India Guide
Rajasthan
Pushkar lake and ghats
Pushkar lake is ringed by five hundred beautiful whitewashed temples, connected to the water by 52 ghats – one for each of Rajasthan's maharajas, who built separate guesthouses here. From Gau Ghat, sometimes called Main Ghat, the ashes of Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri were sprinkled into the lake. Brahma Ghat marks the spot where Brahma himself is said to have worshipped, while at the large Varaha Ghat, just off the market square, Vishnu appeared in the form of Varaha (a boar), the third of his nine earthly incarnations.
Indian and Western tourists alike are urged by local Brahmin priests to worship at the lake; that is, to make Pushkar Puja. This involves the repetition of prayers while scattering rose petals into the lake, and then being asked for a donation, which usually goes to temple funds, or to the priest who depends on such benefaction. On completion of the puja, a red thread taken from a temple is tied around your wrist. Labelled the "Pushkar passport" by locals, this simple token means that you'll no longer attract pushy Pushkar priests and can wander unhindered onto the ghats. Indians usually give a sum of Rs21 or Rs51; the latter should suffice for a foreign tourist. A favourite trick of (usually phoney) priests is to ask how much you want to pay, then say a blessing for assorted members of your family, and demand the amount you stated times the number of family members blessed; don't be bullied by such cheap tricks into giving any more than you agreed.