The Stones Speak
Poems by Siddharth Mehrotra and stories by Rahul Mehrotra, inspired by Rahul Gajjar’s photographs of the monuments and people of Champaner-Pavagadh, a UNESCO world heritage site in Gujarat, Western India.
Champaner is the village at the foot of Pavagadh hill. Myths and legends have swirled around this land forever. Some say Pavagadh was formed when a toe from Sati’s disintegrating body fell as a distraught Shiva stomped across the earth with his dead wife in his arms.
Others believe Pavagadh is the part of Chitrakoot mountain that fell when Hanuman was carrying it back after Lakshman’s life was saved by the sanjivni booti growing on it.
The sage Vishvamitra lived nearby at the source of the Vishvamitri river on Pavagadh. Ram’s sons, Luv and Kush, spent the later years of their life at Pavagadh where they embraced Jainism.
Jain mandirs flourished first on Pavagadh. Then came the local killas, mandirs, mahals, Rajput kings, masjids, makbaras, Islamic sultans, and Portuguese traders.
Rahul Gajjar
Rahul's photographs have won numerous national and international awards. He spends his time designing jewelry based upon motifs from Pavagadh and taking care of his vintage cars. His passion for unusual black and white fine photography live on. He was most recently charged by a camera-shy leapoard.
Siddharth Mehrotra
Siddharth is a prolific writer of poetry and fiction, and holds a Master’s degree in critical comparative scriptures. He lives in California immersed in his study of ancient texts and mythologies, the search for planets in outer space, and a lifelong practice of Tae Kwon Do. He is always working on a new story or a new poem.
Rahul Mehrotra
Memories of a lifetime spent with friends and strangers fuel his writing. Rahul used to make a living writing technical documents for computer hackers and rocket scientists. He has also written and directed over a dozen skits. He lives in California, trying to figure out what to do when he grows up.