Celebrating the mighty Elephants.

True to Rajasthan’s character, the state’s capital city of Jaipur attracts legions of tourists round the year. The Pink City breaks into an exultant celebration of life during the month of March. The exciting Elephant Festival which is celebrated each year on the 26th of March is a very famous and popular affair for both the tourists and the local residents of Jaipur. The festival is more of a pre-Holi bash with the Elephant at its center. Rajasthan being a desert, the ship of the desert – camel, is Rajasthan’s most conspicuous symbol; however, when the royalty of the Rajput’s is under consideration, the only animal that represents it, is the mighty elephant. In the Indian culture, elephants have persistently been the choice of royalty, as their carrier. Hence, the Elephant Festival was initiated, especially for the droves of tourists visiting the city. Camels are celebrated by Bikaner while Jaipur makes much of the elephant. Tourists can hire cabs in Delhi for their travel to Rajasthan. Delhi cabs can be hired either at the airport or railway station as well as from anywhere within the city.

The day-long Elephant Festival of Jaipur is marked by an interesting propaganda comprising of a range of activities. The Rajasthan Tourism Development Corporation organizes the Elephant Festival every year at its official venue - Rambagh Polo Ground at Jaipur. The festival takes off with a parade through which an entire traditional procession comprised of richly caparisoned elephants with dancers whirling in a flurry of colours to the tunes and rhythms of folk tunes played by musicians, march. This is suitably followed by a pageant for the 'best decorated elephant’; next up is the most noticeable feature of this festival which is a match of polo wherein the players ride atop elephants rather than horses, and try to score goals with long polo sticks and a plastic football. The thunderous elephant races get the crowds adrenaline flowing. The tug-of-war between humans and an elephant never fails to captivate and arrest the curiosity of the audience. The parade finally culminates with a special exhibition which explicitly showcases the process of 'elephant decoration'.
However, the festivities end with numerous entertaining performances of folk dances; liberal splashing of Holi colours on all and sundry, and finally a
spectacular display of fireworks mark the end.

Elephants decorated and adorned in elegant attire and loaded with glitter and gold, never cease to fascinate the audience with their grand processions and decorated tusks and trunks. Scenes from the glorious royal past of Rajasthan are recreated during the festival, and are a wonderful sight to behold. Oddly though, only female elephants are allowed to take part in this festival. The Festival is also a platform for promoting the folk traditions and culture of Rajasthan. As the proceedings of the day can leave the enthusiastic audience drained of energy, travelling by cars for hire would prove to be quite a bargain. These cabs would provide the comfort and luxury of having a vehicle at your disposal at any time of the day.