Revision as of 10:39, 27 October 2016

Use of mud

The Times of India, May 28 2016

Kshitiz Gaur

Myth drives villagers to live in mud huts

Devmali, a small village in Ajmer district, is like a picture postcard from medieval times, untouched by the parameters of modernisation and development. All houses in this hamlet are made of mud due to the local belief that the village will face a calamity if a single pucca house is constructed.

Most of the kitchens use a `chulha' and even though some houses have power connections, villagers have opted not to use either air coolers or air conditioners. Not a single piece of iron or concrete has been used in the construction of houses.

“Someone tried to use concrete during construction and the entire house collapsed wit hin a week,“ said a villager.

A few villagers have constructed concrete homes in nearby villages, but continue to live in their mud houses in Devmali.

The villagers also do not lock up their homes, and as per police records, not a sing le case of theft or burglary has been reported in the village in the last 50 years.

“The village is dedicated to deity Dev Narayan, and therefore, we follow his tea chings even in this modern age,“ said Ramnarayan Guj jar, a resident.

“Most of us are farmers but none of us own any agricultural land. Not a single villager in this cluster of 80 families here consumes liquor or non-vegetarian food. We all continue to follow the traditional customs, and therefore, the village has no concrete house,“ he added.

Every inch of the land is registered in the name of deity Dev Narayan. “We have no dispute because land to be cultivated by each family is already marked out,“ said Sunil Gujjar, a farmer.