The River Narmada 

The Rivers of India (quiz 9/20)

Over time I had even developed an affection for these lonely sanctuaries built by the Moghum emperors across the great expanse of India.... (2)

 The river is among our holiest pilgrimage sites, worshipped as the daughter of the

god Shiva (2). 

...this rest house situated halfway up a hill on the Vindhya Range has been my retreat (2-3).

Happily, the interiors retain their original mosaic tiles, having escaped the attentions of a British administrator....

...giving the exterior of the bungalow with its pillared portico and balustraded steps an air more Victorian than Moghul (3).

 I can see fertile fields stretching for miles and miles into the southern

horizon until they meet the gray shadows of the Satpura Hills (3).

I cannot see the town of Rudra, only nineteen kilometers away, where my clerk, Mr. Chagla, lives (4).

Below Rudra, visible from our terrace at the bend of the river, sprawls the temple complex of Mahadeo (4).

With twilight, the water at Mahadeo starts flickering with tiny flames as if catching fire from the hundres of clay lamps being floated downstream for the evening devotions (4)

... in the ebbing night I sometimes think I can hear the river's heartbeat pulsing under the ground before she reveals herself at last to the achorites of Shiva deep

in meditation around the holy tank at Amarkantak (5).

descendants of the tribal races that held the Aryan invasion of India at bay for centuries in these hills (6).

 

the Vano village diety is a stone image of a half-woman with the full breasts of a fertility symbol but the torso of a coiled snake, because the tribals believe they once ruled a great snake kingdom until they were defeated by the gods of the Aryans (6).