The Banjara

We’re used to a certain level of personal befuddlement when we’re in the Subcontinent, because there is, and always will be, so much that we know nothing about. Take, for instance, a group of people called the Banjara. We remember first being aware of the Banjara when traveling in Rajasthan, in northwestern India. We would see them walking quickly and confidently through busy city centers, the women, often with tattooed patterns on their faces, wearing complicated embroidered clothing and heavy jewelry. They were usually shepherding goats laden with rocks bundled in woven straw, but we could never figure out where they were going with the goats, or why.