Pushkar, 2010


The Pushkar Fair, or Pushkar ka Mela, is the annual five-day camel and livestock fair, held in the 5th most sacred Hindu Pilgrimage town of Pushkar in the state of Rajasthan, India. It is one of the world's largest camel fairs, and apart from buying and selling of livestock; it is also the time when the varied art of colorful Rajasthan is exhibited in front of the curious visitors. Held each November at the time of the Kartik Purnima full moon, Pushkar Camel Fair is one of India’s most highly-rated travel experiences, a spectacle on an epic scale, attracting 500,000 people and up to 50,000 camels, cattle and horses.

A few miles north of Aimer is the sacred town of Pushkar (Lotus), situated on the shores of a jewel like glacial lake. Dun colored temple topped hills and sandy fields surround the town. This sacred town of the Hindus, also known as the Lourdes of the East is one of the oldest cities in India, with its origins unknown, but legends associated with Lord Brahma being the creator himself. While some legends state that Brahma performed penance here for 60,000 years to have a glimpse of Vishnu, others state, Brahma was in search of a place for Mahayagna [Sacred Fire based Hindu Ritual] and he found this place suitable. After a long time, Brahma came to known that a demon, Vajranash, was killing people here so the Lord intoned a sacred chant on a lotus flower and killed the demon. During this process, the parts of flower fell in three places, which were later known as Jyaistha, Madhya and Kanistha Pushkar. Post this Brahma performed a yagna to protect this place from demons. The consort of Brahma, Saraswati, was needed to offer Ahuti for the yagna but as she was not present at that time. Instead Gayatri, a Gurjar girl, was married to Brahma to performed the ritual. This act angered the first wife of Brahma, Saraswati, and she cursed Brahma saying that he would be only worshiped in Pushkar.
Pushkar, therefore is commonly (but erroneously) said to be the only town in India housing a temple to Lord Brahma. With the legend, also grew the folklore around the Lake, where people started believing that the Lake of Pushkar is so holy that the Greatest Sinner, by bathing in it, earns the delight to Paradise.

Pushkar also gets mentions in the sacred Hindu Scriptures. The Ramayan mentions Pushkar and says that sage Vishvamitra meditated here. It further says that the apsara Menaka came to Pushkar to bathe in its sacred waters. The Mahabharata also states, while laying down a programme for Maharaja Yudhishthara’s travel, “Maharaja after entering the Jungles of Sind and crossing the small rivers on the way should bathe in Pushkara". And, as per Vaman Purana, Prahlada on his pilgrimage to holy places visited Pushkarayana.

A Gurjara Pratihara (Gurjar) ruler of Mandore, Nahadarava, restored this sacred town in the seventh century. He rebuilt old palaces and built twelve dharmashalas (resting places) and ghats on three sides of the lake. According to Rajputana Gazetteer Pushkar was held by Chechi Gurjars (Gujjars) till about 700 years ago. Later some shrines got occupied by Kanphati Jogis. The sage Parasara is also said to have been born here. The famous temple of Jeenmata has been cared for by Parasara Brahmans [descendants of sage Parasara] for the last 1,000 years.

The city today houses over 400 temples instead of the principal five. (Dedicated to Brahma, Savitri, Badri-Narayan, Varha & Siva Atmateshwara). The lake is encompassed by 52 ghats where devotees flock to take the Holy Dip.

Normally quiet, Pushkar sees a small but steady stream of visitors to its temples and wide bathing steps leading down to the lake. But once a year, at the time of the Karthik Poornima full moon in November, the town explodes with colorful crowds of hundreds of thousands of pilgrims. This also forms the stage for the Annual Pushkar Camel Fair.

© Charu Sharma
The Baha'i House of Worship in Delhi, India, popularly known as the Lotus Temple due to its flowerlike shape, is a Baha'i House of Worship and also a prominent attraction in Delhi. It was completed in 1986 and serves as the Mother Temple of the Indian subcontinent. It has won numerous architectural awards and been featured in hundreds of newspaper and magazine articles.
As with all other Baha'i Houses of Worship, the Lotus Temple is open to all regardless of religion, or any other distinction, as emphasized in Baha'i texts. The Baha'i laws emphasize that the spirit of the House of Worship be that it is a gathering place where people of all religions may worship God without denominational restrictions.[2] The Baha'i laws also stipulate that only the holy scriptures of the Baha'i Faith and other religions can be read or chanted inside in any language; while readings and prayers can be set to music by choirs, no musical instruments can be played inside. Furthermore no sermons can be delivered, and there can be no ritualistic ceremonies practiced.
All Baha'i Houses of Worship, including the Lotus Temple, share certain architectural elements, some of which are specified by Baha'i scripture. `Abdu'l-Baha, the son of the founder of the religion, stipulated that an essential architectural character of a House of Worship be that it requires to have a nine-sided circular shape.[3] Inspired by the lotus flower, its design is composed of 27 free-standing marble clad "petals" arranged in clusters of three to form nine sides.[4] While all current Baha'i Houses of Worship have a dome, they are not regarded as an essential part of their architecture.[5] Baha'i scripture also states that no pictures, statues or images be displayed within the House of Worship and no pulpits or altars be incorporated as an architectural feature (readers may stand behind simple portable lecture stands).[2] The nine doors of the Lotus Temple open onto a central hall, capable of holding up to 2,500 people. The central hall is slightly more than 40 meters tall[6] and its surface is made of white marble. The white marbles are from Penteli mountain in Greece, the very same from which many of the ancient monuments were built and also many other Bahai temples[7]. The House of Worship, along with the nine surrounding ponds and the gardens around comprise 26 acres (105,000 m?; 10.5 ha).

The site is in the village of Bahapur, in the National Capital Territory of Delhi. The architect was an Iranian, who now lives in Canada, named Fariborz Sahba. He was approached in 1976 to design it, later oversaw its construction and saved money from the construction budget to build a greenhouse to study which indigenous plants and flowers would be appropriate for the site.[8] The major part of the funds needed to buy this land was donated by Ardishir Rustampur of Hyderabad, who gave his entire life savings for this purpose in 1953.

Since its inauguration to public worship in December 1986, the Baha'i House of Worship in Delhi has, as of late 2002, attracted more than 50 million visitors, making it one of the most visited buildings in the world.[10] Its numbers of visitors during those years surpassed those of the Eiffel Tower and the Taj Mahal. On Hindu holy days, it has drawn as many as 150,000 people; it welcomes four million visitors each year (about 13,000 every day or 9 every minute).

This House of Worship is generally referred to as the "Lotus Temple". In India, during the Hindu festival Durga Puja, several times a replica of the Lotus Temple has been made as a pandal, a temporary structure set up to venerate the goddess Durga.[11] In Sikkim a permanent replica is of the Hindu Legship Mandir, dedicated to Shiva