Old City, Ahmedabad

Ahmedabad is the largest city in Gujarat, located on the banks of the Sabarmati River. It dates back to the 12th century, but the current city was founded in 1411 by the Sultanate Ahmed Shah I (thus the name Ahmed-abad). Legend has it, Ahmed Shah was camping near the Sabarmati River when he saw a hare chasing a dog and realized it must be a special place. Since he was looking for a new location for his capital, he decided to pick it as the spot for Ahmedabad.

With an entire day free before our flight to Pune, we decided to go on an early morning heritage walk in the old city. We took two taxis to reach the start of the walk, at the Swaminarayan temple. Unbeknownst to us, there is more than one Swaminarayan temple and luckily our driver was kind enough to take us to the right one (the other taxi got totally lost, and in a strange twist of luck and fate, ran into us in the old city after we had already started the tour!)

Swaminarayan Sampradaya is a contemporary Hindu movement that preaches non-violence, tolerance, and impartiality between religions, casts, and creeds. We met at the Swaminarayan Mandir Kalupur, the first Swaminarayan temple in the world. We entered through an ornate gate into the temple complex, and had a chance to wander among the worshippers. 
  

From there, we began our walk through the old city. Vendors were setting up their stalls, waving sandalwood incense to bring good fortune to their day.

We entered the Pols through narrow, winding streets. A 'Pol' is a small neighborhood, usually containing a small courtyard with a birdfeeder or temple. Amongst the small streets you can often find an ambling cow, lazy dog or goat, and women going about their daily chores.
 
  
The architecture of the homes is amazingly diverse, a testament to the various influences that swept through Ahmedabad. On the same row of homes, you can see Mughal, Muslim, British, and French styles. Secret passageways lead from one tiny courtyard to another, allowing people to escape from any enemies who might venture into the Pol.

We stopped at a Jain temple (no pictures are allowed inside), built with white marble showing the wealth of the Jain people (who were usually merchants or traders).

Decorative front of the Jain temple

The end of the walk was at the Jama Masjid, the largest Mosque in Ahmedabad, built in 1424.

The courtyard, with a pool for ablutions

The prayer room

As we toured the mosque a random man started taking pictures of us... turns out, he was from a popular Indian newspaper, DNA, which has a 'culture' section highlighting visitors who go to see heritage sites. He took several candid and posed photos, and supposedly we'll be in the newspaper in a few days!