BRAHMA'S PUSHKAR: ANCIENT INDIAN PILGRIMAGE India Book House Price: Rs 1,800 Pages: 204

Rajasthan has long been Aman Nath's unwavering muse. Right from his first book, which introduced The Painted Walls of Shekhavati (with Francis Wacziarg, 1982) to the world, to his latest offering Brahma's Pushkar: Ancient Indian Pilgrimage (with magnificent photographs by Rajan Kapoor), the desert state has gripped the fecund imagination of this writer-researcher-designer-aesthete-hotelier as no other subject has. Nath's fascination for the subject comes across vividly in his work.

PICTURE SPEAK

POSTCARDS FROM PUSHKAR: Dancers at the cattle fair (right); an aerial view of the town

The book Brahma's Pushkar delves into the past and present of this tiny jewel-like place of Hindu pilgrimage to throw up a plethora of incredibly interesting facts, legends, myths and information articulated in a style that is simple, riveting and luminous. In the first part of the book, Nath explores the concept of Brahma as the Creator right from Vedic times when he was the primordial deity to his present, much-diminished, status. For, except in Pushkar (and a few other forgotten spots around the country) the pitamaha (grandfather, also a name for Brahma) of all creation is no longer actively worshipped. Nath argues that over time, this Vedic god came to be gradually marginalised as the cults of Shiva, Vishnu and the Devi gained prominence after the spreading of the various Puranas. Although Brahma gets enshrined in the trinity of Brahma-Vishnu-Maheshwara, the homage is largely hollow. In practice, mainstream Hinduism lies firmly divided between the Vaishnavites and the Shaivites. Over the centuries, both these cults have ensured that not only was Brahma relegated to the sidelines of popular worship, but as the Puranic lore avers, he is also much maligned.

PICTURE SPEAK

PICTURE PERFECT: The annual cattle fair ((left); a sadhu (Right)

Pre-history and Brahma's place in it apart, the book is fascinating for the innumerable keen insights and pithy observations that Nath brings to present day Pushkar. Be it the changing flora and fauna of the place, the many domestic animals that are bought and sold at the annual mela that takes place there or the local Brahmins, the Nathpanthi sadhus and the itinerant western tourists who have more or less colonised Pushkar today, none escapes Nath's wondrous and telling gaze. In fact, the book is embedded with nuggets of apparent trivia that are actually of immense historical interest or documentation value. Above all, Nath's approach is that of a pilgrim out to discover whatever lies on his way. And as the book reveals, there is much socio-cultural debris that lies piled up on the blessed path of this holy oasis on the edge of the Thar desert.

To quote Nath: "What is it that a pilgrim at Pushkar perceives of the whole gamut of activity happening around him or her? The deep-rooted religious values broadly divide people into practitioners of the pravrittidharma, the idea of Karmic action which runs the 'three worlds', which are moving and non-moving as the Mahabharata puts it. Everyone living their life according to pravritti must return to the world on its terms and shall be obliged to act in conformity. But the other option exists equally. Those who choose to practise nivrittidharma, or renounce the world, must recognise only their own self-imposed limits. They can abandon this circus of life and become foresters. No one looks at them as marginalised. On the contrary, they are revered.... At Pushkar, because it is a holy pilgrimage, both the householder and the forester can, and do, meet. This interaction of saint and sinner throws up its own incongruities." Therein, perhaps, is found the play of maya (illusion).

Nath is joined in this journey of revelations by photographer Kapoor without whose remarkable pictures the book would be inconceivable. From the vast panoramic aerial shots of the terrain to minute details of ornaments worn by men, women and beasts alike, Kapoor has recorded them all in splendid detail and with a painterly eye for composition.