‘The Making of Thali-Shekhawati: A Fracture Zone,’ led by Professor Tyler Williams from the University of Chicago, focused on Shekhawati’s political and manuscript history. Participants engaged with merchant accounts, royal records, and poetic texts such as Kesari Singh Gun Raso, while also studying inscriptions at Tiknet Chhatri and verses by Sundardas and Dadu Dayal. The workshop traced Shekhawati’s shifting identities, shaped by its mercantile networks, religious traditions, and the movement of communities across the Thar desert. 

The workshop examined the materiality of writing traditions in Shekhawati, from inscriptions carved into cenotaphs to handwritten bahi khatas—merchant records kept in intricate shorthand. Discussions on the Mudiya script and archival practices provided insights into the ways knowledge was recorded and circulated across trade routes. Readings of devotional poetry at Baid Haveli contextualized the region’s intellectual traditions within larger philosophical currents, linking Shekhawati’s literary and commercial histories to the broader world of early modern India.