Gauri (Parvati) & Isar (Shiva)
Gangaur
Eighteen days of Gauri — Rajasthan's daughters and wives walk the goddess home.
Tithi: Chaitra Shukla Tritiya
In the simplest words
Rajasthan's spring festival of Gauri (Parvati) — girls and women carry the goddess in procession and ask for happy homes and true companions.
The story & purpose
Gangaur begins the day after Holi and ripens for eighteen days: clay images of Isar and Gauri — Shiva and Parvati as the ideal wedded pair — are dressed, sung to, and fed by girls and married women, until on Chaitra Shukla Tritiya the goddess is carried in procession to water and bid farewell to her husband's home.
Unmarried girls keep it for a good husband, married women for their husband's long life — and by old Rajasthani humour, husbands are not told what is asked. The Jaipur and Udaipur processions, with the royal Gangaur on elephant and boat, are among Rajasthan's loveliest sights.
What is done
Isar–Gauri seva
Clay or wooden images dressed and worshipped daily with dub grass, flowers, and songs.
Ghudlia & songs
Girls carry lamp-lit pots door to door in the evenings, gathering blessings and grain.
The farewell
On the final day Gauri processes to a well or lake and is immersed — the daughter returns to Kailash.
Gauri jaap
Sarva-mangala-mangalye — the verse of the all-auspicious goddess.
Best timings
Daily worship in the mornings; the final procession moves in the late afternoon.
Exact muhurat varies by city and tradition — for the precise hour, consult a local panchang for your location.
Worth knowing
'Gan' is Shiva and 'gaur' is Gauri — the name itself is the married pair.
Ghewar, the honeycomb sweet, is the taste of Gangaur in Rajasthan.
Newly married daughters keep their first Gangaur in their parents' home.