Shekhawati New Testament — Shekhawati (शेखावाटी) New Testament (India)
Overview
The Shekhawati New Testament (जीवन को च्यानणो — "Light of Life" — with subtitle सेकावाटी नया नियम की पोथ्या = "The Book of the Shekhawati New Testament") is the complete New Testament in the Shekhawati language of northeastern Rajasthan, India, published by New Life Computer Institute in 2017 and available via YouVersion/Bible.com (ID 3111). Shekhawati (ISO 639-3: swv) is an Indo-Aryan language of the Rajasthani family, named after the Shekhawati region — the historical domain of the Shekhawat Rajput clan, which encompasses the districts of Sikar, Jhunjhunu, and Churu in the northeastern Rajasthan zone. Shekhawati is closely related to Marwari and shares the Rajasthani language zone, but has distinct phonological and lexical features.
Language and People
Shekhawati (ISO 639-3: swv; autonym: शेखावाटी) is an Indo-European language: Indo-European → Indo-Iranian → Indo-Aryan → Central Zone → Rajasthani branch. The Rajasthani languages form a dialect continuum across Rajasthan and adjacent areas of Haryana, Punjab, and Gujarat, with Marwari (western), Shekhawati (northeastern), Dhundhari/Jaipuri (central), Mewari (south-central), and Mewati (eastern) as the main recognized varieties. Shekhawati is written primarily in Devanagari script.
The Shekhawati community inhabits:
- Sikar, Jhunjhunu, and Churu districts of northeastern Rajasthan, India — the core Shekhawati region
- Substantial diaspora communities throughout India and globally, reflecting the Shekhawati mercantile tradition
Estimated speakers: approximately 1–2 million in the Shekhawati heartland, plus millions more in diaspora communities where Shekhawati or mixed Rajasthani varieties are spoken.
Cultural Context
The Shekhawati region is famous as the home region of many of India's most prominent Marwari merchant families — the Birla, Bajaj, Podar, Singhania, and other industrial dynasties trace their origins to this area. The distinctive painted havelis (merchant mansions) of Shekhawati's towns, covered in elaborate frescoes depicting mythology, daily life, and later colonial-era scenes including trains and automobiles, are recognized as an open-air art museum and major heritage attraction. The region's merchant communities historically emigrated throughout India and the world for trade, creating a far-flung Shekhawati diaspora that retains cultural and linguistic connections to the home region. New Life Computer Institute's 2017 Shekhawati NT provides the first complete New Testament for this historically mercantile and culturally distinctive Rajasthani-speaking community.
Publishing and Organizations
Published by New Life Computer Institute (NLCI, Lahore, Pakistan), a Christian publishing organization specializing in scripture translation and distribution for South Asia's minority language communities.