JODHPUR, India - Actress Elizabeth Hurley married Indian businessman Arun Nayar on Friday in a traditional Hindu ceremony in the desert state of Rajasthan where the groom trotted down the aisle on a horse.

Newly married British model Elizabeth Hurley (L) and Indian businessman Arun Nayar (C), surrounded by photographers, arrive at the international airport in Mumbai March 5, 2007. [Reuters]

The ceremony in the historic city of Jodhpur wrapped up a week of lavish wedding celebrations in India after their civil marriage last week at a castle in England.

Hurley, 41, her 42-year-old husband Nayar and their 240 guests enjoyed the kind of pageantry once reserved for maharajahs as they shuttled between palaces and an ancient hilltop fort around Jodhpur.

Following the ceremony, the wedding party headed to the city's huge Meherangarh Fort overlooking the blue-painted city to feast on Jodhpur's rich, buttery cuisine, accompanied by traditional Rajasthani singers and showers of flower petals.

The guests will dine on obscure Indian cuisine from Rajasthan, including wheat dumplings mixed into a soup of savory lentils and food wrapped in leaves and cooked by embers while buried in the earth.

The wedding sparked some controversy in Rajasthan's state assembly, where a communist politician dubbed the event as a symbol of feudalism, the PTI news agency reported.

On Friday, a crowd of about 50 journalists stormed through security officials guarding the fort as curious wedding guests took pictures of the chaos a few hours after the ceremony.

The couple's two-night stopover in Mumbai earlier in the week was also immersed in problems after authorities tore down part of a venue built to host the wedding party because it infringed on a popular beach.

TATTOOS

Hurley, who has been staying at the grand, sandstone Umaid Bhawan Palace, had sported elaborate henna tattoos after she and her female guests took part in a traditional ceremony earlier this week.

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