Pushkar

Pushkar is one of the five sacred dhams of Hinduism, built around a lake created, in the mythological account, by the falling of a lotus from the hand of Brahma — and it contains the only functioning Brahma temple in India, which gives it a singular place in Hindu cosmology that its small size does not suggest.

The Pushkar lake is surrounded by 52 ghats where pilgrims bathe and priests conduct puja at every hour of the day, and the religious activity has an intensity that the town's equally lively tourist economy has not managed to dilute. The rose-water puja conducted at several ghats at dusk, where rose petals and oil lamps are released onto the water while priests chant, is a ceremony of genuine antiquity.

The Pushkar Fair — the five-day camel and livestock fair coinciding with the full moon in November — is the largest camel trading event in Asia and has been running for several centuries, bringing traders from across Rajasthan and Gujarat to trade animals in a marketplace that has also accumulated musicians, acrobats, wrestlers, and the full apparatus of Indian rural festival culture. The combination of the sacred lake and the roaring animal fair, occurring simultaneously within walking distance of each other, is Pushkar's defining characteristic.

Places to Visit in Pushkar

• Pushkar Lake
• Brahma Temple
• Pushkar Bazaar
• Savitri Temple viewpoint

Things to Do in Pushkar

• Evening aarti at the ghats
• Camel fair grounds visit
• Local bazaar shopping
• Sunset at Savitri Temple