 Despite
the challenges that the desert environment
offers, people have settled all over the
Thar and have innovated in their own small
ways to make the arid sands habitable.
There are agricultural and pastoral settlements;
villages that have become pilgrimage centres;
there are settlements along the river
bank or wherever water is to be found,
fortified shelters offer sanctuary , while
jobs are to be found in mining towns and
at seasonal fairs or melas. The central
place is occupied by either a village
well or a temple as in the case of the
village Mukam where all social and cultural
life revolves around the temple of Jambheswarji
founded in 1593 on the samadhi (grave)
of the saint. Water is, of course, the
deciding factor in their location, except
in the case of villages like Goriya which
are situated on the Aravalli tract where
water is plentiful.
The most colourful villages in the Thar
are to be found on the Shekhawati tract.
These have well-built houses, more often
then not with painted walls and beautiful
decorations and wall paintings. If the
villages of the Thar are dotted with jhonpas,
the cities feature a variety of architectural
forms and structures. They depict either
varying forms of adjustment with the inclement
weather or intense love and pride for
architectural richness apd extravagance.
Some of the towns show excellent town-planning
and settlement development. Although habitations
are designed keeping in mind the climate,
they are also products of the political
and cultural history of the region.
 Some
self - sufficient rural villages persist
even today and a compact settlement with
its tank or well and a struggling bunch
of acacias, tamarix and zizyphus in the
midst of yellowish sand is still the dominant
feature of the landscape. Just as water
is the raison d' etre for the location
of villages, truly urban centres and cities
are often associated with a fort perched
on a hill, a palace surrounded by a haphazard
collection of houses and enclosed by a
city wall, the market occupying the central
position on the roads joining the opposite
gates.
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