Rajasthan Festival: the state’s birthday week in Jaipur

Before independence the land was Rajputana, a patchwork of princely states; Rajasthan, “the place of kings”, was made from 19 of them. The merger came in seven phases, from the Matsya Union in 1948 to the reorganisation of 1956. The decisive step was 30 March 1949, when Jodhpur, Jaipur, Jaisalmer and Bikaner joined to form Greater Rajasthan, with Vallabhbhai Patel closely involved, and that date became Rajasthan Day.

According to press reports, since 2025 the state government has marked the foundation day on Chaitra Shukla Pratipada, the first day of the Hindu new year, which falls in March or early April. The week of events ends on that day. The government fixes the day by the Hindu calendar, and the week’s programme is announced in March, from a few days to two weeks ahead.

Rajasthan Tourism describes days packed from morning chants to musical evenings: concerts, religious chants, film screenings, music nights, an army pageant, a police tattoo show, a heritage fashion show and a grand closing ceremony, the peak of the week.

The venues are the city’s monuments and arts centres. Past editions have put chari dance and puppet shows at Jal Mahal, tribal dance and folk song at Albert Hall, and ravanhattha (a bowed string instrument of western Rajasthan) and khartal (wooden clappers) at Amber Fort. At Shilpgram in the Jawahar Kala Kendra, dishes of Mewar, Marwar, Dhundhar, Hadoti and Braj are served to folk music, next to a craft bazaar of textiles, prints, embroidery, carpets, pottery, metal and woodwork from across the state.

In a recent edition the culture department also ran three days of events at state monuments, including Amber, Nahargarh, Hawa Mahal and Albert Hall, and Jawahar Kala Kendra held exhibitions, concerts, theatre and an art fair. Programmes change every year, so check the announcement in March.