Kota (Rajasthan), March 19 The Gangaur celebrations will begin with great enthusiasm on Saturday, with preparations underway for a grand procession from the Sarathal Fort in Rajasthan on the occasion of Ram Navami.
Gangaur, dedicated to the union of Gauri and Isar (Goddess Parvati and Lord Shiva), has been celebrated across Rajasthan for over two centuries. "Gan" refers to Shiva and "Gaur" to Gauri.
The main festival will be held from March 21 to March 26. Some rituals begin a day after Holi and continue for over two weeks.
Young women observe Gangaur seeking a good husband, while married women seek marital bliss and prosperity for their partners.
Thakur Anar Singh of Ahorin, Jalore district, who migrated to Kota in 1807, started the Gangaur with a royal flavour in the Sarthal estate.
Subsequent political developments, including the formation of the Jhalawar state and later territorial changes, led to Sarathal becoming an important estate of Kota.
"In Sarathal's royal Gangaur festival, history is not confined to the walls of the fort; it flows through the streets of the town, resonates in every beat of the drum, and continues to live with the same devotion in the worship of Goddess Gauri as it did two hundred years ago," Shubhangi Singh, a research scholar at the University of Kota, told