Heritage Walk - Ahmedabad

History and photography enthusiasts in the old city side of Ahmedabad

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Old buildings, cluttered alleys, cobbled pathways, narrow roads leading everywhere and seemingly nowhere and a lot of smiles greeting you along your way. Does the place sound fascinating? But it totally is! One doesn’t get on the UNESCO Heritage City List for no Reason right?

Wooden doors and their charms

Ahmedabad isn’t one of the oldest cities of India but is definitely one of those cities which has preserved its old charms and is moving on with time without letting go of its heritage. A couple of weeks back, I was in Ahmedabad and decided to go for its famous heritage walk, which apparently is the oldest heritage walk in India, started by Ahmadabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) and CRUTA Foundation ages ago.

The oldest Swaminarayan Temple, Kalupur

The walk starts from a 200-year-old Swami Narayan Temple in Kalupur which greets you with hordes of people praying and rushing to the temple even at 8 ‘o clock in the morning. The first look of the old walled city leaves you mesmerized and wanting for more! The walk starts with a slide show on the city and that is when I found out that the temple was actually build in 1822 and was pleasantly surprised at how well preserved the monastery area was.

Kavi Dalpatram's statue

From there you move on to Kavi Dalpatram Chowk where you can see the façade of the old house of the famous 19th century Gujarati poet Dalpatram who resided there and a life size statue of his with complete details like – the Kathiawar embroidery kurta, one shoe on one shoe on the ground, a thick book and wrinkled hands and a pen in his hand with a pensive look on. People of the area respect the Poet and call the statue – statue of Dada and his house and the chowk are used by locals as a common hang out place.

Wooden houses of the pols

Next stop, rather stops were all the Pols. Pols are community societies where people belonging to the same community chose to stay in one area. Ahmadabad, though was founded by Sultan Ahmed Shah in 1411 A.D., unlike the other sultanate dynasties of India – the Kingdom was known to be the most lenient Islamic state of the time and the pols are a proof of that. The number of Hindu and Jain temples will make you forget that the area was actually an Islamic state.

Artistic wooden brackets and doors

The architecture of the houses of the pols are also so different even after belonging to pretty much the same time. But the most striking feature of almost all houses are the wooden brackets and entrances. Ahmadabad had a lot of rich merchants and rich families as citizens in its initial days who could afford wooden houses (considered a luxury at that time) and hence most of the houses in these pols are wooden and as wooden houses give you more scope of going artsy, the doors and pillars and pillar brackets were carved. A friend of mine had warned me to no go crazy clicking the brackets of the houses, but I did just that. The brackets tell you which community the house belonged to, which style of architecture the house was inspired from and of course they are colourful and beautiful.

Badashah no Hajiro

As you go ahead you come across Badashah no Hajiro which is the tomb of Ahmed Shah and Rani no Haziro which is tomb of his queen. Though people have kept the haziros pretty well maintained, the close by areas are market places now due to which the courtyards are dirty and the market space is almost encroaching the structures.

One of the many bird feeders

The walk goes from Pols to Pols, you pass many direction posts that tell you the direction of the drainage lines, you pass bird feeders at almost every chowk and guess what – you pass many hidden ways from one Pol to another! Does the place sound fascinating enough now?

Jama Masjid

The walk ends with the visit to Jama Masjid which is one of the rarest mosques you would see in the world, in terms of architecture. The masjid has no domes and the minarets of the masjid were destroyed in an earthquake in 1819. While the main masjid has all elements of a mosque, the interiors and exterior carvings have many Hindu and Jain architectural elements, but well there is so much about the masjid that it would take an entire article just to tell you about it.

Teen Darwaza - One of the remaining gates of the old walled city.

Personally I felt the heritage walk is the perfect way to explore old Ahmedabad and would recommend all history and architecture buffs to do this at least once – you won’t be disappointed at all! The heritage walk is conducted by AMC every Sunday from 8-10:30 AM (except Diwalis) at a nominal charge of 50 INR. And good news for people who have less time, or won’t be around till weekends and still want to do this – AMC is soon coming up with a mobile application that would give you the heritage walk route and more information around it so that you are still able to go around the place without the guided tour!

Guess you know one thing you just have to do when in Ahmedabad now.

To Get the App - Click Here!

P.S.
Timings of the Walk - 8:00 to 10:30 AM, Every Sunday except Diwalis
Starting Point - Kalupur Swami Narayan Temple. Ask around for Heritage Walk office to get the tickets.
Cost - INR 50 for SAARC Nationals, other INR 100. Carry Identification Proof.