Historic city of Ahmadabad

Historical Information on the city: (Ref: Soundara Rajan, K. v., 1980. Archaeological Survey of India New Delhi)

Ahmadabad city located on Latitude-23°00'; Longitude-72°35', reputed as 'Manchester' of India, is a busy industrial city situated in cotton-growing hinterland north of Gulf of Cambay, about 100 km upstream of the mouth of the Sabarmati river. This textile town has a veneer of modernity, which has all but hidden the five centuries of eventful history it had had, to which many magnificent mosques and ornate tombs of its medieval masters bear mute testimony. Well connected by road, rail and air to the other towns, Ahmadabad is a curious amalgam of conservative traditions and cosmopolitan trends. The more recent and no less historic, political associations of the city with national leaders have added to its stature. While the erstwhile fortified town and its major suburban growth were restricted to the left bank of Sabarmati, in recent times the city has extended itself to the right bank of the river as well and both parts being well-connected with series of sturdy bridges spanning the river which is liable to swell its banks in the rainy season. Its location as a convenient focal point on the Gujarat land strip lent it in the bygone centuries a vantage position for civil as well as military control. In the realm of medieval Indian architecture, it has indeed an assured place by its significant contributions to the combination of HinduJaina and Islamic modes, and by superb artistry of the carved exteriors of the monuments. To the casual tourist, many ofAhmadabad's monuments may seem to lack elegance, encumbered as they often are by drab and totally indiscriminate accretions to them, and modem installations around and within them. But with a modicum of generous consideration for a city that has overgrown itself, the beauty and ingenuity of many a dome, screen, or minar composition of the edifices will in any case be appreciated.

The foundations of the city of Ahmadabad were laid by Ahmad Shah with benedictions of his spiritual preceptor, Shaikh Ahmad Khattu Ganj Bakhsh of Sarkhej. Indeed, the Mirat-i-Ahmedi, datable to A.D. 1750, seems to testify to the deep sanctity that was attached to the selection of the site by stating that the ceremony was conducted by four Ahmads of the realm of great piety (not excluding the Sultan himself and his saint of Sarkhej) and was further helped by twelve Qalandar faquirs who were the direct disciples of the saint Hazrat Nizam-ud-DinAuliya of Delhi.

Thus on site of Asawal, soon after AD. 1411 came to be erected the oldest extant fortification ofthe city, viz., the square Bhadra (The name ofBhadra does not in any way bear any relationship to the very much, more recent  Bhadrakali shrine near its eastern gate, since the very structure in which the temple is 10cated,1 viz. A'zam Khan's palace, was erected not much before AD. 1637 during the time of Shah Jahan, whose viceroy A'Zam Khan was) towers, which with massive form included the royal citadel on an area of about 16 hectares. The fortifications ofAhmadabad in their entirety were, however, not built in one single reign.: It is indeed reasonable to presume that Sultan Ahmad, preoccupied as he was with constant expeditions, would have hard such leisure as to build a larger campus than that of the Bhadra fort in his reign. 

The major part of it was completed, as we are informed by Firishta, in AD 1486-87, after the conquest of: Champaner during the time ofMahmud Begada the names ofwhose four noble men are also borne by the Daryapur, Kalupur, Sarangpur and Jamalpur gates. The well preserved city-walls, nearly 10 km in circuit, comprised, according to Mirat-i-Ahmadi, twelve gates, one hundred and thirty nine towers, nine corners. and over six thousand battlements. On the north were Shahpur, Delhi (or Idaria) and Daryapur gates; on the east, Kalupur, Sarangpur and Raipur gates; on south Astodiya, jamalpur and (closed) Dhediya gates; and on the west Khan-i-Jahan, Raykhad and Khanpur gates. (Two more gates were added in the last: century, the Premabhai gate, on the north-east, in 1864, and the Panchkuva gate, on the east, in 1871) Abu'l-Fadl, Firishta and Amin-i-Ahmad-i-Razi, the Persian author of Haft-Iqlim ('the seven climes') all had lavish praise for the prosperity and the grandeur of conception ofAhmadabad fort-city. That it was said to have had three hundred and sixty puras or mahallas, each a self contained town by itself with all amenities, is an impressive index indeed of the thriving population and the city that Ahmadabad should have been.

The later periods, especially early nineteenth century (British took over the city's administration in 1818 A D.) also experienced the enterprising zeal and maturity of local merchants turning towards the textile industry as this was also a period when the British had positioned themselves as industrialized Rulers slowly converting the local character by introducing such changes in methods of productions. Ahmedabad region being the centre of cotton production and trade the British Agency found this to be the source of raw material to provide for the needs of the textile industry back home by exporting cotton produces and also dyes from here to their home country. Some of the adventurous merchants saw in this an opportunity and ventured into establishing the Textile mills by importing the machinery from England and thus one of the first textile mills was established here in 1861 AD. by Late Sri Ranchhodlal Chhotalal. This was the turning point in the city's history and by the end of the 19th century the city was already known as Manchester of India. This was also a true testimony of the spirit of enterprise of the local merchants and the kind of transformation they could affect to the otherwise sleepy merchant and trade centre. This also charted a path for the future of the city's changing character and rapid expansion.

The subsequent phases of the development of the city reflected the contemporary influences and the post symbolism Sultanate period maintained the pace with contemporary needs. Ahmedabad always had progressive and powerful nobility, which was prepared to absorb new currents, and the merchant associations were powerful patrons. The new cultural institutions promoted by them thus were awaiting new, contemporary expressions. Many new Institutions related to Textile Industries were promoted by the Merchants Guild, who now also represented the Industrialists. The British also recognized the enterprising quality of the local merchant class and helped develop the city and its public infra-structure (establishing Municipal; administration in 1858 AD.) and introduced newer educational and civic institutions, which saw the city,' transform itself into a progressive industrial centre with adequate facilities for education and learning. The establishment of Railway between Bombay and Ahmedabad in 1864 AD. saw a sea change in the expansion of the city's trade and commerce. The establishment of these institution also saw emergence of new areas for the city and it's planning and realizations controlled through the then modem Townl Planning models and laws. This saw the development of the western side of the river and new areas emerging as the city started expanding west wards. The growth of the newer city followed the British Town planning practices but lost track with its origin and the new expansions along with the new planning guidelines emerged as a conglomeration of successively expanding areas with its own pressures for its emergence, somehow loosing the continuity and character the historic city showed over its almost five hundred years' evolving history of consolidation. (References: SEMINAR: Special Issue on Gujarat. October 1998, Evolving Architectural Traditions. R. J. Vasavada ,Studies on History of Ahmedabad : Prof. R. N. Mehta and Prof. Rasesh Jamindar, Dept of History, Gujarat Vidyapith Department of Archaeology Publications, Government of Gujarat)

The historic city of Ahmadabad is constituted out of residential settlements 'Pol' and has a specific scale of its community based settlement grouping. Several of such settlements combined together forms a 'Pur' neighborhood and the historic city has several 'Pur' neighborhoods forming the entire fortified historic city. These various 'Pur' have its own urban structure which is self sufficient for the communities, where each 'Pol' once again is a self sufficient unit. In as much as the individual 'Pol' is an entity by itself, the 'Pur' also is an entity at a larger scale and so the progression goes further and makes the city comprising of such entities giving it a homogeneous urban form which is characterized by the 'Pur' the 'Pol' and by a house. This intrinsically emergent character is the key to the identity and associations that play an important role in a socially defined urban form which is a living historic cultural heritage. Ahmadabad has a rich heritage of settlement patterns in its historic old town, which was populated by a large merchant community in various community settlements following different religions. Ahmadabad's multicultural communities lend a distinct character to its settlement patterns and its built environment which always had the religious institutions as its core around which the settlement patterns grew.

The house form, the grouping of houses and the hierarchy of its access ways formed an extremely secure and homogeneous settlement pattern, which even today provides an excellent example of community living and urbanity based on cultural identity and sense of collective agreement in its formation. The communities advocated a living in tune with religious practices and sharing as the basis for their welfare and at the level of the house form this was amply expressed by the treatment of the facade and entrance areas which provided a gradual transition space which allowed the occupants to socialize with outside and also create a distinct zone of spaces for the houses to distinguish between the public and private areas of family living. This attitude provided a very important facade expression which resulted into the elaborate wooden architecture of the town. The attitude to embellish the wooden architecture with intricate carvings and symbolism akin to the religious buildings gave rise to a very important expression of domestic architecture in western India, which has also established a very important phase of characteristic architecture in western India. The house form was designed as a corollary to temples as house was also seen as a temple in their belief to emulate spirituality in daily life. In many cases, the houses also became places of worship depending upon the benevolence of the owners. Architecture of religious institutions assumes important significance in built environment in any culture as representative of the sum total of its cultural identity and image.

The places of worship are conceptualized with highest imaginative skills to represent the associative and built with the best available skills employing long lasting materials and techniques and building skills. This form of architecture then becomes a source of inspiration in all its meanings to inspire the people and influence their own built environment.

The core zones selected for nomination exemplify the significant zones with historic character which is still preserved. This is also based on the survey of properties under taken earlier this decade when the major survey work was done. Based on this identification, the present core zones are marked. The historic city is also dotted with 29 ASI monuments which have their own regulated zones which are now controlled by the ASI in terms of their developments. The core zones and buffer zones identified are linked through associated buffer zones which are in form of a serial link which cover the important areas of the historic city. The gates are already under ASI regulation and so also the Bhadra Fort. The areas selected still need to be detailed further.

The list of areas covered under the core and buffer zones is as follows:

Proposed Core/Buffer zones in the walled city of Ahmedabad (Refer the Map of Historic city, attached here in this submission)

The following areas are under present survey and are shown as reference point only. The Kalupur is already under survey and similarly other areas are being re-surveyed. These areas are expected to be added and restudied during the further work and would be attended to in detail while preparing the Dossier in due course.

I). Dariyapur -I

Protection zone Core -Vestiges of fort walls, Vadigaam and its constituent sub units. Protection zone Buffer -Nagina Vad to the south, road bordering footwalls in the north east.

2). Dariyapur -I & Kalupur -I

Protection zone Core -Between Kalupur road and Chandan Talavdi -Bhanderi pol, Kumbhar ni khadki, Pathan Wasa, Pada pol, Nani Balucha Vad, Moti Balucha Vad, Golvad, Champu Sali ni pol, Waghri wad, Protection Dandigara ni pol, tambugara ni khadki.

Protection zone Buffer -Poptia wad, Sodagar ni pol

3). Shahpur -II, Dariapur -II & Kalupur -III Protection zone Core -Moti Hamam ni pol, Panchbhai ni pol, jhadabhagat ni pol, Swaminaraya D' temple complex, Pinjara wad, Ranchodji ni pol, Timba pol, Hanumanvali pol, Targala wad, Navo vad, Lambeshwar ni pol,

Protection zone Buffer -Nava vas pol, Pipardi ni pol, Shahivada ni pol, Bakari pol, Ranchhodji ni pol, Panjra pol, nagarsheth no vando etc.

4). Kalupur -II, Protection zone Core -Doshiwada ni pol, chomukhji ni pol, Shantinath ni pol, Nisha poI, Kasumba vad, Khara kuva ni pol, Calico dome, Ramji mandir ni pol, Vaghan pol, Kothari pol, Zaveri Vad, Gosaimaharaj' poI, Padshah ni pol, etc.

Protection zone Buffer -Tankshal ni pol, Haja patel ni pol, Timba pol, Amtha gujar ni khadki, Ravakali' ni khadki, manji ni pol.

5). Kalupur -I, Protection zone Core -Mamu naik ni pol Protection zone Buffer -Raja Mehta ni pol, Pada pol, Tankshal ni pol

6). Khadia -III, Protection zone Core -Fatasa pol, Lakha Patel ni pol, Mirabai's pol, Sankdi Sheri, Gangadhiya ni pol, Haribhakti ni pol, Zhupdi Khadki, Ragnath pol, khijda ni pol, Shamji thavar ni pol, Lala vasa ni pol'i Hajira ni pol, Goti Sheri, Seth ni pol, moto suthar wado

Protection zone Buffer -Khetar pal ni pol, Pushkarni ni pol, Amrutlal ni pol, Jethabhai ni pol, Pipla pol, Kavishwar ni pol, sadmata pol.

7). Khadia -I, Protection zone Core -Pakhali ni pol, lamba pada ni pol, pipardi ni pol, Bagdavad, Bhavani pol,Brahmapuri, Fafda ni pol, Talia ni pol.

Protection zone Buffer -A restrained territory including a few houses or interesting junctions in relation to the core zone comprising portions ofkumbhar vad, kapadi vad, Ranchhodji ni pol, Mahalakshmi ni pol.

8). Khadia -II,  Protection zone Core -Dhal ni pol, Jamnadas ni khadki, Pana nagar ni khadki, Dev ni sheri, Fakir sheri, Jagabhai ni pol, Kayashth sheri, Khara kuva ni pol, Shamla ni pol, Akasheth kuva ni pol, Wagheswar pol  

Protection zone buffer -Portions of Pipli pol, Sutharwada pol, Gol vad, Bada pol, haldarwala khadki, I1l Dharawalo khancho, Upli sheri, nichli sheri, Vachli sheri, Koth ni pol, Muth ni pol, Kameshwar ni pol etc.

9) Jamalpur - II,  Protection zone Core -Jami masjid, Kings' and Queens' tombs, Mandvi ni pol axis and its sub pols "ara pol, Lalabhai pol, Girdharwala khadki, Nagji bhudar ni pol, Hira Gandhi pol, Chhipa Mavji ni pol, Samat shikhar ni pol, Surdas sheth ni pol, Harkishandas sheth ni pol, kaka balwant ni pol, Gatrad pol, utaria pol, Soni pol, motibhai ni khadki, mali ni khadki, Vichchi ni pol,

Protection zone Buffer -Portions of Ghunsa parekh ni pol, dhan pipli, Derasar khadki, nada vali pol, Bhanchi pol, Kalupur fruit market, Danapith, Ahmedabad municipal corporation offices, etc.

10) Raikhad, Protection zone Core -Gaikwad haveli fort, vestiges of city wall barbican and Khanjahan darwaja.