Rituals, Use & Significance
During the Gangaur festival, a set of specific items plays an important role in the rituals and celebrations. Each item reflects tradition, devotion to Goddess Gauri (Parvati) and Lord Shiva (Isar), and cultural symbolism.
1. Clay or Wooden Idols of Gauri and Isar
What:
-
Small handmade clay idols of Goddess Gauri and Lord Isar (Shiva) are central to the festival.
-
In some families, wooden idols are kept permanently and repainted each year by traditional painters known as matherans.
Ritual Use:
-
These idols are placed in a clean sacred space at home.
-
Women perform daily puja and offerings to these figures throughout Gangaur.
Significance:
The idols represent the divine couple’s love, devotion, and marital harmony — the core spiritual theme of the festival.
Variation:
-
Clay idols are most common; in some Rajput households, wooden figures painted with traditional motifs are preferred.
2. Mehndi (Henna)
What:
-
Women and girls apply henna designs on their hands and feet in beautiful patterns.
Ritual Use:
-
It is applied in the days leading up to and during Gangaur.
-
Designs often feature sun, moon, flowers, and geometric motifs.
Significance:
-
Mehndi symbolizes good fortune, beauty, prosperity, and auspicious beginnings.
-
For married women, it reflects marital bliss and prayers for their husband’s well-being.
3. Ghudlias (Earthen Pots with Lamps)
What:
-
Ghudlias are earthen pots with many holes and a lamp inside.
Ritual Use:
-
Starting around the 7th day after Holi, unmarried girls carry Ghudlias on their heads in the evening, singing traditional songs as they walk through neighbourhoods collecting small gifts such as sweets, jaggery, cash, ghee, or oil.
-
This continues for about 10 days. On the final day, the pots are broken, and the gifts collected are shared in a feast.
Significance:
-
The burning lamp inside symbolizes hope, purity, and the enduring spirit of devotion.
-
The Ghudlia tradition also commemorates a legendary historical event involving Rao Santhal of Jodhpur and the rescue of maidens, linking heroism with festival joy.
4. Decorative Attire & Accessories
What:
-
Women and girls wear traditional clothing such as lehenga-chunni, sarees, or regional attire.
-
Often accompanied by bangles, jewelry, anklets, and other adornments.
Ritual Use:
-
Presenting the best attire is part of expressing devotion and joy.
-
In some families, Sinjara hampers (gift bundles of clothes, jewelry, sweets, and money) are given to married women by their parents before the final days of Gangaur.
Significance:
Dressing beautifully reflects respect and celebration of the goddess. It also symbolizes joy, prosperity, and the festival’s social significance.
5. Wheat Seeds / Jawara
What:
-
Women sow wheat or barley seeds in earthen pots — often in ashes collected after Holi — which sprout into green shoots called jawara.
Ritual Use:
-
The growing sprouts are placed beside Gauri and Isar idols or kept in the home prayer space throughout Gangaur.
Significance:
The green sprouts symbolize fertility, growth, renewal, and prosperity — linking the festival with spring, harvest cycles, and life’s ongoing renewal.
6. Puja Offerings (Flowers, Turmeric, Kumkum, Fruits, Sweets)
What:
-
Fresh flowers, turmeric, kumkum (vermilion), fruits, sweets and other simple offerings are presented to the idols during daily worship.
Ritual Use:
-
These are offered during the Gangaur puja ritual each day, along with prayers sung in praise of Goddess Gauri.
Significance:
These offerings represent devotion, gratitude, and the wish for blessings, fertility, and happiness for family life.
7. Sinjara (Gift Hampers)
What:
-
In some regions and families, Sinjara is a hamper of clothes, jewelry, sweets, money, makeup items, and personal gifts.
Ritual Use:
-
Sinjara is typically sent by the parental home to married daughters before the festival’s culmination.
Significance:
-
This gift-giving reinforces family bonds, blessings, and love, connecting homes and relatives during the festival’s final celebrations.
-
The clothes and adornments are often worn during the processions and the final immersion (visarjan).
How These Items Are Used in Daily Rituals
-
Daily Puja: Women place idols on a clean altar, decorate them with fresh clothes and jewelry, offer flowers, fruits, and turmeric, and perform prayers each day.
-
Personal Devotion: Women often dress in traditional attire with mehndi while singing Gangaur Geet, reinforcing cultural continuity and personal devotion.
-
Evening Activities: Unmarried girls with Ghudlias sing songs and collect offerings, while married women continue fasting and rites.
-
Processions & Visarjan: On the final day, adorned idols, groomed attire, and gifts like Sinjara ornaments feature in grand processions ending with idol immersion in a water body.
Regional Variation in Items & Ritual Use
-
In Rajasthan, Ghudlias and jawara are particularly prominent, and embellished attire often reflects local textile traditions.
-
In Gujarat (Gauri Vrat) and nearby regions, items like mandana designs (decorative floor/rangoli patterns) are added, and women incorporate unique folk designs in offerings.
-
Tribal communities may emphasize local symbols and plants alongside clay idols and traditional offerings, blending local belief systems with pan-Indian rituals.
Why Each Item Matters
-
Idols – Represent divine presence and marital ideals.
-
Mehndi – Symbol of beauty, luck, and devotion.
-
Ghudlias – Represent light, strength, community participation, historical memory.
-
Attire & Jewelry – Reflect joy, cultural identity, and festive expression.
-
Jawara Seeds – Signify growth, fertility, and renewal.
-
Offerings & Sinjara – Reinforce gratitude, blessings, family unity.