Often described as a feast for the eyes, Pushkar fair is among India’s famous religious festivals and livestock fairs. Featured in numerous travel shows, films and magazines the Pushkar fair offers a once in a lifetime magical experience for travelers – looking for out of the world experience.

It’s an annual event that is a business fair and cultural extravaganza in equal measures. It is taking place in the small town of Rajasthan (India) Pushkar, 15 kms from Ajmer from 8^th Nov, 2016 – 14^th Nov, 2016. It is a weeklong celebration, concluding on the full moon day. This sleepy little town curved along the holy Pushkar lake lies at the edge of the vast Thar Desert. During the Mela, one can expect to see over thousands of dressed up and decorated camels racing, dancing and being traded. Hundreds of thousands of nomads and cattle arrive in the town for furious trading and partying before giving way to a splashy religious celebration at Pushkar’s holy lake. According to legends, Lord Brahma, believed to be the creator of the universe dropped a lotus to the ground leading to the immediate creation of a lake. He then decided to name the place after the flower, and thus the name, Pushkar. The city of Pushkar is home to the only temple dedicated to Lord Brahma in the whole world. Hindus consider a journey to pushkar to be the ultimate pilgrimage that must be undertaken to attain salvation.

Fair originally started to attract local cattle traders to do business has now also turned into one of India’s most famous tourist attraction.

If you want to see riveting color, resounding folk music, reverberating dance and laughter and the various sights, sounds and smells of Rajasthan, this is the perfect time for your resplendent Rajasthan trip. Did we mention it is the world’s largest camel and cattle fair?

For the nomadic tribes of Rajasthan Desert, camels are crucial. A healthy one can transport goods, supplies and people across great distances under harsh condition, able to go long hours without water. They give milk, meat and clothes to their owners. Even their excrement is of great use as fuel for cooking in a region where wood is hard to find.

In addition to camel and cattle trading, there are races, camel polo matches, folk performances, puppet shows, best breed contest, bridal competition, moustache competition, acrobatics, body tattooing, turban tying contest, hot air balloon ride, horse dance competition, exquisite handicrafts for the shopaholics or seeing how many people can balance on a camel etc. A trip to the fair is not complete without sampling the classic Rajasthani cuisine on a Dhaba.

The most mesmerizing feature of this carnival is probably the eclectic mix of people that come from different walks of life like Pilgrims, god men, foreign tourists, local traders and tribes, folk musicians, dancers, astrologers, snake charmers, photographers, hippies, artists etc.

 

Karni mata temple is located in Deshnok, 30 kms from Bikaner,Rajasthan and is dedicated to Karni mata, a famous mystic of her times, believed to be an incarnation of Goddess Durga  (known to remove evil, misery, pain from our lives). Karni mata was the sixth daughter of Mehoji charan and Deval devi born in the fourteenth century in a village of Jodhpur, Rajasthan. A night before when karni mata was born, Deval devi, dreamt that a Goddess appears and blesses her with the words that the Goddess will be born to you, as an incarnation of Goddess Durga.  The royal families of Bikaner and Jodhpur officialy worship Karni mata.

It is one of the strangest temples in the world. The temple is home to over 20,000 rats which are treated as sacred. It is considered very lucky to spot a white rat in the temple. Apparently, even during the worst of plagues, the town of Deshnok was not affected. Strange but true, eating food that has been nibbled by the rats is considered to be a ‘high honor’. It is regarded auspicious, if a rat runs across one’s feet.  It is considered as that after Karni mata’s death, she became a rat. The Charan clans believe that once they die, they too will be re-incarnated as a rat and subsequently when a rat in the temple dies, it will be re-incarnated as a human again.

Karni mata lived for 150 years and remained young and beautiful. During her lifetime she performed many miracles and led her whole life to help all the needy people.

The temple was built by Maharaja Ganga Singh ji of Bikaner, which dated back to 15^th century. There is beautiful marble facade in the temple which has solid silver doors, which are made in Mughal Rajput architecture style. The silver doors were donated by Maharaja on his visit to temple. The temple contains foot prints of Mata ji so symbolize her visit to the place. There is idol of karni mata holding Trishul and Mukut surrounds by the rats.

 To see the temple in full glory, visitors should come late at night or before sunrise, when the rats are out in full force, gathering food.

The karni mata fair is also very popular among the devotees and tourists. It is held twice a year. The first in March-April during Navratras and the second is held in September-October, also during the Navratras. During Navratras thousands of people travel to the temple by foot.