The River Narmada

 
The Rivers of India (quiz 9/20)
Over time I had even developed an affection for these lonely
sanctuaries built by the Moghum emperors across the great expanse
of India.... (2)
  
The river is among our holiest pilgrimage sites, worshipped as the daughter of the
god Shiva (2).
...this rest house situated halfway up a hill on the Vindhya
Range has been my retreat (2-3).
Happily, the interiors retain their original mosaic tiles, having
escaped the attentions of a British administrator....
...giving the exterior of the bungalow with its pillared portico and
balustraded steps an air more Victorian than Moghul (3).
  
I can see fertile fields stretching for miles and miles into the southern
I cannot see the town of Rudra, only nineteen kilometers away, where
my clerk, Mr. Chagla, lives (4).
Below Rudra, visible from our terrace at the bend of the river, sprawls
the temple complex of Mahadeo (4).
With twilight, the water at Mahadeo starts flickering with tiny flames as if catching fire from
the hundres of clay lamps being floated downstream for the evening devotions (4)
 ... in the ebbing night I sometimes think I can hear the river's heartbeat pulsing
under the ground before she reveals herself at last to the achorites of Shiva deep
in meditation around the holy tank at Amarkantak (5).
descendants of the tribal races that held the Aryan invasion of
India at bay for centuries in these hills (6).
 the Vano village diety is a stone
image of a half-woman with the full
breasts of a fertility symbol but the
torso of a coiled snake, because the
tribals believe they once ruled a
great snake kingdom until they were
defeated by the gods of the Aryans
(6).