of a large pastoral and tribal or semi-nomadic population why the character of caste division, particularly in the rural society, also grew and played a significant role in the utilisation of water resources. Generally, it is assumed that the expansion of desert conditions discourage the sedentary life and develop nomadic living. If we compare the proposed character of caste societies with the societies of the early phase of the medieval period (the Sultanate period!), we notice that caste character in it became forceful only during the later phase or roughly during the Mughal period. In this context, further, the examination of Bayly’s statement (p. 371) that ‘…royal legitimacy was itself predicted on loyalty to and protection of home lands and bodies of subjects which were conceived as valued resources’ is required because, in Rajasthan, princely states rarely exhibited the signs of regional nationalism, but rather remained more conscious about their superior sect and clan culture. As a whole, Rajput clan identity always superseded Rajasthan’s physical uniqueness. For religious considerations Rajput rulers protected certain trees, like Pipal and Khejari (p. 257). Archival records also talk about the punishment when someone violated their orders. Of course, in the protected land (auran), attached to a temple, where all types of vegetation were not allowed to be cut.
However, Dr Mayank Kumar’s book is a major contribution in the field of studies on climate and environment in the medieval Rajasthan. For the first time folk songs of Rajasthan were so aptly used for the determination of historical facts. The research work emphatically states that the history of Rajasthan was not decided by major military events alone.