Camel, The Ship of Desert

This cute bronze statue of an Indian camel, one of the queerest animals of the hot climate, is a marvel of craftsmanship. The camel, a synonym of Rajasthan, more particularly of its deserts as also of the drier regions of Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat, and hence popularly known as 'the ship of desert', is one of the prime attractions of the community of tourists reaching here. An animal of too large a size to accommodate in a house, the camel is, however, a purely domesticated being, which is basically calm, quiet and obedient scarcely seen fighting, quarreling or biting each other. It hardly ever agitates and is a willing creature to obey its master, sitting at his command for letting him ride, getting up in readiness and, irrespective of season's roughness, a parching earth or a roaring sky, and of the path which it has to tread, a marshy plain or uneven sand dunes, moving in the direction its master desires. This decent, non-quarreling, quiet animal is hardly ever boisterous, or is rather quite secretive and composed even in making love or in its sexual indulgence. It appears to be well content within it and in context to the outside world, whether it is single or in its community. When let loose for grazing, camels prefer flocking in groups and sometimes retaliate when obstructed from feeding.

Except for its size and body colour, the statue is a realistic representation of the animal. The camel is a crude zigzag animal formed of curves, humped back with a number of ups and downs, tall ugly legs, long neck, small tail, flat large hoops and an over-all uneven bony physiognomy, rough and uncouth, yet this artefact imitating it is contrarily so tempting and sweet. In casting its face and features, the statue has characteristically caught the essentials and the inherent aspects of a camel. It seems to brim with such life-like vigour that one never knows when it will begin walking with its long strides. Its emotionally charged eyes appear to reveal its inner contentment and its raised muzzle seems to announce it, or to say something, perhaps, of the half-forgotten tales of the past, of maddening love, its yearnings, unions and separations, of devouring deserts and deceiving mirages and of close ties and far off horizons, the tales that it has woven around it. It seems to proudly assert that many of the great Arabian romances would not have occurred or been accomplished, or Dhola would not have met and united with Maru, if it had not lent a helping hand. In fables and legends, the camels had measured speed, sixty miles an hour, fifty miles an hour and the like, and were corresponding called sathani, pachasani etceteras.

In desert parts, camel has been all through the prime means of transport of goods as well as of human beings, a vehicle used alike by the rulers and the ruled. Even to this day, things have not much changed and even defense forces are compelled to use camel for access in inaccessible areas of desert and for transporting arms and ammunitions during wars. Indian army maintains regular camel divisions. A large part of trade and commerce in this desert part depends on camel. The camel has in its stomach a sack of extra water, with which it feeds itself when it does not get water from outside and helps it survive for days. Based on it, there prevail folks, wrong or right, that warriors, having lost their direction in desert and not finding any water anywhere, killed their camels and quenched their thirst with the water they contained within them. This statue, with a lavish double kathi, a kind of wooden saddle, endowed with a gorgeous look of gold, as rich foot-rests appended to it and its lavish costume, ornaments and high breed, depicts a camel in use of a royal couple.

This description by Prof. P.C. Jain and Dr Daljeet. Prof. Jain specializes on the aesthetics of ancient Indian literature. Dr Daljeet is the chief curator of the Visual Arts Gallery at the National Museum of India, New Delhi. They have both collaborated on numerous books on Indian art and culture.