Elephant Festival Jaipur
Jaipur, the city of festivals, celebrates the Elephant festivals every year around at the time of Holi. It is a one day event that is organized on the full moon day of Phalgun Purnima that falls in the month of February/March. Elephants have an important place in the Indian believes and mythology. Ganesha, the Elephant-headed God, is considered to be the remover of obstacles in life and he is devotedly worshiped in all the parts of India. You can also see the presence of elephants in important functions such as marriage ceremonies, religious events, processionals, etc.
The Jaipur Elephant festival, which is conducted by Rajasthan Tourism, is now a part of its annual
event’s calendar. As the name indicates, elephants are the centre of attraction at the Elephant Festival Jaipur. In this festival, the elephants are adorned and appareled with colourful and beautiful clothes that symbolize the Rajasthani traditions. The apparel of the elephants does not only mean clothes, but jewellery and large size anklets are also used as a part of beautifying the natural appearance of the elephants.Their bodies are painted with traditional Indian motifs and they are decorated with chunky elephant jewels. Large anklets decked with bells decorate their feet and velvet rugs with golden embroideries grace their backs. The ear danglers and brightly coloured brocade scarfs adorn the large ears and neck of elephants respectively. Gold and silver bracelets and rings are jeweled up on their tusks, while royal looking head-plates adorn their foreheads. The mahouts give the elephants a bath and do all these make-ups and decorations. They also bask into the sunshine of the festivities by wearing brocade jackets and royal turbans.
The elephant festival starts with the huge and enthralling procession of the royal elephants which are decorated with heavy silver ornaments and embroidered clothes and painted with different colours. They enter the ground with their mahouts accompanied by the sound of nagaras and loud blows of Bankiya, a musical instrument. The best decorated elephant at the festival is selected while they are paraded in the ground dressing in all finery. The most important feature of elephant festival Jaipur is that all the participant elephants are females.
The other highlights of this grand festival include elephant race, elephant polo, the tug-of-war with elephant on one side and 19 men and 19 women on the other. The rows of decked up camels, horses with lanced riders, horse drawn chariots, canon carts and palanquins carried by porters also make the procession more colourful. Live performances of dancers and musicians add special charm to the festival. Earlier Chaugan stadium was used to conduct elephant festival, but the fair is being shifted to golf course in Jaipur near to the Sawai Man Singh Stadium due to increased population visiting the festival and ints increased popularity.
You can see countless number of people who come from different parts of India as well as abroad to watch and enjoy the elegant elephant festival Jaipur. There is a remarkable increase in the number of tourists who visit Jaipur during the season of elephant festival. Participating in this festival by riding the elephants and dancing with the Rajasthani girls provide the visitors a chance to enjoy their journey to Jaipur culture. The unique and royal festival is filled with richness of values and socials of the largest state of India, Rajasthan and makes the tourists feel the real essence of rich royal culture an art. The increasing popularity of Elephant festival Jaipur, even the world may grow western, shows that people of Rajasthan are dedicated enough that they don’t want their traditions and customs to lose in the riots of modern colours of the globe. This festival is actually an example that demonstrates love, respect and dedication of local people towards their state and rich art and culture of Rajasthan.