The Nanda Devi AffairThere is a kind of brotherhood between man and mountains.... The inescapable logic of desire leaves the mountain traveller no choice but to plan his next expedition to the very peak that may have just rejected vociferously the most singleminded of advances.' In his thirty-year sojourn in India, Bill Aitken has had two serious affairs"one, essentially spiritual in nature, with the country's rivers, the other more earthy and passionate, with her mountains. In this sequel to his first book for Penguin, Seven Sacred Rivers, he talks of his second great obsession"Nanda Devi, patron Goddess of Kumaon and Garhwal. Spanning more than a decade, from the Seventies to the Eighties, Aitken's attempts to explore the sanctuary of this most beautiful of Himalayan peaks were not, he admits, those of a professional mountaineer, but of a romantic. Accordingly, what he gives us is, in his own words, -neither a book about Himalayan climbing nor a treatise on hill theology but a diary of mountain relish.' Aitken's deep-seated study of the cult of the Goddess and the folklore and customs of the Kumaon Himalayas is chequered with deliciously acerbic asides on bumptious bureaucrats, the bane of Indian mountaineering, while the true nature lover's concern for the environment is manifest in his anger over the destruction wrought by political motivations and the ambitions of so-called professional mountaineers. |
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Page 113
... devotees of the Goddess drunk to a man and performing worship amidst the fumes of distilled barley . But as with meat the things the hillman liked were wisely accorded sacred status and the crude whisky was first offered to Nanda ...
... devotees of the Goddess drunk to a man and performing worship amidst the fumes of distilled barley . But as with meat the things the hillman liked were wisely accorded sacred status and the crude whisky was first offered to Nanda ...
Page 174
... devotees . Such craftiness would continue as long as hill women subscribed to the low opinion their menfolk had of them . Too many had grown to cherish their abject state . Bhagawati Prasad took me to Krur in the morning and climbing ...
... devotees . Such craftiness would continue as long as hill women subscribed to the low opinion their menfolk had of them . Too many had grown to cherish their abject state . Bhagawati Prasad took me to Krur in the morning and climbing ...
Page 175
... devotees in thirty years of questioning . It was valuable because Sax viewed the subject as a devotee . Unlike most Westerners he tried to understand rather than judge the often crude excesses of the Devi's followers . Sax also had the ...
... devotees in thirty years of questioning . It was valuable because Sax viewed the subject as a devotee . Unlike most Westerners he tried to understand rather than judge the often crude excesses of the Devi's followers . Sax also had the ...
Contents
The Moving Mountain | 1 |
Vital Statistics | 11 |
Beru Pakho | 20 |
Copyright | |
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Almora altitude animal ascent Badri Badrinath Bal Singh base camp beauty Bedni Bhagawati bharal Bhotia birch British buggials bungalow cave Changabang chowkidar climb climbers clouds cold crossing deity Delhi descent Devi's devotees Dharansi Dibrugheta Dumyat Everest expedition forest Ganga Garhwal glacier goats Goddess Gopal gorge Govind hill Himalayas Hindu Hom Kund honour Indian inner sanctuary Joshimath jungle Kalanka Karnaprayag Kausani Krur Kuari Kumaon Kundan lake Lata Kharak Latu load main peak meadows mist monsoon mood morning motor road mountain Mussoorie Nanda Devi Nanda Ghunti Nanda Kot Nandakini Nathu Nauti never night one's party passed path pilgrim pilgrimage porters Pratap rain Raj Jat Rhamani ridge Rishi river rock route Rup Kund sacred season seemed sheep shepherd Shipton Shiva shrine slope snow leopard Sriyantra steep stumbled summit Sutol Tapovan temple tent trail Trisul turned Uttarakhand valley village weather women worship Yashu