Report: Jaigarh Heritage Festival

The event that featured musical performances, bazaars, workshops and heritage walks showcased the many traditions that have come to define the city’s legacy

Rajasthan is no stranger to cultural festivals. From the Jodhpur RIFF to the Jaisalmer desert festival, each part of the state has a unique way of celebrating the rich traditions that are integral to its fabric. Next year will mark 300 years of Jaipur and while the annual literature festival is what one is reminded of when the Pink City’s cultural landscape is brought up, there is an art renaissance afoot that may have gone unnoticed by tourists and locals alike. The second edition of the Jaigarh Heritage Festival held on 6th and 7th of December 2025 was testament to these winds of change.

The standout performance at the Jaigarh Heritage Festival was The Manganiyar Seduction directed by Roysten Abel. A display of Rajasthani folk music at its finest, the production consisted of more than 40 musicians who performed with such theatrical flair that the audience was on its feet throughout. (Courtesy Jaigarh Heritage Festival)

Inside the galleries. (City Palace Museum, Jaipur)

The event began with an entry to the Jaigarh fort, an important historic site, which was converted into a carnivalesque space with life-size puppets and langur behroopiyas welcoming visitors. The different sections of the venue showcased the myriad artistic traditions that have come to define the city’s legacy. With live block printing and lac bangle making counters, the many different lanes and open spaces were designed to serve as another layer to the cultural extravaganza. Part of this elaborate set up were the curated food gully and craft bazaar which brought together both established brands as well as independent small business owners. The bazaar had stalls displaying the clothes, prints, semi-precious gems and silver that have become synonymous with the capital of Rajasthan. A surprise element was a live stone chiseling station with karigars brought in by StoneX Global as part of its promotion of Indian craftsmanship.

The craft bazaar brought together both established brands as well as independent small business owners (Jaigarh Heritage Festival)

In keeping with the Jaigarh Heritage Festival’s aim to promote the artistic and cultural lineages of the state, there were masterclasses and easy-to-follow workshops designed to initiate beginners into this rich heritage. A case in point was Chugge Khan’s khartal workshop that enthusiastically received participants who learnt a traditional musical form while having great fun with it. This writer particularly enjoyed the masterclass with Giles Tillotson who guided the audience through an interactive art lesson on reading portraits and map making. There was also a sketching lesson led by Urban Sketchers Jaipur where attendees learnt to replicate intricate arches using regular pen or pencil on paper. These sessions were spread over different nooks of the fort, which made the entire experience immersive. The day’s activities also included talks around the rich heritage of the state. Architecture enthusiasts could also opt for a heritage walk led by Chandni Chowdhary through fantastic vantage points along with a narration about the lore surrounding the structure and its rich legacy.

The evening performances by artists and collectives such as Papon and Kabir Café that were held under a starry sky in the fort grounds lent the festival an ethereal air. The standout performance was The Manganiyar Seduction directed by Roysten Abel. A display of Rajasthani folk music at its finest, the production consisted of more than 40 musicians who performed with such theatrical flair that the audience was on its feet throughout. Larger-than-life illuminated puppets in the form of spiders and other wildlife wandered around the fort under the moonlit sky lending a magical air to the entire experience.

Subodh Gupta’s Kingdom of Earth at the sculpture park (Courtesy the artist)

At the sidelines, this writer got a tour of the City Palace grounds. Turns out the many galleries that are a part of the complex are being revived and ones like Sabha Niwas and the Sileh Khana now provide a glimpse into the renaissance that is slowly changing the face of the art landscape in Jaipur. “The old galleries, as they were when I first turned up here, were galleries that had been planned and executed in the 1970s. Then, the approach was, you choose a type of thing like arms and armour or textiles; you put out lots and lots of stuff and you just kind of label it and you write a few text panels. That’s it,” said Tillotson, who is also part of this initiative. That approach has now been radically revised and the galleries are being used to curate a storytelling experience centred around art and craft. “We’re much more interested in trying to mix things together so that when you’re showing weapons, you have pictures of people carrying them or using them,” Tillotson adds.

Padmanabh Singh of the royal family of Jaipur said that Sabha Niwas “used to be Diwan-e-Aam, the hall of public audience”. It was the first large hall that people entered when they went to visit the king. “Today, it’s not only conserved as a fantastic piece of Rajput Mughal architecture. It’s also a fantastically curated gallery, which gives you a little rundown of the history of the Kachawas,” he said. In the Sileh Khana Gallery which used to be the royal armoury, the effort is to present “the dialogue that Jaipur enjoyed with various centers of power across India and also the world.” There is also a recently launched Jaipur Centre for Art Gallery at the City Palace, “which showcases some of the finest contemporary art that has been found across the world”. Other expected additions such as a Jaipur and the World gallery will exhibit “fine examples of gifts that were exchanged between Jaipur and the world.”

Juhikadevi Bhanjdeo’s Memories in Layers at the sculpture park (Courtesy the artist)

These projects are a lead up to the 300 years of Jaipur which the city will be celebrating next year. “It’s really a consolidated effort towards bringing the incredible heritage of Jaipur back to life, revitalizing it. And we’re doing so through targeted conservation projects, whether that’s in the form of built heritage, but also in the form of intangible heritage, such as these festivals, which we are so happy to celebrate against this incredible backdrop,” said Padmanabh Singh.

This renaissance can be experienced at the Jaigarh fort too in its sculpture park and the many installations that work with the historical space in generating a unique experience for visitors. In its sixth edition, the sculpture park that has been curated by Peter Nagy includes installations by celebrated names from the art world such as Subodh Gupta, Juhikadevi Bhanjdeo and many more.

Whether it is stories about the enduring cultural legacies of Rajasthan that you seek or an insight into the burgeoning contemporary art scene in India, Jaipur is where you will find expressions of both the past and the future truly coming alive in the present.

Simar Bhasin is a literary critic and research scholar who lives in Delhi. Her essay ‘A Qissa of Resistance: Desire and Dissent in Selma Dabbagh’s Short Fiction’ was awarded ‘Highly Commended’ by the Wasafiri Essay Prize 2024.