Maharashtra Events

Maharashtra’s calendar is dominated by one festival that takes over the entire state.

Ganesh Chaturthi — August or September

Ten days honouring the elephant-headed god, and in Maharashtra it is overwhelming. Households and neighbourhood mandals install clay images of Ganesh — from a few inches to several storeys high — in homes and in enormous decorated pavilions built in the streets, with music, food and processions for the duration. The public form was deliberately promoted by the nationalist leader Bal Gangadhar Tilak in 1893 to create a mass gathering that colonial assembly restrictions could not easily prevent, and it became a vehicle for organising. It ends with visarjan: the idols are carried through the streets to the sea or a lake and immersed, accompanied by drumming and dancing and vast crowds — Mumbai’s Lalbaugcha Raja procession alone takes the best part of a day to cover a few kilometres. The plaster-of-Paris idols that became standard cause real pollution, and a shift back to clay is under way.

Diwali — October or November

Observed across the state with lamps, rangoli and a great deal of sweet-making.

Pandharpur Wari — June or July

Hundreds of thousands of Varkari pilgrims walk for up to three weeks from Alandi and Dehu to Pandharpur, carrying the sandals of the saint-poets and singing abhangas the whole way.

Mumbai’s film and arts calendar

The Kala Ghoda Arts Festival in February fills the gallery district with installations, theatre and music for nine days and is free; the Mumbai Film Festival in the autumn is among Asia’s more serious. Both are city occasions rather than tourist ones.

Kaas flowering — late August and September

A plateau in the Ghats that turns to sheets of flowers for a few weeks, with visitor numbers capped.