A 5-Day Adventure: Pushkar

Last Friday, 8 of us embarked from Jaipur for a 5 day journey around Rajasthan.  Our first stop was Pushkar, a small city about 4 hours from Jaipur. Pushkar is renowned for having India’s only Brahma temple. Brahma is the creator, one of Hinduism’s 3 main deities, along with Vishnu (the provider) and Shiva (the destroyer). According to legend, Brahma was going to perform a ceremony in Pushkar but needed the present of his consort, Saraswati, goddess of knowledge. Saraswati was late, so Brahma married a nearby milkmaid out of convenience. When Saraswati showed up she was furious and cursed Brahma, declaring that he shall be forgotten from the Earth and no longer worshipped. The other gods were appalled and begged her to rescind the curse, and finally relented, providing the concession that Brahma could be worshipped only in Pushkar. I didn’t take pictures in the temple out of respect, but it was an incredible experience. Many Hindus make at least one pilgrimage there in their lives.

            After seeing the temple, we strolled through the streets that were filled with charming shops and markets and I did some good shopping. I’ve gotten much better at haggling since I got here, and could usually get things to at least half or a third of their original price. From the market we set off to find another temple, this one at the top of a mountain. There was a staircase at first, but it ascended into a beaten rock path. We trekked all the way to the top and the views were stunning.

There were lots of moneys in the trees at the top of the mountain

Lauren nearly gets mauled by a monkey family on the way down

            That night we stayed in the Gulab Niwas Palace hotel, a fairly standard hotel. It had rained the night before (a rare occurrance in Rajasthan this time of year) and it was freezing cold. The next morning we set out for Jaisalmer.

Our room

Hotel Lobby

View from the Hotel