Pushkar, The Flower child

I visited Pushkar long time ago. Its origin lie buried in antiquity. It is the only place in the country where the devotees from and wide would throng to worship the creator of the universe. Some of the local people residing there briefed me with the tale behind its uniqueness. According to the Padma Purana, Brahma was in search of a place to perform a yagna when the lotus he was handling fell from his hand and landed in Pushkar. He resolved to perform the yagna there and then itself however his wife Savitri failed to join him, so he married a local damsel, Gayatri and completed the formalities. When Savitri arrived, she discovered Gayatri, and enraged, ticked off Brahma saying, that Pushkar would be the only place where he would be worshipped in.

We visited the ghats and temples, offered prayers at the lake while trying not to get ripped off by the local priests. We dipped in the holy Pushkar lake and had a bhang lassi which was awesome. Pushkar holy lake was created by Brahma by combining the waters of the four places of pilgrimage sacrosanct to Hindus- Badrinath, Jagannath, Rameshwaram and Dwarka. The lake is hugged by 52 ghats, teeming with sadhus, devotees and tourists. Most of the ghats are no older than 300 years and have innumerable small temples. Offerings made at the Brahma, Gau and Varaha ghats, which are the oldest, are considered to be most auspicious.

There are temples of Brahma, Varaha and Aptaeshvar which are the oldest and also considered as the most sacrosanct. We checked out the four faced icon of the Lord accompanied by his shy bride, Gayatri and the silver turtle in front of the shrine’s entrance at the Brahma’s temple.

At the Varaha Temple, while taking a round we saw different layers of it . At the Aptaeshvar Temple a lingam was installed.

The next day was the Kartik Purnima which was also the day of the famous Pushkar cattle fair which is exploded in Rajasthan and is the most exuberant and colourful festival, for which it is widely renowned. The fair is a weeklong fiesta with competitions and state sponsored entertainment programs. We found storytellers, hypnotists, snake charmers, magicians, short skits, folk songs and monkey trainers.

Many shops in Pushkar sell poor quality embroidered shoulder bags, cushion covers, bangles and block printed pyjamas, skirts and tops.

There are many small budgeted hotels and ashrams available in Pushkar with only one luxury hotel on the lake Pushkar Palace.