ABSTRACT
In the arid landscape of the Thar desert divided by the international boundary between the nation states of India and Pakistan, there circulate innumerable narratives of love and separation. I explore two of these – Dhola Maru and Umar Marvi jo Kisso (the tales of Dhola and Maru, and Umar and Marvi) – to trace how these narratives supposedly about love and longing between men and women help us unravel the deeper relationships between people and their habitats. In these narratives it is the desert that, rather than being the harsh landscape that it is often portrayed as, emerges as the space as well as the object of longing. I further explicate how these narratives that are forever entangled in the imaginations of the Thari people, came to attain distinct literary trajectories.
