Namaskaram !
Welcome, Padharo ! I'm Mathini, a French woman who has been living in Rajasthan for 10 years. Despite being imbued with Indian culture from a young age it wasn't until 2014 that my Indian adventure really began. I left everything behind in France and set off on a 6-year journey through the land of Gandhi. These adventures are gathered in this blog which aspires, in an intentionally positive spirit, to bear witness to India's remarkably diverse and multifaceted cultural heritage. If this website sparks a desire to pack your bags and set off for an Indian adventure, it will have achieved its purpose. Subh Yatra on Magik India and beautiful explorations in the sacred land of Bharat...
If Gujarat captivates me, it is above all by the human richness of its communities. After exploring the world of the Rabari of Kutch and Saurashtra, I now take you to meet the Rathwa, an ethnic group with a fascinating heritage. Between the mystical protection of their sacred groves and the excitement of their festivals, they reveal to us a world where pictorial art and age-old traditions forge a culture of rare intensity.
The Mata ni Pachedi, literally “the goddess in the background,” is the triumph of fervour over exclusion. Invented by the Vaghari nomads, deprived of temples, this textile art made cotton canvas the nomadic sanctuary of the Mother Goddess. More than a “Kalamkari of Gujarat”, it is a painted prayer, a beauty born on the margins which today stands out as a recognised and celebrated treasure.
It was while finishing my story about Mount Girnar that something became obvious: I had forgotten to write about Junagadh, the thousand-year-old city at its feet. To ignore this architectural UFO would have been unforgivable. For Junagadh is a theatre of unusual contrasts, where the extravagance of the Nawabs of Gujarat challenges the splendour of the raw stone of the Rajput citadels. A void finally filled.
As a lime sentinel emerging from the mineral chaos, the Chemrey gompa appears carved out of the raw verticality of a rocky spur. Founded in the 17th century by the lama Tagsang Raspa to sanctify the memory of King Sengge Namgyal, this bastion of the Drukpa lineage spreads its immaculate walls in dizzying terraces, lifting the chant of the monks towards the azure of Ladakh.
The Santhal people constitute one of India’s largest indigenous communities, primarily settled in the states of Jharkhand, West Bengal, Odisha, and Bihar. They draw their strength from Sarna Dharma, a spiritual tradition that places nature and sacred groves at the heart of their world. This profound connection to the environment is reflected even on the walls of their homes, which are adorned with exquisitely detailed geometric and floral paintings. Yet, beneath this harmony lies the identity of a warrior people forged by centuries of resistance against British colonialism and an ongoing struggle to protect their ancestral lands.
Imagine a kitchen utensil capable of rivaling Teflon, yet born of the earth, long before the industrial era. Deep within the dense forests of Chhota Udepur, in Gujarat, the Dhanak community jealously guards an ancestral secret: lacquered pottery. Here, tribal ingenuity outpaces modern technology to offer a healthy, eco-friendly, and naturally non-stick way of cooking.
Some forms of art do not merely traverse time; they suspend it. Deep within the tribal strongholds of India, where the forests of Chhattisgarh and Odisha still whisper tales millennia old, Dhokra survives. A living vestige of the Indus Valley Civilization, this craft has perpetuated the metaphysical process of “lost-wax casting” for 4,000 years. A true relic of the Bronze Age, shaped by tribal hands, Dhokra continues with a raw grace to defy the standardisation of the modern world.
In the rural plains of Chhattisgarh, in central India, lives a community whose physical appearance tells a story of defiance, faith, and human dignity. They are the Ramnami: a group of “untouchables” (Dalits) who, more than a century ago, decided to inscribe their devotion directly onto their skin to protest social exclusion. The Ramnami Samaj are not merely an “exotic” religious group; they represent one of the first non-violent protest movements of modern India.
