Nomadic Narratives in the Frontier

The Thar Desert, for the longest period in its history, has fostered cultures linked by networks of mobility. The arid Thar, located between the Indo- Gangetic plains and the Indus valley, connects the north Indian plains with the riverine systems of the Indus. There exists a long history of mobility through this region, with armies, merchants, pastoralists, ascetics and bards having constantly criss crossed the desert. Mobility across frontiers promoted connectedness of economies and cultures, as is visible in the oral and written traditions of the region that are constantly woven around the motif of travel, and display similarity of themes, characters and patterns. The Thar Desert was thus a geographical, ecological, political, social and cultural frontier where innumerable invasions and migrations provided space to multiple identities as well as multiple historical imaginations.

Such conceptualization thus permits imagining the Thar as a frontier, which allowed groups to move horizontally and vertically, and in process acquire identities that were far ambivalent than what they appear to be today. Between eleventh and thirteenth centuries, the Thar provided space to displaced groups, warriors in search of employment or adventure and local tribal-pastoral groups with ability to replace older clans. From the fourteenth century onwards the Thar witnessed development of a wide range of sedentary political formations that increasingly centred themselves around the idea of ‘Rajput’. The emergence of ‘Rajput’ states, in the Thar region, that is the Bhati state of Jaisalmer and the Rathor states of Jodhpur and Bikaner, resulted sedentary agrarian ones. The process of settlement involved both control over mobile resources through raids, battles and trade, as well as channelizing of these resources into agrarian expansion. Kinship structures as well as marital and martial alliances were instrumental in this transformation. This was not merely political, but also a social and economic transformation, whereby the basis of state formation shifted from mobile pastoral wealth and pasture lands to agrarian, cultivable lands. Such a shift in arid and semi arid landscapes meant that the states were required to constantly negotiate and balance the need for a settled sedentary agrarian base amidst a mobile population dependent on circulation of resources. In this manner, exploring the Thar desert provides an opportunity to study a region where sedentary state formations emerged amidst predominantly mobile population.