This Fair celebrated every year in Pushkar-Ajmer.
The Pushkar Mela also known as the Pushkar Camel Fair is a unique celebration of the beauty of their coveted “ship of the desert” – the camel along with some other cattle. It is estimated that more than 2 lakh people from all around the world visit this unique fair, which mainly focuses on trading camels and cattle, camel races which is the main attraction and a variety of other cultural performances and art exhibits.
The scene is set as if you have flipped the pages of a history book back a few pages – large arid desert fields dotted with crowds of excited people in colorful clothes and turbans, camel and other cattle all around as far as your eyes can see waiting in all their magnificent glory, dressed with colorful saddles and bejeweled with embellishments. Such is the setting of the world’s largest fair that is held at Pushkar around 10 km away from Ajmer in Rajasthan, at the edge of the Thar Desert.
Rituals at the Pushkar Fair
The Pushkar fair is also a holy pilgrimage for Hindus, held for 5 days every year from Kartik Ekadashi to Kartik purnima. Pilgrims that visit Pushkar come to take a holy dip in the Pushkar Lake and offer prayer to the deity residing in the temple at Pushkar, Lord Brahma. This is the only temple of the deity in the country, which makes it an important pilgrimage spot for people of faith. The two full moon days are regarded as highly auspicious that calls for special rituals and prayers to the deity.
Attractions at the Pushkar Fair
Most of the activities and celebrations at the fair happen at the designated fair grounds, which is a huge mass of arid land located at the intersection of the Brahma Temple Road and the National Highway 89. The main attractions at the fair, needless to say are the camels. They are dressed and decorated with colorful saddles, jewelry and other embellishments and exhibited for the trade, there are other unique practices surrounding the camels exhibited at the fair that help to promote the virility of each animal, like – shaving camels, camel races, beauty pageants, camel parades, camel dance and the enthralling auctioning of these magnificent animals that form an integral part of Rajasthan’s livelihood in the desert.
Apart from the unique show of the camels, there is an entire carnival of celebrations at the fair grounds that attracts all the people from the surrounding towns and villages of Pushkar. Several cultural performances of music and folk dance along with unique performances by magicians and snake charmers can be witnessed at this bohemian celebration of coexistence between man and animal.
There are also carousel rides without which, no fair is complete and an array of Indian snacks and sweets to sample at the fair. A full list of all the events to take place at the fair are released by the Rajasthan Tourism Ministry and is readily available from the hotels and places of accommodation at Pushkar and even at the information desks at the fairgrounds.
There is also a unique competition of mustaches at the fair, where men with varying lengths of primed mustaches compete for the prize and prestigious title of the most beautiful mustache.
Apart from this the camel beauty pageant with comically shaved camels decorated with beautiful embellishments is yet another pride and joy of the festival and a definite must-see.
How to Reach Pushkar
Ajmer is the nearest railway station to Pushkar and has train coming from all the major cities of the country. One can also choose to drive to the venue, which is a picturesque drive from the nearby Snake Mountain of roughly 30 minutes. There is an airport located at Kishangarh which receives frequent flights from major cities like Delhi, Jaipur and other surrounding cities of Rajasthan.