Elephant Festival

Time: Month of November
Venue: Jaipur, Rajasthan

The Elephant Festival of Jaipur is one of the most popular festivals of Rajasthan held every year in Feb /March on the occasion of Holi, a festival of colors celebrated all over India. The people celebrate the spring festival of Holi by throwing flowers and Abir (colored powder) on each other. The Elephant festival combines the colorful Holi festival with elephants. Colorfully decorated elephants marching in a row on this occasion make their spectators spellbound.
The Jataka stories of Buddhism refer to the tradition of Hastimangala (the Elephant Festival). A royal mount from time immemorial, the elephant has also been a symbol of strength and wealth. For the Rajput kings, the elephants were of especial significance not only during war but also during the royal festivities-a must at royal pageant. Nishan-ka-hathi, the flag carrier, led the procession. The king always mounted a caparisoned elephant. Special hunting programs and elephant fights were organized to entertain the royal guests. Jaipur was a favorite with the important personalities of the British Raj and the Maharajas always arranged for their guests of honor elephant rides up to the Amber palace. Even today, the mahouts take tourists up to the Amber Palace on elephant back.
Rajasthan Tourism revived the tradition by including the Elephant Festival in the cultural calendar. The present-day pageant, originated only a decade ago, was devised especially with the tourist in mind.

Elephant Festival Activities

A festival where elephants are the centre of attraction. The festival begins with a procession of elephants, camels and horses, followed by lively folk dancers. Elephant races, elephant-polo matches and a most interesting tug of war between elephants and men, are all part of this spectacular event.
Staged at Jaipur Chaugan Stadium elephants put up a variety programme and the arena is brought alive with musician and dancer. The crowd, which includes sizable presences of foreign and Indian tourist, electrify the atmosphere. The festival starts with an impressive procession of the majestic animals lovingly painted and tastefully attired with glittering ornaments and embroidered velvets. There are deadly and fierce elephant fights.
Most of the participants are female elephants. The mahouts (elephant keepers) take great care to decorate the elephants painting their trunks, foreheads, and feet with floral motifs and adorning them from tusk to tail with interesting trinkets. Female elephants wear anklets with and make music as they walk.The game of polo forms the highlight of the festival. Dressed in saffron and red turbans, the teams try to score goals with long sticks and a plastic football.
Finally, the tourists are invited to mount the elephants and play Holi. Participants dance with great vigour and the excitement rising to a crescendo.

How To Reach

Flight : Indian airlines, Jet airways and Sahara airlines have regular service to Jaipur. All the major cities are connected to Jaipur.

Train : Shatabdi and Intercity connects Jaipur to Delhi. Shatabdi is fully air conditioned train starts from Delhi (5.55 AM) to Jaipur (10.35 AM), you can also try Intercity Exp starts from Delhi at (4.55 PM) reaches Jaipur (10.35 PM). There are other trains also to Jaipur from other metro cities, to know more click here.

Road : Rajasthan Roadways have regular bus services from New Delhi, running deluxe and air conditioned coaches from Bikaner house, Delhi. Jaipur is also well connected with the other cities of Rajasthan.