Rajasthan

Five days in the second half of January, with dates announced each autumn. Entry is free but requires online registration, and Jaipur's winter mornings are cold enough for a shawl.

Jaipur Literature Festival

Five January days when Nobel laureates, Bhojpuri poets, historians and several hundred thousand readers share the same lawns in Jaipur. Free to attend, ferociously crowded, and still the friendliest literary gathering anywhere, with five stages running at once and arguments continuing in the chai queue.

Rajasthan

Late February to mid-March, with Holika Dahan on the full moon of Phalguna and colours the next morning. Dates follow the lunar calendar, and Braj plays for more than a week beforehand.

Holi

India's spring riot of colour, and in Krishna's Braj country it runs for over a week. Barsana's women drive Nandgaon's men off with lathis, Vrindavan's Banke Bihari temple throws marigold petals and gulal by the sackful, and Rajasthan's cities burn Holika bonfires the night before.

Uttar Pradesh · Rajasthan

Late July or August, on the third day of the bright fortnight of Shravana, once the monsoon has properly arrived. The royal procession goes out on two consecutive evenings.

Teej in Jaipur

Jaipur's monsoon festival for Parvati, and the one time the old city dresses entirely in green. The gilded Teej Mata palanquin leaves the City Palace on two evenings with elephants, camels and folk bands, and every sweet shop in Johari Bazaar is stacked with ghewar.

Rajasthan

October or November, five days around the new-moon night of Kartika, when Lakshmi Puja is performed. Dates follow the lunar calendar; in 2026 the main night falls on 8 November.

Diwali

Five days of lamps, rangoli and sweets that reset the year for most of India. Jaipur lights whole bazaars in a ward-by-ward competition, Ayodhya floats lakhs of diyas along the Saryu, and Varanasi follows a fortnight later with Dev Deepawali on the ghats.

Uttar Pradesh · Rajasthan · Punjab

Late October or November, about eight days building to the Kartik Purnima full moon. Trading happens in the first half; the competitions and crowds come later.

Pushkar Camel Fair

Part livestock market, part pilgrimage. Thousands of camels, Marwari horses and cattle camp on the dunes west of Pushkar while pilgrims bathe in the lake below the Brahma temple, and the two crowds meet over moustache contests, folk music and plates of malpua.

Rajasthan

Rajasthan

Dal Baati Churma

Rajasthan on one thali: hard wheat baatis baked in embers until they crack, drowned in ghee, eaten with panchmel dal of five lentils and churma crushed with jaggery. You break the baati by hand, spoon dal over it, then finish sweet. Eat it at a Jaipur haveli lunch or a Jodhpur family kitchen.

Rajasthan

Laal Maas

A Rajput hunting-camp curry of mutton simmered with fistfuls of Mathania red chillies, yoghurt and browned garlic until the gravy runs deep red. It is fierce rather than sour, and is mopped up with bajra roti. Jodhpur and Udaipur kitchens still finish it with a live coal doused in ghee for smoke.

Rajasthan

Pyaaz Kachori

A flaky fried disc packed with spiced onion, gram flour and fennel, cracked open at the top and flooded with tamarind and mint chutney. It is a mid-morning habit in Jaipur, eaten standing at Rawat Misthan Bhandar near Sindhi Camp, and in Jodhpur outside the clock tower with a glass of masala chai.

Rajasthan

Ghewar

A honeycomb disc of batter poured into hot ghee, soaked in sugar syrup and crowned with rabri and slivered pistachio. It appears for Teej and Raksha Bandhan in the monsoon months of July and August, when Johari Bazaar sweet shops in Jaipur stack it in towers and sell it by weight.