passions that may blind one to careful
and conscious thought. Alternately, the
energies derived from passion can also
engender useful activity and industri-
ousness. The notion of the gunas origi-
nated in the metaphysics of the
Samkhyaschool, one of the six schools
of traditional Hindu philosophy, and
although much of Samkhya meta-
physics connected with the gunas has
long been discredited, the idea of the
gunas and their qualities has become a
pervasive assumption in Indian culture.
Rajashekhara
(10th c.) Dramatist notable for writing
plays both in Sanskrit and Prakrit.
Rajashekhara’s Sanskrit plays were highly
literary, and it seems that they were
probably intended for reading rather
than performance.
Rajasimhavarman
(8th c.) Ruler in the Pallava dynasty
who, like his predecessors, was a great
patron of the arts. His reign saw the con-
struction of the last of the magnificent
shore temples built on the Bay of
Bengal, at Mahabalipuram in Tamil
Nadu. The temple’s major deitywas the
god Shiva, but a smaller shrine also held
an image of the god Vishnu. Although
these temples have been weathered by
time and the elements, they remain
some of the most visited sites in south-
ern India.
Rajasthan
(“land of kings”) Modern Indian state on
the border of Pakistan between the
states of Punjaband Gujarat, created by
combining a network of princely states
with Ajmer, formerly under British con-
trol. These principalities were the rem-
nants of small kingdoms, usually
maintained by force of arms, giving
Rajasthan its well-entrenched martial
tradition. Many cities in Rajasthan have
large forts originally built as defensive
strongholds, which in modern times
have been popular tourist attractions.
Geographically, the state is split diago-
nally by the Aravalli Hills, creating two
distinct climatic zones. The south gets
more rainfall and has traditionally been
more thickly settled, whereas the north
blends gradually into the Thar Desert—
rendered cultivable in recent years by a
system of irrigation canals. While the
state’s most important pilgrimage site is
the city of Pushkar, other locales of
interest abound. Among them, the tem-
ple of Hanuman at Mehndipur has
gained regional importance as a site for
curing mental illness, and the Karni
Matatemple in the village of Deshnokis
noted for its sacred rats. For general
information about Rajasthan and all the
regions of India, an accessible reference
is Christine Nivin et al., India. 8th ed.,
Lonely Planet, 1998.Rajasthani
One of the two influential “schools” of
Indian miniature painting, the other
being the Pahari. Distinctions between
the two schools are largely geographical
and thus somewhat arbitrary, since theRajasthaniA miniature painting in the
Rajasthani style, circa 1730.