Indian Pages and Pictures: Rajputana, Sikkim, the Punjab and Kashmir by Michael Myers Shoemaker is a travelogue that explores the rich cultural, historical, and geographical landscapes of various regions in India, particularly Rajputana (Rajasthan), Sikkim, Punjab, and Kashmir. The book offers vivid descriptions of the diverse environments, people, and traditions. Shoemaker combines personal observations with historical insights, providing readers with a detailed and picturesque journey through these culturally rich areas. His narrative showcases the unique beauty, challenges, and intricacies of Indian life, while also highlighting the influences of British colonialism on these regions.
Michael Myers Shoemaker (1853-1924) was an American author and traveler known for his vivid travelogues. His works, including The Heart of the Orient (1904), Eastward to the Land of the Morning (1893), and Indian Pages and Pictures (1912), explore diverse regions such as Georgia, Armenia, Persia, Turkomania, and India. Shoemaker's writing offers rich cultural insights, scenic descriptions, and historical context, blending personal observations with broader narratives of places like Siberia and Central Asia. His books provide readers with immersive, detailed experiences of distant lands during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
""WHO wants more books on India?"" A plain question surely and to those who do not know that fascinating land of the East, not an unreasonable one. However, even with the many which have been written about it, there is yet much which has never been told, much that never will be, and as all passers-by view the gorgeous panorama spread abroad with different eyes, mental and physical, so each may have something of interest to relate, and out of the whole, those who travel by books alone may form some idea of the land and its peoples. Therefore, I venture to send abroad these notes of our year's sojourn in the land of ""John Company."" In the following pages I have endeavoured to confine myself to those sections of India with which the public, American at least, is but little ac-quainted. The native states, for instance, are in the usual tour, with the exception of Jeypur, passed unnoticed-yet in them alone one finds that the romance and story of the East still abides.
I have brought in Benares for a purpose which I trust the reader will discover, and Darjiling because if Jerusalem was His ""holy city"" then Kunchin-junga is the throne of God. It is generally the custom to penetrate the North-West only to Delhi, and yet the historical interest of India centres in that section, as it was by that route, and not by the seas, that the old conquerors entered. Lahore is full of the charm and interest of the Great Moghuls. To the northward are the ruins of those cities great when the sunlight glistened on the helmets of the coming hosts of Alexander. There Buddha was born, and there, but a few years ago, were found his relics. Beyond Peshawur with her roses and her rugs, lies the grim Khyber Pass which England guards so carefully through which came Tamerlane and Babar, and where Russian bears are strictly proscribed. Leaving there the grim-ness of war you may follow the footsteps of Lalla Rookh, to the fair Vale of Kashmir and, as the old Moghuls were wont to do, drift dreamingly amidst her encircling snows and upon her lakes and rivers in a ""Bed of Roses,"" until the world calls you away again. To us the recollections of this year will be a joy for ever but perhaps the world will care nothing for a book on India which holds no description of the Taj Mahal, nor any mention of the Mutiny. Be that as it may, here are my ""Pages and Pictures"": do with them as you will.
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Hindu (935)
Agriculture (118)
Ancient (1086)
Archaeology (753)
Architecture (563)
Art & Culture (910)
Biography (702)
Buddhist (544)
Cookery (167)
Emperor & Queen (565)
Islam (242)
Jainism (307)
Literary (896)
Mahatma Gandhi (372)
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