India Hotels

Gangaur is a fusion of two words Gan and Gaur and it symbolises the union or love between Lord Shiva and his consort Goddess Parvati. This colourful spring festival celebrated by the women of Rajasthan from the beginning of the Chaitra, the first month of the Hindu Calendar (April 5-6, 2000), honours the goddess Parvati in her multitude forms. Celebrations at Jaisalmer are most interesting to watch and exciting to participate in.

Find the best accommodation in Jaipur

Worship is love too!
Young maidens and married women go to Shiva temples and pay homage to Gauri. Unmarried girls pay homage in the hope that they will be blessed with a good husband. Married women pray for the longevity of their husbands. There are big processions on the streets. Idols and images of Goddess Gauri are carried through the city and songs and ghoomer dances are performed in temples and homes.

 

The festivities
This festival begins on the day after Holi and continues for 18 days. Once the Holi fire burns, the ashes and mud are collected from the site to mould idols, which represent the gods and are placed in temples. Every morning, women and young girls, attired in traditional gaudy clothes, carrying brass and earthen pots (filled with water) on their heads and decked with flowers and leaves, sing Gangaur songs and march to the temple. For the next 18 days you can spot the womenfolk in the streets on their way to the temple, to worship the idols.

The final two days are the finale of the festival, when Shiva, locally called Issarji, in the form of a bridegroom, arrives to take Gauri to their new home. This is done with great vigour and showmanship. A marriage procession virtually accompanies the bejewelled Gauri and Issar. Horses, camels, elephants, women singing and dancing, noisy bands and throngs of gaily-dressed onlookers offer a spectacle of incredible splendour and colour.

In the days of the Rajput Dynasty, every maharaja and feudal chief would participate in the Gangaur celebrations in his own kingdom. The idols of the twin deities carved from wood were given a fresh coat of paint each year and then, after being dressed ornately, woulde be carried across town in a procession. The procession would usually start from the royal fort or palace and wind its way through the bazaars.

Prime locations to witness the festivities
Jaipur, Bikaner, Jodhpur and Jaisalmer all host colourful celebrations of Gangaur, but in Jaipur, it is celebrated on a grand scale. Camels, royalty, singing, flowers and pots of rice are all a part of the melee. Gangaur is also celebrated in other parts of North India.

Jaipur and Udaipur are two cities where the festival of Gangaur is celebrated rather elaborately. In fact, even today, at both these cities, Gangaur is still a major festival. Now the city municipality and the Rajasthan State Tourism Office, jointly promote it by holding the Mewar Festival at Udaipur and the Gangaur Festival at Jaipur. Although the festival is celebrated on a massive scale in Jaipur, it must be noted that the festival is celebrated on a grand scale even in the rural regions and villages of Rajasthan.

In the town of Kishangarh, central Rajasthan, the traditional procession still starts from the fort and the present ‘maharaja and maharani’ participate in the festive celebrations. The Gauri and Issarji duo at Kishangarh resemble a true Rajput prince and princess pair, straight from a miniature painting. They are dressed in fine garments of silk and brocade and adorned with traditional Rajasthani ornaments.

A well-groomed horse carriage is pressed into service for the procession. The emerging procession moves majestically through the entire old quarter of Kishangarh town. It ends at the large market square, adjacent to the bus stand, where the former maharaja receives it. The Kishangarh Gangaur is a low-key celebration compared to that of Jaipur and Udaipur, yet it is probably the closet, one could get to the real thing. The Kishangarh Gangaur closely resembles the festivities of olden days as it is celebrated in the same aristocratic and traditional manner as was for centuries.

Legend of Kishangarh Gangaur
The idols of Issarji and Gauri are in reality ancestral heirlooms and there is a history behind them. This Issarji was captured from the Jaipur royal family and brought to Kishangarh about 1750 AD, during the reign of Maharaja Bahadur Singh of Kishangarh. Rajputs considered it an act of bravado.

The ancient tale states that the Kishangarh Gangaur procession became so elaborate and famous that a maharaja of Jaipur got to hear about it. He arrived, incognito, to witness for himself the celebrations and the procession of Gauri and Issarji (which originally had belonged to the royal house of Jaipur). In the recent past, Brajraj Singh, the former maharaja of Kishangarh, has been instrumental in reviving the traditional Gangaur celebration in 'his' own town.