Jaisalmer

Jain Temple, Jaisalmer

After a delicious breakfast of masala omelets, pohu, and chai, we wander up the hill to the Amber Fort, a sandcastle citadel that rises from the plains and is still home to about 300 residents.  Our waiter tells us only Hindus are allowed to live there now, as he gestures toward the mosque, Jain temple, and church all of which are outside the walls--he didn't know where the synagogue was located, but we understand there is one somewhere in the Golden City.  Despite an early arrival, our morning dawdle has put us at the fort just as the tour buses disgorge, and we find ourselves wedged into throngs of Germans, French, Brits and Gujaratis.  American tourists are comparatively rare, and when we’re asked where we’re from, we’re invariably greeted with unchecked smiles and an eagerness to practice English if only to tell us they have a brother or friend in New York or Chicago.  Fortunately a few steps beyond the Royal Palace, the crowds disappear, and we’re able to wander the through the nine interlocking Jain temples in relative peace.  Relative peace is everything in India. 

Raj queen's room Mehrangarh Fort, Jodhpur

We keep asking ourselves what the British made of this world when they arrived.  As much as we may revile the multi-national corporations today, Exxon had nothing on the Brits.  The East Indian Company enjoyed exclusive trade rights from 1600AD, but it couldn’t have been easy for the corporate brass to negotiate with Jain, Hindu, and Sikh rulers let alone those pesky Rajput Maharajas. This latter group of desert dwellers hail from the Marwar, Land of Death—hard to know whether it was named for the summer temperatures that hover around 122F/50C or for the fierce wars fought over this arid expanse of sand.  The Rajputs were a set of ethnically-related, long-time warring clans, each of which traced its lineage back to the sun or moon or whatever celestial body would give it more legitimacy in land disputes.  The East Indian Company took a different tack and simply established its own army, then through a combination of brutal force, irresistible bribery, and the allure of capitalism essentially ruled India for over 200 years.  At times the Company simply paid off tribal Maharajas to stop fighting, which helped to deepen the Raj leaders’ decadent and corrupt rule.  Afterall, what do you do when you’re genetically pre-disposed to killing and the Brits take away your raison d’etre?  You turn to harems, polo, and erotic painting in gold, not to mention the import of Dutch tiles.

Hindu sculpture in Jain Temple

Jain holy figure not to be confused with Buddha

holy man with donation plate

feet washing for Tirthankaras
the holy men who appear every
300 million years

Perhaps the Brits expended less energy than us in trying to sort through the religious iconography, but we keep encountering figures that baffle us completely.  Here are a few of the images from the Jain temple, which contained multiple Hindu sculptures—we’re not entirely why—and a sign that reads, “Don’t give money to Holy Men." 

rice for Jain offering--the original swastika
co-opted and rotated by Hitler

Mr. Sweet Potato Head?  Please
excuse cultural insensitivity,
but this guy really needed a sign

 We, who have trouble enough with stations of the cross, are finding this all a stretch and are feelig a bit religiously challenged