Jumbos add colours to Pink City

Jaipur, Mar 14: How about playing Holi on elephant back? Pink City provides the thrills with jumbos and kaleidoscopic colours for company today - a day before Holi.

In the month of Phalgun, a day before Holi, elephants gather in the city's Chaughan Stadium, play Holi, polo, race against each other and even catwalk to ring in the gaiety associated with the festival.

Pink City celebrates this event as the 'Elephant Festival'.

Rajasthan Tourism department organises this annual festival so that tourists can experience the unique form of playing 'Haathi Holi' and also relive the grandeur of the bygone royal era that is no more now, an official said.

In the days when the Rajput kings and princes held sway, the royal processions were considered to be incomplete without elephants.

Jaipur today remains one of the few cities in the world where about 90 odd elephants still exist. The venue of the festival is a place where the erstwhile royalty of Jaipur used to play polo.

Caparisoned elephants donning glittering ornaments and embroidered velvets first take part in a procession, which recreate the splendour and opulence of royal era.

The female jumbos wear anklets, which tinkle as they walk. Prizes await the most beautifully decorated elephant.

Camels, horses, folk dancers also accompany the elephants on the way. Dances, like Gair, Algoja and Sahariya, are performed as the procession proceeds.

The procession starting from New Gate in the walled city, passes through Chaura Rasta, Tripolia Gate, Choti Chaupad, Gangauri Bazar and ends at the Chaughan Stadium.

The highlight of the festival is of course the playing of Holi on elephant back. As people sitting on these elephants smear each other and spray the air with beautiful colours (Gulal). Even the elephants spray coloured water with their trunks, drenching all those around.

Elephant polo and elephant races form spectacular sights as the bulky animals make their way through the game.

However, the event that takes the cake is the 'Tug of War' between tourists and one elephant, which usually has the spectators and participants in splits.

As dusk descends, amazing fireworks light up the sky, bringing curtains on a day of fun and frolic with jumbos.

UNI