Pushkar Lake

52 Ghats and a World-Famous Camel Fair

Around 52 ghats, or stepped bathing areas, ring Pushkar Lake, each historically built or sponsored by different Rajput rulers and noble families, and many still associated with specific regional communities. Hindu tradition holds that bathing here during Kartik Purnima, the full moon of the Hindu month of Kartik, cleanses sins and can be as spiritually significant as bathing in the Ganges. That same period each year hosts the Pushkar Camel Fair, one of the largest livestock fairs in the world, drawing tens of thousands of camels, horses, and cattle traders alongside a growing number of tourists for its camel races, folk performances, and open-air markets. In keeping with the town's sacred status, Pushkar has long enforced a ban on meat, eggs, and alcohol within municipal limits, a rule still broadly observed by restaurants and hotels catering to visitors.

Pushkar's ghats are also home to a lineage of hereditary priests known as pandas, who for generations have kept ledgers, called bahis, recording the family histories of pilgrims who bathe here — visits, names, and reasons for the journey are noted down at each return trip, creating a genealogical record some families trace back many generations, similar to the tradition kept by priests along the Ganges at Haridwar. The lake itself has not always been the reliable body of water it appears today: in 2009 it dried up almost completely, exposing long stretches of cracked lakebed just before the annual fair, a crisis blamed on falling groundwater levels and upstream farmers diverting inflows through check dams. Since then, periodic replenishment via pipeline from the Bisalpur Dam near Tonk has helped keep the lake at a usable level during major festivals, though hydrologists caution that recharging the surrounding groundwater, rather than pumping in water each year, is the more lasting fix.

Practical Notes

A Town Shaped by Its Lake

Nearly everything about Pushkar's layout and daily rhythm traces back to the lake at its center, with the town's markets, guesthouses and temples arranged in concentric rings around the water much as pilgrimage towns elsewhere in India have grown around their own sacred rivers or tanks. Walking the narrow lanes just beyond the ghats, visitors pass a dense mix of small shrines, flower and prasad sellers, and shops catering to both pilgrims and the steady flow of international backpackers the town has attracted for decades, giving Pushkar a distinctly layered character that blends devotion with a laid-back travel-town atmosphere.

Sunrise and Sunset by the Water

The lake's ghats are at their most atmospheric during the aarti ceremonies held at sunrise and sunset, when priests perform ritual offerings of fire and chanting along the water's edge, drawing both devout pilgrims and curious visitors to watch from the surrounding steps. These twice-daily ceremonies, along with the general practice of ritual bathing that continues throughout the day, mean the ghats rarely feel entirely quiet, offering visitors a continuous glimpse into the lake's living religious function rather than a fixed historical display.

Visiting Tips

Visitors are asked to remove footwear before stepping onto the ghats themselves, and modest dress is appreciated given the site's sacred status, particularly for those planning to bathe or participate in rituals. Local priests, or pandas, may approach visitors to perform a puja by the water in exchange for a donation; this is a long-standing custom rather than a scam, though the amount offered is generally left to the visitor's discretion. Combining a Pushkar Lake visit with the nearby Brahma Temple, just a short walk up from the ghats, is the standard way most visitors experience the town's twin centers of devotion in a single outing.