The legend of the lotus and the curse
Our grandmother always paused at the same moment: Savitri climbing the steps in her wedding finery, late, to find another woman in red at her husband's side. She would let the silence sit. Then she would say that every wife in Rajasthan understood that curse, and every husband had better visit both temples.
The lotus: Brahma struck down the demon Vajranabha with a lotus flower. Where its petals fell, three lakes appeared, and the largest became Pushkar.
- The name: tradition joins pushpa, flower, and kar, hand, for the flower that fell from the god's hand.
- The sacrifice: Brahma chose the lake for a great yagna, a fire sacrifice, which had to be performed with his wife beside him.
- The delay: Savitri was late. As the auspicious hour slipped away, Indra found Brahma a young bride from the land around the lake, many local tellings say a Gurjar girl. Brahma named her Gayatri.
- The curse: Savitri arrived, saw another woman in her place and cursed her husband to be worshipped nowhere on earth but Pushkar.
- The softening: Gayatri could not lift the curse, but she blessed Pushkar to be Brahma's home above all others.
- Two hills: Savitri walked away to Ratnagiri hill in the west, where her temple stands. Gayatri's shrine sits on a lower hill to the east. Brahma stays by the water, in between.
What is legend and what is history
Only temple? Not quite: a few other Brahma temples exist in India. None carries the weight of this one or draws pilgrims from every corner of the country.
Ancient claims: one tradition credits the sage Vishwamitra with the first shrine, another Adi Shankaracharya with restoring it. Neither can be proved.
- Other Brahma temples
- A handful, including Asotra in western Rajasthan
- Present building
- Largely fourteenth century
- Traditional restorer
- Adi Shankaracharya, eighth century, unproved
- Much rebuilt
- Eighteenth and nineteenth centuries
- Pushkar's title
- Tirth raj, king of pilgrim places
- What is confident: the present building dates largely from the fourteenth century and has been repaired many times.
- Damage and repair: the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb is remembered in Pushkar for damaging many of its temples. Much around the lake was rebuilt by Rajput and Maratha patrons in the following centuries.
- A Ratlam patron: local accounts credit a Maharaja of Ratlam, Jawat Raj, with rebuilding the temple while keeping its plan.
- Always in ascetic care: its priests belong to a sanyasi order of men who have renounced household life. That explains its best-known custom, below.
- More on the faith: our guide to faith and temples in Rajasthan places Brahma among the gods you will meet.
Walking in, from the lane to the four faces
The lane and the shoe stand
- The approach: a narrow lane of marigolds, coconuts, sugar sweets, red threads and pictures of the four-faced god. Cars stop well short.
- Shoes: leave them at a stand near the steps or with your guide. From here you are barefoot.
The steps and the hamsa gate
- A high plinth: a broad flight of marble steps lifts every pilgrim towards the god.
- Look up: above the arch is the hamsa, the swan that carries Brahma. It is said to separate milk from water, and so stands for telling truth from falsehood.
The silver-coin floor
- What you see: black and white marble set with hundreds of silver coins, each given by a family for a vow, a wedding, a birth or a recovery.
- Read a few: many carry the donor's name. Surnames from Gujarat, Rajasthan and Maharashtra, sometimes a village or a date.
The silver turtle
- Where: set into the hall floor, facing the sanctum.
- Meaning: linked with Kurma, Vishnu's turtle form that carried the world, and with steadiness. Never stand on it.
The sanctum
The image: Brahma with four faces, one for each direction, because the creator sees all he has made. Gayatri sits to his left.
- His hands: a rosary, a book of the Vedas, kusha grass and a water pot, the tools of priest and scholar.
- How you see him: from the threshold, framed in silver, lit by oil lamps and heaped with flowers.
Atpateshwar, the cave of Shiva
- Most visitors miss it: steps beside the temple lead down to a small, cool cave shrine where a copper snake coils around a linga.
- Busiest: on Mahashivratri, Shiva's great night, in February or March.
The custom at the sanctum door
Ascetic priests: the temple is cared for by a sanyasi order, and by tradition only they enter the inner sanctum.
Married men: as householders, by long tradition they do not enter the sanctum to worship. Offerings go in through the priests.
- How it works: pilgrims hand flowers, coconut or sweets to a priest in the outer hall, who offers them and returns part as prasad.
- For everyone: a village farmer and a cabinet minister follow the same custom.
- Visitors of every faith: welcome to the hall and the threshold, with shoes off, modest dress and quiet voices.
- After darshan: step to one side so the next family can reach the door. Our temple etiquette guide explains prasad and offerings.
How the building works, in plain words
The nagara style: the temple follows the north Indian pattern of gateway, open court, pillared hall and sanctum, each smaller, darker and holier than the last.
The mandapa: the pillared hall where worshippers gather before the sanctum door, and where the coins and the turtle sit.
- The garbhagriha: literally the womb chamber, the small dark room that holds the image.
- The shikhara: the red spire, about twenty metres high, standing for Mount Meru, the mountain at the centre of the universe. You can pick it out from the ghats and from Savitri's hill.
- Simple materials: local stone, lime and marble, with little carving. The blocks are said to be joined with molten lead rather than mortar.
- Why the plinth: it lifts the sacred space above the street and the water, and turns every approach into a small climb towards the god.
- For grandeur: plan a separate day for the marble halls of Ranakpur. Come to Pushkar for meaning, not scale.
Aarti, the day and the year
The dawn aarti: a handful of pilgrims, the priests, conches and the smell of camphor in cold air. Few travellers ever see it.
The evening aarti: the hall fills and the bells ring for minutes without pause. Stand at the back and let it wash over you.
- Mangala aarti
- Before sunrise, the god is woken
- Sandhya aarti
- A little after sunset, the busiest
- Afternoon
- Sanctum closes for a rest
- Special nights
- Every full moon and new moon
- Hours
- Change with season and festivals, we check on the day
- The night aarti: a last worship puts the god to rest.
- The afternoon rest: like most Hindu temples, the sanctum closes in the early afternoon while the god takes his meal and sleeps.
- The pilgrim's order: many see Brahma first, then Gayatri, then climb to Savitri. Follow it and you walk the legend around the town.
Kartik Purnima, Brahma's great day
When: the full moon of Kartik, usually late October or November. We confirm the dates each year.
The five holy days: pilgrims bathe in the lake from Ekadashi to the full moon, believing it washes away sin.
- Two gatherings at once: the same days bring the great livestock fair to the dunes outside town. Our Pushkar Camel Fair page explains how they fit together.
- At the temple: queues down the steps, constant bells and security checks. Go with a guide and patience.
- For calm instead: come in December, February or early March, when the town is itself again.
- A longer read: our Pushkar fair guide covers the fair from the inside.
How to visit with respect
Come with a guide: ours explains the rituals, reads the coins with you and keeps the touts at a polite distance.
Socks are fine: thin cotton socks are acceptable here, and save your feet on hot marble.
- Dress code
- Shoulders and knees covered, for everyone
- Shoes
- Off before the steps, also on every ghat
- Photography
- Generally not allowed inside
- Town rules
- Vegetarian, no alcohol, no eggs
- Access
- A steep flight of steps, no lift
- Leave leather behind: many devout Hindus avoid carrying it into a temple, and you will feel easier without it.
- Photograph the spire from outside: from the lane or the ghats. Ask before photographing any person.
- Never photograph bathers: on the ghats, ever, and especially women in the water.
- Small notes only: a modest offering is entirely proper.
- Mobility: a slow climb with a steady arm works for many guests, but festival crowds make it hard. Our accessible travel guide explains how we plan.
- What to wear: our note on what to wear in temples has packing ideas.
The ghats below the temple
Fifty-two ghats: stepped bathing places ring the lake, each with its own story, patron and temples.
Brahma Ghat: said to be where the god himself bathed before the sacrifice. Many pilgrims bathe here before climbing to the temple.
- Varaha Ghat to Brahma Ghat: the natural pilgrim route at first light, past bells, marigolds and morning prayers.
- Shoes off on every ghat: this is sacred ground, not a promenade.
- The red thread: priests tie a red and yellow thread after a prayer at the lake. Travellers joke it is a Pushkar passport, because touts stop once you wear one.
- The priests' registers: priestly families keep handwritten records of the pilgrim families they serve, some reaching back many generations.
- Ghat by ghat: our guide to Pushkar Lake and its ghats goes further.
The best hour and the best season
Just after dawn: walk the ghats first, then climb the steps as the morning rituals end. Cool marble, low light, an unhurried temple.
After evening aarti: the crowd drifts back to the lake and the temple settles into lamplit calm.
- Avoid late morning: coach groups arrive, the queue backs down the steps and in summer the marble burns.
- October to March: warm days and cool nights. Bring a shawl for December and January dawns.
- Kartik: the most spiritually charged month, and the most crowded by far.
- Month by month: our guide to the best time to visit Pushkar has the detail.
What most visitors miss
The names in the floor: kneel for a minute by the coins and read a few. The quietest way into the temple's meaning.
The cave of Shiva: Atpateshwar, down the steps beside the temple, dim, cool and nearly always quiet.
- Gayatri's hill: the short climb to the younger wife's temple on the eastern side, with a lovely view back to Ratnagiri. You will probably have it to yourself.
- Savitri at sunrise: the climb to Ratnagiri takes thirty minutes to an hour on foot, or a few minutes by ropeway. Our Savitri temple guide explains it.
- The view from the top step: as you leave, look west to Savitri's white temple on its hill. The whole legend in a single view.
- Varaha and Rangji: Vishnu as the boar, in one of Pushkar's oldest shrines, and a temple with a south Indian gateway tower near the bazaar.
A pilgrim's morning, the way we plan it
Before sunrise, Savitri
- The climb: up Ratnagiri in the dark, or by ropeway once it runs, for sunrise over the valley and the lake.
- The story: your guide tells the curse at the top, looking down at the temple you are about to visit.
First light, the ghats
- Down to the water: walk from Varaha Ghat towards Brahma Ghat as the bells start.
- A ritual, if you wish: a short prayer at the lake with a trusted priest, and your red thread.
Early morning, Brahma
- Up the steps: the hamsa gate, the coin floor, the turtle and darshan at the threshold.
- Then down: to the cave of Shiva, and out through the lane for a cup of chai.
Late morning, rest
- Breakfast and quiet: at a resort on the edge of town, before the heat and the coaches.
- Evening option: return for the evening aarti, or drive over the ridge to Ajmer Sharif for the lamps at dusk.
Where to stay for the temple
In the old town: a few simple heritage hotels on the lake, full of character, where the temple bells wake you. Modest rooms and a busy lane outside.
On the edge of town: resorts such as the Westin Pushkar Resort and Spa and Ananta Spa and Resort, with gardens, pools and spas.
- During the fair: luxury tented camps open near the fairground, and the dawn walk to the temple from camp is unforgettable.
- Compare them: our guides to luxury stays in Pushkar and luxury hotels in Pushkar explain the choices.
- A palace instead: Kishangarh is about an hour away, Jaipur's palace hotels about three hours.
- On a journey: our Sacred Rajasthan journey links Pushkar with Ajmer, Nathdwara and Ranakpur.
Who will love it, and who may not
Lovers of stories: the legend of two wives on two hills is one of the best in India, and you can walk it in a morning.
The spiritually curious: a living temple at full devotion, with pilgrims from every corner of the country.
- Early risers: the dawn walk from the ghats to the temple is the finest hour in Pushkar.
- Families: children love the turtle, the coins and the climb to Savitri, with a hand held tight on festival days.
- Architecture lovers expecting splendour: you may be underwhelmed by the building. Read the plan, find the details, and it repays you.
- Those uneasy with touts: stay with your guide, and the ghats become calm and kind.