Anjas Mahotsav to celebrate Rajasthani crafts in Jodhpur

By

Isabelle Crossley

Published
Oct 10, 2022

The Rekhta Foundation will celebrate and promote Rajasthani language, culture, and crafts at its first ever ‘Anjas Mahotsav’. The event will run at the Garh Govind in Jodhpur, Rajasthan from October 29 to 30. 

The event will feature celebrities, folk artists, craftspeople, and literary personalities, the Rekhta Foundation announced in a press release. The two-day, free event will be inaugurated by the Chief Minister of Rajasthan and the Maharaja of Jodhpur. Rajasthan is known for its colourful textile crafts and fashion and the fair will celebrate the people who make up the state’s clothing industry and continue its textile traditions. 
 
The cultural festival will also mark the official launch of ‘Anjas.org’, the Rekhta Foundation’s online repository for the Rajasthani language. Described by the foundation as the first and most comprehensive of its kind, the digital repository will launch with over 4,000 works by over 400 Rajasthani writers and will be continuously added to with the aim of preserving the language and culture. The foundation has been working on the project since November, 2021.

“Owing to its exclusion from the eighth schedule of constitution, the only way to learn Rajasthani is as a mother tongue,” said the Rekhta Foundation’s co-founder Sanjiv Saraf in a press release. “The multitude and richness of Rajasthani cultures and traditions are fading with the passing of time due to the lack of institutional infrastructure. We are on a vital turn of evolution where the mode of preservation is changing. Owing to the presence of technologies, today it is possible to preserve and enhance the accessibility of any language and literature more than ever. The foundation of Anjas has been laid to ignite the revival and rejuvenation of Rajasthani language and tradition by the people of Rajasthan.”