Gauri, Isar and a city of women
In the weeks after Holi, small clay figures appear in Udaipur homes, on window ledges and in courtyards, dressed in scraps of silk. They are Gauri and her husband Isar, and the women of the house are courting their blessing.
In the stories our grandmothers told, Parvati prayed and fasted for years to win Shiva as her husband. When at last she returned to her parents' home to be sent off to his mountain, the whole town came out to see her go. Gangaur re-enacts that farewell.
Whose festival: Gangaur is the festival of Gauri, a name for Parvati, the wife of Shiva, and it celebrates their marriage.
The name: it joins gan, a name for Shiva, with gaur, for Gauri.
Facts to know
- When
- Chaitra, usually late March or the first half of April
- Where
- Gangaur Ghat and Lake Pichola, Udaipur
- Lasts
- Usually about three days
- Best day
- Gangaur, the third day of the bright half of Chaitra
- Book by
- Three to six months ahead
- Good for
- Couples, photographers, families with older children
- The shape of it: the goddess is welcomed, fed, dressed and adored, then carried in procession to the water and sent home to her husband.
- Married women: for the women of Rajasthan this is the most personal festival of the year. Wives pray for the long life of their husbands and the happiness of their marriages.
- Unmarried girls: they pray for a husband as good as Shiva, which, our aunts liked to remind us, sets the bar rather high.
- The new bride: in her first year of marriage she keeps Gangaur with special care, and in many families she returns to her parents' home for it, exactly as Gauri does in the story.
- How it begins: on the morning after Holi, women gather the ashes of the Holika bonfire and begin to shape the figures.
- How long: about eighteen days, until the third day of the bright half of Chaitra, which is Gangaur itself.
- Every morning: women and girls sing to the goddess, offer her fresh green dub grass, flowers and water, and draw patterns on the walls.
- The last days: the songs grow louder, hands are painted with henna, and the best saris and jewellery come out of the trunks.
- City by city: every Rajasthani city keeps Gangaur in its own way. In Jaipur the royal Gangaur leaves the City Palace in a palanquin. In Udaipur the festival belongs to the lake.
- The Udaipur way: the images are carried to the ghats, bathed and offered water from Pichola. For centuries the Maharanas of Mewar celebrated it with processions of decorated boats.
- The modern festival: the spring Mewar Festival grew out of that tradition. Rajasthan Tourism now runs it over the days of Gangaur, adding folk performances, a boat procession and fireworks.
- Who it really belongs to: the city's women, who would keep these rituals whether anyone was watching or not.
- Read more: our main page on Gangaur across Rajasthan covers other cities. This page is about the Udaipur version, which we think is the loveliest of all.
When the Mewar Festival falls
Ask an Udaipur grandmother when Gangaur is and she will count from Holi on her fingers. That is still the best way to find it.
The lunar date: Gangaur falls on the third day of the bright fortnight of Chaitra, usually about two and a half weeks after Holi.
The festival around it: the Mewar Festival runs alongside Gangaur and usually lasts about three days, with Gangaur day at its heart.
Facts to know
- Calendar
- Hindu lunar
- Gangaur day
- Third day, bright half of Chaitra
- After Holi
- About two and a half weeks
- Usual window
- Late March or first half of April
- Festival length
- Usually about three days
- Dates
- We confirm them each year
- It moves: because lunar dates shift against the Western calendar, the festival can fall almost three weeks earlier or later from one year to the next.
- The programme: the state publishes it each year, sometimes only a few weeks in advance, and which evening holds the boat procession or the fireworks changes.
- Our promise: we confirm the dates each year as soon as they are announced, and we will not ask you to fix flights until we have.
- The weather: late March and early April bring warm days, often in the low thirties Celsius, and mild evenings by the water that are perfect for sitting out late.
- Later in April: the heat builds quickly, so a festival that falls late in the month feels warmer at midday. Mornings and evenings stay pleasant, which suits a festival that happens mostly after sunset.
- Read more: our month guides to Rajasthan in March and Rajasthan in April cover the weather in more detail.
Local tip
Planning more than a year ahead? Let us hold rooms for the likely week. We adjust once the calendar is out, and we never ask you to fix flights before the dates are announced.
Where it happens: the ghats, the palace and the water
The whole festival takes place within a few hundred metres of the eastern shore of Pichola, which is why where you stand matters more than almost anything else.
- The old city: it climbs from the water's edge towards the Jagdish Temple and the gates of the City Palace.
- The lanes: so narrow that two scooters pass with care, and they all lead down to the ghats, the stepped landings on the lake.
Gangaur Ghat
The heart of the festival: the ghat takes its name from Gangaur, and it is the stage on which the processions arrive.
- The gateway: its triple arch was built in 1878 beside Bagore ki Haveli.
- On festival evenings: the steps are packed with women in their brightest clothes, and the images of Gauri and Isar are set down by the water for worship.
- Be early: it is crowded, joyful and loud. Arrive early if you want to see the processions come in.
Lake Pichola itself
The great spectacle: the boat procession. Decorated boats carry the goddess and musicians across the water at dusk, and lamps reflect in the lake.
- The finale: the evening usually ends with fireworks over Lake Pichola.
- The view from the water: the whole city seems to be watching from its rooftops.
The City Palace and its shore
- Centuries of Gangaur: the rulers of Mewar celebrated it from the palace, and court painters recorded their boat processions in large panoramas now in the City Palace museum. Look for them when you visit.
- Rooms above the lake: the hotels inside the palace complex, Shiv Niwas Palace and Fateh Prakash Palace, look straight down on this part of the lake.
Ambrai and Hanuman Ghat, across the water
Where it is: the western shore, facing the palace and Gangaur Ghat.
- Why go: it is calmer, and the view of the lit city is the finest in Udaipur. A terrace here gives you the whole festival as a picture rather than a crush.
- Our choice: it is where we take guests who want the fireworks without the crowd.
Gogunda and the villages
Village Gangaur: in the villages around Udaipur, women keep the festival in their own lanes.
- Gogunda: some years events of the Mewar Festival have been held at Gogunda, the hill town north-west of Udaipur where Maharana Pratap was crowned.
- How we visit: these are local celebrations, and we go only with a guide from the area.
Gangaur day, hour by hour
The festival is a day of waiting and an evening of release. This is how we usually spend it with guests, and how the city spends it around us.
Facts to know
- First light
- Songs in courtyards, a still lake
- Mid-morning
- Bazaars, henna, the City Palace
- Afternoon
- Rest, roughly two to five
- From four or five
- Processions gather
- Sunset
- Worship at Gangaur Ghat
- Night
- Boats, dance, usually fireworks
Early morning, the city wakes to songs
- Walk down at first light: you will hear women singing Gangaur songs in courtyards as you pass. Some are already at the water.
- The calmest hour: the lake is still and the light is soft. We like a private boat now, with tea.
Mid-morning, the old city
- The bazaars: the lanes around the Jagdish Temple fill with women shopping for bangles, flowers and the last details of the costume. Henna artists work on doorsteps.
- Prepare your eye: see the City Palace with a guide and look for the painted Gangaur processions in the museum, so you understand what you will see later.
Afternoon, rest
- Back to the hotel: the evening is long and late and the lanes will be crowded. You will enjoy it more if you have slept.
- How we plan it: our planners move lunch earlier on festival days so that you can rest from about two to five.
Late afternoon, the processions gather
Setting out: from about four or five, groups of women from different neighbourhoods and communities set out with their images of Gauri and Isar.
- The images: dressed in silk and jewels, carried on their heads or in small palanquins.
- The music: drummers and brass bands lead some groups as they wind down through the lanes towards Gangaur Ghat.
- The competition: in recent years the state has run a competition for the best procession, so the groups take great care over costume and music.
Sunset, worship at the water
At the ghat: the images are set down by the lake, offered water and worshipped, and the women sing and dance on the steps.
- The light: it turns gold on the City Palace behind them. This is the moment most people come for.
- For photographers: be in place early, with a guide who can find you a corner without blocking anyone.
Dusk, the boats
On the water: as the light goes, decorated boats move out onto Pichola carrying the goddess, musicians and lamps.
- Where to watch: from the water, from a terrace across the lake or from a palace balcony, you see the procession reflected as it moves past the palace walls.
- The dancing: folk performances begin on stages near the ghats, often Ghoomar, the swirling dance of Rajasthan's women, and other dances of Mewar.
Night, fireworks and the long walk home
Fireworks: most years the evening ends with them over the water.
- The crush: afterwards the lanes are packed with families walking home.
- Our plan: a boat or a quiet route back to your hotel, so you are not caught in the crowd.
Local tip
Book a private boat at first light, with tea, before anyone else is out. It is the calmest hour of the whole day, and you hear the Gangaur songs drift over the water.
What else fills the festival days
The rituals are the women's. The programme around them is the city's, and it changes a little every year.
Not everything is grand. Some of our favourite moments have been small: a group of girls rehearsing their song outside a sweet shop, an old woman dressing her clay Gauri on a doorstep, a boatman humming along to the drums as he rowed us home. The official programme gives you the spectacle. A good guide gives you the city.
Who arranges it: Rajasthan Tourism, with the city. The programme usually mixes the traditional processions with events for visitors.
Past editions: Gangaur processions by different communities, the royal Gangaur boat procession, folk dance and music on stages by the lake, and fireworks.
- The light-hearted part: contests in Rajasthani dress, including one for visiting couples. The best processions have been given prizes.
- Some years: craft stalls and evening concerts as well.
- Sweets for the goddess: the season of Gangaur and the weeks after Holi bring sweets made for her, and families cook special meals for the married daughters who come home.
- Taste it: ask our guide to take you to a sweet shop in the old city for whatever is fresh that morning. Our food of Udaipur guide has the dishes of Mewar.
- The court paintings: artists who worked for the Maharanas in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries painted the city's festivals again and again.
- What they show: the ruler on a barge among courtiers, the ghats crowded with women, the lake covered in boats and the palace walls lined with spectators.
- A rare comparison: few festivals anywhere let you compare the present with a picture of it painted two hundred years ago, from almost the same spot.
- A turn in the year: in Mewar, Gangaur closes the cool season. After it the heat arrives, the wedding drums fall quieter and the city begins its summer rhythm of early mornings and late evenings.
- After the festival: visiting families go home, and the lake starts to fall slowly until the monsoon fills it again.
- For us: Gangaur is the last great evening of the winter, and we always feel a little sad when the fireworks finish.
Local tip
Before the evening, spend an hour with the court paintings in the City Palace museum. A guide who knows them will show you the same ghats, arches and ways of carrying the goddess you will see a few hours later.
Respect at a women's festival
Gangaur is a festival of prayer before it is a show. The women you photograph are asking a goddess to protect their husbands and children.
Ask first: ask before you photograph anyone, and accept a no with a smile. Many women are happy to be photographed and some are not.
Read the veil: some women will cover their faces with their odhni, the long veil, which is your answer.
Give way: never step in front of a procession to get a picture. The goddess has right of way, and so do the women carrying her.
- Hands off: don't touch the images of Gauri and Isar, and don't hand anything to the women carrying them unless you are invited to.
- Dress modestly: shoulders and knees covered.
- Dressing up: women guests who wish to wear a sari or a Rajasthani poshak for the evening are welcome to, and we can arrange a fitting in the old city.
- Shoes off: take them off if you go down onto the steps where worship is taking place, and keep away from the water's edge where the images are bathed.
- No drones: flying over a crowded religious gathering is unsafe, often restricted, and rightly resented.
- Watch your things: keep an eye on your bag and phone in the lanes. Like every great festival crowd, Gangaur attracts pickpockets.
- Blessings: if someone offers you a sweet or a few grains of rice blessed at the ghat, accept it with your right hand.
How we plan the Mewar Festival
Udaipur is small and the best rooms are few. A good festival trip is decided months before the festival.
The room first: at Gangaur a lake view matters more than at any other time of year, because so much of the evening happens on and beside the water.
Facts to know
- Book rooms
- Three to six months ahead
- Earlier for
- Island and palace hotels
- Room to ask for
- A lake view
- On the day
- No cars to the ghats
- Getting about
- On foot or by boat
- When we hold it: from as soon as you tell us the likely year, usually three to six months ahead, and earlier for the island and palace hotels.
- Then the evening: a private boat for the hour before sunset, a guide who lives in the old city and knows which processions to follow, and a terrace or balcony for the fireworks.
- The way home: we plan a quiet one. On the day cars cannot reach the ghats, so we walk or use the boat.
Taj Lake Palace, on the island
The setting: the Taj Lake Palace sits in the middle of Pichola, so the boat procession passes around you and the city's lights ring the lake.
- Why choose it: it is the most romantic place to be for the festival.
- Getting to the ghats: by the hotel boat across the water, which we arrange.
Inside the City Palace
The palace hotels: Shiv Niwas Palace and Fateh Prakash Palace belong to the palace complex itself.
- The view: over the stretch of lake where the Maharanas held their Gangaur.
- The ease: you are a short walk from Gangaur Ghat.
The lake resorts
- On the far shore: The Oberoi Udaivilas and The Leela Palace look back across the water to the City Palace.
- Their character: calm and private. We bring you across by boat for the processions.
Raffles, for peace after the noise
- The setting: Raffles Udaipur is on its own island in Udai Sagar, away from the old city.
- Who it suits: guests who want to see the festival for one evening and spend the rest of the stay in complete quiet.
Small heritage havelis on the ghats
Where: around Lal Ghat and Gangaur Ghat, several old havelis have become small hotels with rooms over the water.
- Why choose one: they put you closest to the celebrations, with the music under your window.
- A caution: rooms vary a great deal, so we choose them carefully.
Local tip
A large wedding can fill a hotel overnight, and spring is the tail of Udaipur's wedding season. Tell us the likely year early and we will hold the room before anyone else does.
What to combine with the festival
Spring is a lovely time to travel in Mewar, and the festival sits naturally inside a longer journey.
Holi first, then Gangaur
The timing: Holi comes two and a half weeks before Gangaur, so a long enough journey can take in both.
- The route: start with the royal Holika fire and a family Holi in Udaipur or Jaipur, travel through Mewar, and return for Gangaur.
- The journey: our Holi in Rajasthan journey can be extended this way.
Kumbhalgarh and Ranakpur
- Two nights in the hills: north of Udaipur, for the great wall of Kumbhalgarh and the marble temple at Ranakpur.
- In spring: the forest is dry and open, and the mornings are cool on the ramparts.
Chittorgarh and the old capital
- The fort: Chittorgarh, about two hours east, was Mewar's capital before Udaipur was founded in 1559.
- Why first: seeing it before the festival gives Gangaur its history.
A slower Mewar journey
- Six nights: our Mewar Lakes and Temples journey gives them to Udaipur and the temples of the hills, and it fits the festival well.
- Longer: Golden Triangle and Udaipur ends in the lake city.
Jaipur's Gangaur as well
- Two versions: Jaipur's royal procession and Udaipur's lake celebration fall on the same days, so you choose one for Gangaur day.
- The way round it: spend the build-up in one city and the festival in the other.
Who will love it, and who should come another week
We would not send everyone to Udaipur at Gangaur. We would send the right people every year.
City lovers: you will love it if you like to see a city celebrating for itself, and if you enjoy music, colour and late evenings.
The patient: you need to be happy to wait an hour on a ghat for a procession that arrives when it is ready.
Facts to know
- Loves it
- Couples, photographers, music lovers
- Also good for
- Families with older children
- Think twice
- Crowd-averse or step-free travellers
- Quieter months
- February, or after the monsoon
- Photographers: they love it.
- Couples: few evenings anywhere are as romantic as Pichola lit up with lamps and fireworks.
- Families: older children enjoy it too, provided you plan the crowds carefully.
- Less suited: those who dislike crowds, need step-free access or want Udaipur at its quietest.
- The terrain: the old city is hilly, and the steps of the ghats are steep, uneven and slippery near the water.
- If calm is the goal: come in February, before the festivals, or in the green months after the monsoon. Our guide to the best time to visit Udaipur explains the alternatives.
What we tell our own family before Gangaur
A few small things make the evening easy.
Eat early: the restaurants on the ghats fill up, and you will not want to leave your spot at sunset.
Carry a shawl: evenings by the water can turn cool after a warm day.
- Agree a meeting point: phones are hard to hear over the drums, and the lanes all look alike after dark.
- Choose your shoes: ones you can slip off and walk in comfortably. The lanes are steep and you will go up and down the ghat steps.
- Small notes: keep cash in small notes for flowers, sweets and a boatman's tip.
- Stay on: a night or two longer. The day after Gangaur, Udaipur is tired and happy and very beautiful.
Local tip
Look up. The best view of a procession is often from a haveli balcony above the lane, and our guides know which families are happy to share one.