Until then, permanent statues of the goddess Gauri were only kept in the palace temples of a few royal families in Rajasthan. For the past one-hundred-forty-seven years, people have believed that those who want to have a son should pray to this statue because my ancestor who received this statue had prayed to it during the Gangaur festival for a son, and a year later, he and his wife were blessed with a son.
Gangaur is a joyful celebration of the goddess Gauri’s eighteen-day visit to her parent’s home around the time of the spring harvest. Women dress in beautiful new traditional outfits and wear their best jewelry. They dance and sing every evening. On the eighteenth day, the goddess is transported by means of a long procession through the city. The procession symbolizes the goddess leaving her parent’s home and her family staying with her until she is immersed in a well or pond. The immersion symbolizes the part of her journey to her husband’s home after she leaves her birth family.
However, the festival is celebrated a little differently in each city and village. In some places, statues of five deities, made of either wood or clay, are placed inside a basket. The five deities include Goddess Gauri, her husband (Isarji), Kaniramji (Isarji’s brother); Rovabai (Isarji’s sister); and a young girl (Dholanmala). At the beginning of the festival, wheatgrass seeds are sown in specifically designed earthen pots. This grass is used to line the basket that the five statues are placed in on the final day of the festival.
In other places, from the seventh day, women go out in a procession every evening.
