Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India

Ahmedabad, founded in 1411 by Sultan Ahmad Shah on the eastern banks of the Sabarmati, grew larger and wealthier until dynastic decay and anarchy caused a decline and its capture by Akbar in 1572. Its renewed eminence under the Mughals ceased after Aurangzeb's death  in 1707. The British annexed Gujarat in 1818 and the city's first cotton mills were opened in 1859-61. The city grew again and became the largest inland industrial centre in India. It was the temporary capital of Gujarat in 1960, until the state administration shifted to Gandhinagar in 1970. In 2001 the city was rocked by a massive earthquake that killed thousands of people, and in 2002 the city witnessed one of the worst communal riots since the partition; over a thousand people, mostly Muslims, were killed, allegedly with the tacit support of the ruling right wing Hindu nationalist party, BJP.

Ahmedabad's architectural history fuses Hindu, Muslim, and Jain traditions. Ahmad Shah and his successors converted Hindu temples to mosques. This gave many mosques and tombs a Hindu flavor in their form and decoration. The dense "forest" of 260 richly carved columns in the Jumma Masjid (Great Mosque), completed in 1423, recalls the hall of a Hindu temple. At the mosque's entrance is the domed tomb of Ahmad Shah (1441), and on the road leading to it is the Teen Darwaza, or triple arch (c. 1425). Other fine Muslim buildings include the mosque at Rani Sipri's tomb (c.1505) and the exuberantly rich Rani Rupmati mosque (1515). An interesting feature of the old city is its division into pols, or self-contained blocks of houses that shelter thousands of people each and are bounded by gateways. Several wavs, or stepped wells, abound in the city and its vicinity. Ahmedabad's city museum was designed by the architect Le Corbusier. Sabarmati, a suburb west of the river, became well known as the seat of Mahatma Gandhi's ashram. ♣   [- Apr 06]

Swami Narayan temple (more)	Gunman on temple gateway	Wrestlers on temple gateway	Temple dorm (more)
Priest with layman			Shia Muslim festival (more)
Deformed man			Teen Darwaza
Old city homes	Old city square	Old city buildings	Artwork over doorway
Doshivada ni pol			Old City street
Doshivada ni pol			Window with squirrels
Harkunvar Shethani ni haveli	Large bracket	Street scene	Chabutara, or bird feeder (more)
Wooden balconies	Old quarter buildings	Wooden balconies	Walled city street
Red alert at Shantinath temple	Manek chowk	Beasts of burden	Rani Sipri's tomb
Gateway to Ahmed Shah's tomb (1, 2)	Bracket at Kala Ramji temple	Yet another temple	Kavi Dalpatram chowk
A temple in old city (shrine)	Rani Rupmati mosque (1, 2),	Before a religious procession	"Take my picture please"
Ahmed Shah's mosque	Bhadra fort	Quit India movement	City museum
Courtesan, 12th cent CE	Tazia	Tower near Hathee Singh temple	Dada Hari Wav (1, 2)
Dada Hari Wav	Hathee Singh temple entrance	Hathee Singh temple (1, 2)	Temple courtyard (more)
Jumma Masjid complex	Jumma masjid	Pillared hall (more)	Raised enclosure for women
Adalaj Wav (or baoli, a stepped well)  ▒
Steps of the baoli (1, 2)	Wall decor	Pillars with window frame	Mock window frame
Multiple floors (more)	View from the well	Pillar brackets (more)	Bottom of the baoli
Gandhi's Sabarmati Ashram
Hridaya Kunj (1, 2) ▒	Inner courtyard (more)	Kitchen	Meeting room
Vinoba kutir, Mira kutir (more)	Ashram grounds (cricket)	Hot afternoon (entryway)	Sabarmati river (more)
An ashram visitor	Painting at the museum	Painting at the museum	MK Gandhi statue (more)
Dandi march	At his spinning wheel	Presiding at dalit marriage	Marching with other leaders
Ending a fast	"Tragedy of a great soldier"	MK Gandhi	His spinning wheel
MLK Jr. on Gandhi	Toynbee on Gandhi	Aldous Huxley on Gandhi	Albert Einstein on Gandhi