A lake that began with a falling flower
The lotus: in the Puranas, the old Hindu books of legend, Brahma killed a demon named Vajranabha by striking him with a lotus. Three petals fell to earth, and three lakes rose where they landed.
Jyeshtha Pushkar: the largest, at the heart of town, is the eldest and is presided over by Brahma.
Madhya Pushkar: the middle lake lies a little to the south-west and belongs to Vishnu.
- Built
- Dam credited to the 12th century; ghats largely 18th and 19th
- Built by
- In legend, Brahma; ghats by Rajput and Maratha houses
- Open
- To everyone, from before dawn
- Allow
- Under an hour to walk around it
- Best time
- Dawn, and the evening aarti
- Photography
- Architecture only, never bathers
- Getting there
- On foot from the main bazaar
- Kanishtha Pushkar: the smallest, the youngest, belongs to Shiva.
- The circuit: most visitors never see the other two, but devout pilgrims walk all three, especially on the full moon of Kartik.
- In the epics: the Ramayana and the Mahabharata speak of Pushkar as a place of pilgrimage, and the Ramayana places the sage Vishwamitra's long penance here.
- Kalidasa: the poet knew of it too.
- Among the five: Hindus count it among the five most sacred lakes in India, and a saying holds that a pilgrimage to all India's holy places is incomplete without a dip in Pushkar.
- Tirth raj: that is why the town is called the king of pilgrim places.
- Our grandmother's version: every river in India comes to Pushkar once a year, on the full moon of Kartik, to wash away its own sins, so the water that night is every river at once. No priest has ever disagreed with her.
How a desert valley holds a sacred lake
Between two ranges: Pushkar lies in a narrow valley of the Aravallis, India's oldest mountains. The ridge called Nag Pahar, the snake mountain, separates it from Ajmer.
Where the water comes from: in the monsoon, rain on the hills runs down seasonal streams into a natural hollow.
Partly made: a dam built long ago holds it in, so like nearly every great lake in Rajasthan it is partly natural and partly made by people.
- Fed by
- Monsoon streams off the Aravallis
- Held by
- An old dam, credited to the 12th century
- Size
- Small and shallow
- Driest year
- 2009, during the fair
- Since then
- A national conservation programme
- Small: you can walk around it in less than an hour, and a strong swimmer, if swimming were allowed, would cross it in minutes.
- Shallow: its depth swings sharply with the rains. After a good monsoon it brims, reflecting every spire and whitewashed wall.
- After a weak monsoon: it shrinks back from the lower steps, and the priests talk of nothing else.
- Hard decades: sand from the dunes and silt from the hills have slowly filled its bed, check dams upstream have caught water that once reached it, and falling groundwater has made things worse.
- 2009: the lake dried out almost completely during the fair, and pilgrims bathed in tanks filled from tube wells.
- The recovery: since then, a national conservation programme has brought desilting, cleaner drains and work on the feeder streams. When you see it full, you see something people have worked hard to keep.
- The water rules: no soap, no washing clothes or dishes, and no plastic or careless flowers in the water.
- Why they matter: locals who bathe here every morning are guarding something they love, and visitors who respect that are welcomed warmly.
The ghats, one by one
For centuries, kings from across India built ghats here to earn merit, and many still carry the names of their kingdoms. Walking them in order is like reading a roll call of old India's royal houses, written in stone and whitewash.
- Ghats
- Fifty-two
- Protected
- Ten, as national monuments
- The ten
- Varaha, Dadhich, Saptarishi, Gwalior, Kota, Gau, Yag, Jaipur, Karni, Gangaur
- Gandhi Ghat
- Renamed after 1948
Varaha Ghat, for Vishnu the boar
The name: Varaha, the boar incarnation of Vishnu who lifted the earth from the cosmic ocean on his tusks.
- Where to begin: one of the most important ghats, with the Varaha temple nearby.
- In the morning: families come in groups, the women singing as they descend. Busy, devout, a little noisy, and a perfect introduction to the lake's daily life.
Brahma Ghat, where the creator bathed
The story: tradition says Brahma himself bathed here before his great sacrifice.
- Special weight: many pilgrims bathe here before climbing to the Brahma temple.
- What to watch: a priest performing a short puja for a pilgrim family, with water, flowers and a thread tied around the wrist.
Gau Ghat, renamed Gandhi Ghat
The cow ghat: one of the oldest and holiest.
- 1948: after Mahatma Gandhi's death, part of his ashes was immersed here, and it has been called Gandhi Ghat ever since.
- For the aarti: its broad steps make it a favourite place for the evening worship with lamps, and a good spot to sit quietly as the light fades.
Yag Ghat, the place of the sacrifice
The name: from yagna, the great fire sacrifice at the centre of Pushkar's legend.
- The ritual heart: priests and pilgrims treat it as the heart of the story.
- Calmer: quieter than the big ghats near the bazaar, and the steps catch soft morning light.
Saptarishi and Dadhich ghats, for the sages
Saptarishi Ghat: it honours the seven great sages of Hindu tradition, the stars of the Great Bear in the night sky.
- Dadhich Ghat: named for the sage Dadhichi, who gave up his own bones so the gods could make a thunderbolt and defeat a demon.
- Worth a guide: both are quieter, and both reward a guide who can tell their stories well.
The royal ghats of Jaipur, Kota and Gwalior
Jaipur Ghat: linked with the Kachwaha rulers of Jaipur, our own city's royal family, and one of the finest places on the lake to watch the sun go down behind the hills.
- Kota Ghat: it carries the name of the Hada kingdom of Kota in the south-east.
- Gwalior Ghat: it recalls the Scindias, the Maratha rulers of Gwalior, great patrons of Pushkar in the eighteenth century.
- Rivals in devotion: on their steps you feel how Rajput and Maratha rivals once competed here in devotion rather than war.
Gangaur and Karni ghats
Gangaur Ghat: named for the spring festival of Gauri, Shiva's consort, when women carry images of the goddess in procession and pray for good husbands and long marriages.
- Karni Ghat: it carries the name of Karni Mata, the warrior-saint goddess revered in Bikaner.
- A reminder: the lake belongs to women's devotion as much as to kings.
What happens on the steps, and why
Snan, the sacred bath
The heart of it: pilgrims step down, dip three times, cup water in their hands and pour it back towards the sun as an offering.
- Who bathes where: men in their dhotis, women in their saris, usually at ghats or sections set aside for them.
- Never photograph it: it is an intimate act done in public.
Rites for the ancestors
A great place for it: Pushkar is one of India's great places to perform rites for the dead.
- Pind: families offer balls of rice and sesame, and water, to their ancestors, guided by the priest whose family has always served theirs.
- Ashes: they are immersed here.
- Give them space: a group of men with freshly shaved heads sitting with a priest are mourning a parent.
Mundan, the first haircut
- The other end of life: many families bring small children for the mundan, the first shaving of the head.
- On the upper steps: barbers at work and toddlers in tears, followed by sweets and laughter. One of the most joyful sights on the lake.
Deep daan, the floating lamps
The gift of light: at dusk pilgrims set small leaf boats carrying a flower and a wick of ghee on the water.
- Festival nights: hundreds float out at once.
- Offering your own: ask our guide, and do it from a quiet ghat with a priest rather than buying one from a hawker.
The evening aarti
At sunset: priests on several ghats raise great brass lamps in circles while conch shells sound and bells ring.
- The gesture: pilgrims cup their hands over the flames and touch their eyes.
- A few minutes: it is brief, but the whole lake seems to glow. Find a step away from the crowd, sit and simply watch.
Panch tirth, the holiest five days
When: in Kartik, from Ekadashi, the eleventh day of the bright fortnight, to Purnima, the full moon.
- Who comes: hundreds of thousands to bathe, and the most devout walk a circuit of all three Pushkar lakes on the full moon.
- With the fair: those days coincide with the climax of the Pushkar Camel Fair. Our fair guide explains how to see them safely.
Emperors, kings and a crocodile story
The Mughals next door: Ajmer, fifteen kilometres away, was a favourite Mughal city because of its Sufi shrine.
Jahangir's lodge: the emperor built a hunting lodge on the lake shore in 1615 to 1616, and its ruins still stand, quiet and crumbling.
Against the taboo: his memoirs record his hunting in the area, against a long local taboo on killing animals near the sacred water. He is also remembered for breaking an image of Varaha.
- Jahangir's lodge
- 1615 to 1616, now in ruins
- Temples damaged
- Under Aurangzeb
- Great rebuilding
- 18th and 19th centuries
- Gandhi's ashes
- Gau Ghat, 1948
- Aurangzeb: later in the century, many temples around the lake were damaged.
- The rebuilding: in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Rajput rulers and the great Maratha houses, the Scindias above all, built and restored ghats, temples and pilgrims' rest houses.
- Why it looks as it does: a crowd of whitewashed fronts, small domes and painted gateways rather than one grand design. Each patron added his own piece.
- 1948: Gau Ghat received part of Mahatma Gandhi's ashes, and the town renamed it in his honour.
- The crocodiles: older Pushkar families tell of crocodiles that once lived in the lake and were removed in colonial times, a story we cannot prove but love to hear on the steps.
- The real monument: the lake has survived every century so far because the people around it treat it as alive.
A slow walk around the water
What a parikrama is: a walk around a sacred place, always keeping it on your right.
The path: it threads along the tops of the ghats, through temple courtyards, under arches and past old rest houses, sometimes ducking behind buildings before returning to the water.
Let the guide lead: so you do not have to keep asking the way.
- Direction
- Clockwise, lake on your right
- Time
- Under an hour, or a morning
- Start
- Varaha Ghat, before sunrise
- Finish
- Jaipur Ghat or a rooftop
- Underfoot
- Uneven, slippery near the water
- Begin at Varaha Ghat: before sunrise, when the mist is still on the water and the bells are starting.
- Heading south: walk past Brahma Ghat and Gau Ghat to the southern end, where a footbridge crosses the inflow channel.
- The far shore: quieter ghats, and the view back to the town and Savitri hill opens out.
- Finish with tea: at Jaipur Ghat or on a rooftop as the sun climbs.
- Small shrines: dozens of them, some no bigger than a cupboard, each with its own lamp.
- Company: cows on the steps, sadhus, wandering holy men in saffron, wrapped in blankets, and pilgrims from Gujarat and Rajasthani farmers in great turbans walking the other way at their own pace.
- Feet: the steps are uneven and can be slippery near the water, so go barefoot carefully or in socks.
When the lake is at its best
At dawn
Our favourite: the lake is still, the light soft and pink, and the ghats full of local people rather than visitors.
- Mist: often on the water from November to February.
- Wrap up: desert dawns are cold.
At dusk
- The popular hour: the evening aarti and the sunset over the western hills. Beautiful, and crowded.
- How to do it: arrive half an hour early and sit on a quieter ghat, or watch from a lakeside rooftop.
After the monsoon
- Late August to October: after a good monsoon the lake is full and the hills are green.
- At its most generous: and the town is still quiet before the fair.
In the month of Kartik
October or November: around the fair the lake is at its holiest and most crowded.
- The bathing days: extraordinary to witness before the full moon, but you need a guide, early starts and patience.
- Planning: our guide to the best time to visit Pushkar explains how to plan around them.
In the hot months
- April to June: the heat is fierce and the lake can shrink.
- Still lovely: dawn and evening, with almost no other travellers. Rest indoors through the middle of the day.
How to visit the ghats with respect
Shoes: take them off before you step onto any ghat. Leave them with your guide, driver or a stand at the top of the steps. Thin socks are fine on hot or cold stone.
Bathers: never photograph people bathing, especially women. Photograph the architecture from a distance and ask before anyone appears in your frame.
More on photos: our notes on photography in Rajasthan cover sacred places in general.
- Footwear
- Off before any ghat
- Dress code
- Shoulders and knees covered
- In the water
- No swimming, washing or soap
- Photography
- Never of bathers
- Town rules
- Vegetarian, no alcohol
- The water: do not swim, wash anything, or use soap or shampoo. If you wish to bathe as a pilgrim, our guide will arrange it properly at a suitable ghat.
- Dress: shoulders and knees covered. A light scarf is useful for women and men alike.
- Flower touts: if a stranger offers you a flower and leads you to the water for a blessing, politely say no. These encounters often end with a demand for a large donation.
- A genuine puja: come with your own guide, who will arrange one with a priest our family trusts.
- Quiet: keep affection discreet and voices low, particularly near anyone performing rites for the dead.
- During the aarti: stand or sit to one side, keep your flash off and let the pilgrims nearest the lamps take their turn.
- Mobility: the steps are uneven, without railings, and slippery near the water. A lakeside rooftop or a ghat's upper level works well. Our guide to accessible travel explains how we plan these visits.
- Town rules: Pushkar is vegetarian and alcohol-free, so bring no eggs, meat or alcohol near the lake. Our page on temple etiquette has more.
What most visitors miss
The far shore
- Quieter: the western and southern ghats are far calmer than the ones near the main bazaar.
- The best view: back across the water to the whole town with Savitri's temple on its hill, and free of touts.
The other two lakes
- Madhya and Kanishtha Pushkar: a short drive from town, small, simple and rarely visited by outsiders.
- With a guide: one who knows the circuit shows you a side of Pushkar's pilgrimage almost no traveller sees.
A priest's register
- Handwritten books: the priestly families of Pushkar record the pilgrim families they serve, often back many generations.
- A living archive: if your guide arranges it, a priest may show you how they work, an archive of Indian families kept by hand on the lake shore.
The ghats from above
- A single picture: from a rooftop, the lake becomes steps, domes, pigeons and the glint of brass pots.
- Ginger tea: many cafes and guest houses have roof terraces, and a quiet hour on one is one of the best things to do in Pushkar.
What to pair with the lake
The Brahma temple
- Where: a few minutes' walk from Brahma Ghat.
- What to see: climb the marble steps after your dawn walk, see the silver turtle and the coin-set floor, and greet the four-faced creator.
The Savitri temple
- Where: on Ratnagiri hill above the western edge of town.
- Why: the dawn climb gives you the whole lake from above, and the story of Brahma's two wives makes far more sense once you have stood there.
The bazaar and the sweet shops
- Parallel to the lake: the main bazaar.
- After the rituals: a hot malpua and a glass of lassi. Our food of Pushkar guide has the details.
Ajmer, over the hill
- Fifteen minutes over Nag Pahar: Ajmer, with its great Sufi shrine and the twelfth-century lake of Ana Sagar.
- Our favourite day: Pushkar at dawn and Ajmer at dusk.
The salt lake at Sambhar
- Further afield: Sambhar Lake, India's largest inland salt lake, a strange, shimmering contrast to Pushkar's sacred water.
- In winter: it can hold flamingos.
Where to stay near the lake
On the water: a few heritage hotels have their own steps down to the lake, among them the Pushkar Palace on the eastern shore.
The trade-off: rooms are simpler than a five-star resort, but waking to bells and chanting across the water is something no resort can offer.
- On the water
- Heritage hotels with their own steps
- For calm
- Resorts just outside town
- Fair week
- Tented camps near the fairground
- Who they suit: travellers up for the dawn rituals who value atmosphere over polish.
- For calm and space: most of our guests choose a resort just outside town, such as the Westin Pushkar Resort and Spa or Ananta Spa and Resort, and come in with a guide for dawn and dusk.
- During the fair: tented camps open close to the fairground.
- Comparing them: our guides to luxury stays in Pushkar and luxury hotels in Pushkar compare them honestly.
- Timing your walks: our Pushkar itinerary shows how.
