Tarnetar MELA

And the sudden plan took us to the Tarnetar mela- Tarnetar. As usual we have meet up in the morning for the breakfast and decided to go to Tarnetar meda for Sunday outing as this place is not so far from Jamnagar, one can easily come back till the night. But this time we were only two but we enjoyed a lot.after finishing our all daily routines works me and ramiz started riding towards Tarnetar which is approx 160 far from Jamnagar. There are two ways to reach Tarnetar. 1st is Jamnagar to Tarnetar via dhrol- wakaner which is 145 kms and only dual track road, and another is Jamnagar to Tarnetar via rajkot chotila highway which is 165 kms away. We took the Rajkot highway and we left Jamnagar around 2 pm. This time we were on our Avenger 150. We reach to the tarnetar mela around 5 in the evening. And that was bit early because people are coming and setting up their stalls. We spent almost 2 hours over there, took many photographs (coming soon), went to the trineteshwar mahadev temple and the Temple is situated in the middle of the kund. In the Tarnetar mela yo

 

u ll see that most of the people are from near by villages. It is comes under the Gujarat tourism scheme so you ll find lots of doms of gujrat government scheme and providing information about their schemes and awareness for rural community. You ll find more interesting things about this fair on the Gujarat tourism website. As we don't have that much time to spend in the fair otherwise we have heard that there are horse race, Bullock cart race and many more interesting things are happening there. This time it is going to held from 4th Sept to 7th Sept.

One who love to enjoy rides and the mela (funfair) environment should visit this place at least once.

If you think you are prepared to walk out of your mundane experience and free-fall into a whirlwind of colours, romance and music, then head for the Tarnetar Fair.

Based on the legend of Draupadi's swayamvara, this fair is a celebration of ethnic Gujarat’s folk-dance, music, costumes and the arts, centered around young tribal men and women seeking marriage partners. But even for those not interested in finding a spouse, the romance and excitement in the air are captivating, and every year the fair seems only to grow in popularity, attracting visitors and tourists from Gujarat, elsewhere in India, and even abroad.

Here the many colourful costumes, glittering ornaments and free-spirited movements of folk dances, all combine to create a memorable scene. As the dancers surge in waves of circular movement, the incessant throbbing of the drums keeps them moving in unison, and the drum beats continue throughout the day even as the dancers change from one group to the next. Many kinds of folk dances are performed; by far the most popular is the raas, in which dancers hold sticks to clack against those of other dancers. As many as one to two hundred women perform rasadas in a single circle, to the beats of four drums at a time and the tunes of jodia pavas (double flutes). You may also see people break out into a spontaneous hudo.

Rabari women of nearby Zalawad perform the famous circular folk dance called rahado. Their marital status is indicated clearly by their costumes; a black zimi (skirt) means she is married. But if a woman is wearing a red zimi, it means she has not yet tied the knot, probably seeking a husband. The potential husbands seeking brides are elegantly dressed in colourful dhotis, artistically designed waistcoats and a head-cloth twisted at an angle, moving about the fairground at Tarnetar with striking umbrellas, advertising the bachelorhood they are keen to relinquish.

Numerous sadhus and bhajan mandlis (religious music groups) are engrossed in singing continuously, accompanied by folk instruments.

The Tarnetar Mela covers a large part of the Tarnetar village with a huge number of stalls put up to sell beautiful local handicrafts unavailable elsewhere, along with ethnic jewellery, statues of deities and traditional attire with tiny mirrors embroidered into the clothing. There are also merry-go-round rides, photographers stalls, magic shows and tattoo artists who attract a large variety of visitors.