Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v2.c29.t2.107

v2.c29.t2.107

Physiography of the Country.—There is little to vary the physiography of this region, and small occasion to boast either of its physical or moral beauties; yet, strange to say, I have met with many whose love of country was stronger than their perceptions of abstract veracity, who would dwell on its perfections, and prefer a mess of rabri, or porridge made of bajra, to the greater delicacies of more civilized regions. To such, the tibas, or ‘sand-ridges,’ might be more important than the Himalaya, and their diminutive and scanty brushwood might eclipse the gigantic foliage of this huge barrier. Verdure itself may be abhorrent to eyes accustomed to behold only arid sands; and a region without tufans or ‘whirlwinds’; or armies of locusts rustling like a tempest, and casting long shadows on the lands, might be deemed by the prejudiced, deficient in the true sublime. Occasionally the sandstone formation rises above the surface, resembling a few low isolated hills; and those who dwell on the boundaries of Nagor, if they have a love of more decided elevations than their native sandhills afford, may indulge in a distant view of the terminations of the Aravalli.