Ahmedabad (1) Liquor Licences, Mosques and Tombs: Gujarat Part 1

Gujarat: The What, Where, When and Who

India

Gujarat

This post covers day 1 of a 14-day journey around Gujarat, following our circuit of Rajasthan last year. Smaller than Rajasthan, Gujarat is about the size of the Island of Great Britain and has much the same population.

5,000 years ago, Gujarat was a centre of the Indus Valley civilization and subsequently played its part in most of the major north Indian empires. When Islamic invaders reached northern India in the 9th century Gujarat held out until 1300 when it became part of the Delhi Sultanate.

Our trip round Gujarat was hardly the neat circuit of the Rajasthan tour, and we did make variations to the plan mapped out here, but if we did not see everything the state has to offer, we saw as much as anyone could in the time available.

An independent Muslim sultan seized power in 1391 and Gujarat maintained its independence until becoming part of the Mughal Empire in the 16th century and later the British Empire, though local rulers of a patchwork of Princely States retained considerable autonomy. At independence in 1947 Gujarat was part of the State of Bombay, becoming a state in its own right in 1960.

With a long coast line facing the Arabian sea, Gujaratis have been seafarers and international traders for millennia.

Gujarat is the home state of both Mahatma Gandhi and the current Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

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Ahmedabad: The Former Capital of Gujarat and a Huge but Little Known City

We touched down in Ahmedabad at 3 am. That is 9.30 pm GMT, a time we might normally expect to be reasonably alert but after 17 hours on the road we were anything but. Ahmedabad has 5.6m citizens making it Gujarat’s largest city and India’s 5th largest, ahead of Kolkata (Calcutta) and Chennai (Madras)*. Unfortunately, I was too tired to gain any meaningful first impression of this little-known metropolis as we drove through the dark, but not exactly quiet streets to the House of MG where we checked in and went to bed.

The House of MG, Ahmedabad

The huge and handsome House of MG sits on a T-junction of busy roads in Ahmedabad’s Old City, on the north bank of the Subramati River. Built in the first decade of the 20th century as a home for businessman and philanthropist Mangaldas Girdhardas, the house was restored in the 1990s and converted into an 18-room heritage hotel.

The House of MG hides behind peaceful gardens at a busy intersection, Ahmedabad

Our room, lined with Girdhardas family photographs, was large, comfortable and (wi-fi, flat screen television, and air-con apart) in keeping with the period of the House.

Our room at the House of MG, Ahmedabad

The door was locked by an electronic gizmo which noiselessly clenched it tight the instant it closed and was released by a button inside or by waving a card at the key pad outside. This is hardly ground-breaking in the 21st century (we live in the future!) but I mention it because i) it was entirely at odds with the rest of the room's electrics and  ii) our boarding at Dubai had been delayed 20mins as the electronic door between gate and plane had resolutely refused to recognise anyone’s card.

The switch panel in our room, House of MG, Ahmedabad

Awake and refreshed, we lunched in the hotel’s Green House Restaurant (so much cooler than the Greenhouse Restaurant) on fried bhajis, fried gram flour balls and, because I insisted on something that had not been fried, steamed cubes of fermented rice with mustard seeds and sesame – they were an error.

The Green House Restaurant, House of MG, Ahmedabad

How to Get a Drink in Dry Gujarat

After lunch we met Digvijaysinh (Vijay), who along with driver L, would accompany us for the next fortnight. But before we set off to explore Ahmedabad, we had a job to do. Gujarat was the home state of Mahatma Gandhi who was born in the port city of Porbandar in 1869. As well as campaigning for Indian Home rule, he was a champion of temperance, and out of respect for his wishes his home state has enforced prohibition since 1961. Fortunately there is a loop-hole for visitors.

Armed with passports, a letter from the House of MG stating we were temporary residents, used boarding passes to prove we had just arrived, driving licences to show we had a permanent address outside Gujarat and a phone so they could email us a password, we presented ourselves at a small office with blacked-out windows beneath the Comfort Hotel just south of the river. We had hoped to acquire a liquor permit each, but discovered our hotel, with effortless and unconscious sexism, only mentioned me in their letter. After 30 minutes wrestling with the intricacies of Indian bureaucracy I signed the big green ‘Naughty Boys Book’ and was handed my permit.

My Gujarat Liquor Permit (with a ouple of redactions for the sake of my privacy)

This allowed me to buy two ‘units’ of alcohol immediately and two more in ten days’ time - a ‘unit’ being 1 bottle of spirits, 3 bottles of wine or 12 litres of beer. We would have liked a beer with our dinner, but drinking in Gujarat must be done in private not at a restaurant table, so we settled for a daily nightcap.

The Liquor Store, its windows forbiddingly blacked out, was next door. My permit was examined, I signed another big green book and was permitted to enter, but only alone. Inside was a well-stocked drinks shop; for a price they had major brands of most drinks, even a selection of single malts. Local spirits were cheaper (£10-£12) and I chose a bottle of Old Monk rum, distilled in Chennai, and a whisky. Like most south Asian whiskies it was a locally distilled grain spirit blended with a dollop of Scottish malt and equipped with a fancy Scottish name. There are several variations of the name Macintosh (McIntosh, MacKintosh etc) but this was the first time I had seen it spelt with a Q!

MaQintosh Premium Whisky and Old Monk Rum

Drinks safely acquired we set off for Sarkhej Rosa.

Sarkhej Roza

A roza is a mosque and tomb complex, and Sarkhej, a village of weavers and indigo-dyers before the urban sprawl consumed it, is home to Gujarat’s most revered roza.

Sarkhej Roza, Ahmedabad

Gujarat was absorbed into the Delhi Sultanate around 1300. A century later, when Delhi fell to Timur (Tamerlane) the local governor took the opportunity to declare himself the first Sultan of Gujarat. His son Sultan Ahmed Shah (ruled 1411 to 1442) was influenced by the Sufi saint Shaikh Ahmed Ganj Baksh who lived at Sarkhej. The saint suggested Ahmed Shah build his capital nearby on the banks of the Subramati, which he did, modestly naming it after himself (though Vijay pronounced it Arm-uh-bad).

Ganj Baksh died in 1445, aged 111 (allegedly), and Ahmed’s successor and eldest son Mohammed Shah built a tomb for him at Sarkhej. Designed by Persian architects the complex blends Islamic styles with local Hindu and Jain features, creating possibly the first Indo-Saracenic building, a style later developed by the Mughals and culminating in the Taj Mahal

The mausoleum of Ganj Bash, Sarkhej Roza
Shoes may not be warn, the white painted path reflects the heat, otherwise the stones in direct sunshine would be too hot to walk on

Vijay, a devout Hindu, bowed his head to the Sufi saint in a moment of silence while I just gawped.

The tomb of Ganj Baksh, Sarkhej Roza

But not everybody was allowed in, indeed half the human race are considered unworthy. Lynne was unimpressed.

Some of those who had to remain outside and the man who guards the entrance, Sarkhej Roza

Later in the century Sultan Mahmud Begada excavated a 7ha tank, though it no longer contains any water…

Mahmud Begada's tank, Sarkhej Roza

….and he, his sons and queen are buried across the courtyard...

The tomb of Mahmud Begada and his family, Sarkhej Roza

...in tombs of their own,…

The last resting place of Mahmud Begada and his sons, Sarkhej Roza

…the sexes separated in death by a cavern of gloomy elegance.

Inside the tomb of the Mahmud Begada family, Sarkhej Roza

Crossing the courtyard, we were stopped and asked for a photograph, and then another and another. Vijay obliged with their cameras, and we asked him to take some for us too. This often happens where foreigners are an exotic rarity, and as we were still in Ahmedabad, European faces would, we expected, be uncommon throughout Gujarat.

One of several families requiring a photograph, Sarkhej Roza

The mosque is in adjacent courtyard. It has a huge open space…

The courtyard to Sarkhej Roza mosque

….with a pillared entrance to a closed prayer hall, but there was little else to see.

Outside the prayer hall, Sarkhej Roza mosque

After the tank was built Sarkhej became a favourite retreat of the royal family. Two palaces were built on the far side of the tank, though they are little more than ruins.

The palaces opposite Sarkhej Roza are mainly ruined, but some parts are still impressive

The view back to Mahmud Begada’s mausoleum has a backdrop of tower blocks, the thirsty urban scene explaining where the water for the tank has gone.

The thirsty tower blocks of Ahemedabad and the empty tank of Sarkhej Roza

Ahmedabad’s Old Centre

We drove back into town…

Driving back to central Ahmedabad

…dropped the car at the hotel and walked into the old centre of Ahmedabad, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The Bhadra fort and parts of the old city wall can only be glimpsed through the clutter of the market.

Ahmedabad's old square

It was not an easy walk, tuk-tuks and motorcycles forced their way through the pedestrian throng, the cacophony of horns as they attempted to clear their paths just adding to the confusion.

Pushing on through the market, Ahmedabad

We passed a shop front restaurant, the benches outside filled with a selection of Ahmedabad’s more ragged citizens. We had hitherto encountered the usual quota of beggars, and Vijay had been adamant we should give nothing, but here he paused. ‘That is where you should give to the poor,’ he said (these may not have been his exact words), ‘they feed the needy as donations come in.

The poor waiting to be fed, Ahmedabad

I approached the man sitting at the entrance and fished out a 100 rupee note. He made a signal to the people on the benches and the first ten filed forward and sat in the gloom around the wall behind him. At this point I would have preferred to move on but Vijay told me to wait. The man scooped up a mixture of rice, lentils and vegetables (the vast majority of Gujaratis, Vijay included, are vegetarians) and offered the plate to me, insisting I touch the rim before it was passed to the first customer. I had to similarly bless the second before being allowed to go. So, ten people received a small but wholesome meal for 10 Rupees (£0.11p, €0.12, $0.13) each.

So how did it make me feel? I felt ashamed, ashamed that I had stood and watched people being fed with my loose change, ashamed that I had left others still sitting and waiting when I had given so little. I felt perplexed by the values of a world which had given me so much and them so little and confused that to some I have wealth beyond imagining, yet do not consider myself a rich man. India can be challenging - and it is good to be challenged.

Jama Masjid, Ahmedabad’s Friday Mosque

Leaving our shoes at the mosque entrance we entered a large colonnaded courtyard with a central wudu.

Courtyard, Jama Masjid, Ahmedabad

Our walk towards the prayer hall was accompanied by the dusk call to prayer, but we would have time for a look round before those with a more serious purpose arrived.

Prayer hall, Jama Masjid, Ahmedabad

The mosque was built in 1424 by Sultan Ahmed Shah I, the founder of the city so it is slightly earlier than Sarkhej Roza. The elaborate entrance to the prayer hall features a hanging ornamental arch between the slender inner pillars, a decoration we had not seen before but is, we would discover, very common in Gujurati religious architecture, whether Muslim, Jain or Hindu.

Prayer hall entrance, Jama Masjid, Ahmedabad

Lynne was not allowed inside, which neither surprised nor pleased her, though there was actually little to see and photography was unwelcome. Vijay and I were asked to leave after only a short look. ‘These people are volunteers,’ he said, ‘and sometimes become a little over-enthusiastic.’ I found Vijay’s ability to always see the best in people refreshing.

Worshippers were now arriving in numbers. Washing before prayers is important, so in addition to the central wudu there was a line of taps along part of the colonnade. The sight of thirty men engaged in communal foot-washing was unusual to our western eyes – and slightly amusing.

Communal foot-washing, Jama Masjid, Ahmedabad

Wandering through the Streets of Ahmedabad’s Old City

In the run-down streets outside….

Outside the Jama Masjid, Ahmedabad

….we found the mausoleum of Ahmed Shah and the son and grandson who succeeded him. The tombs are well looked after, but the location makes you wonder if anyone really cares. And if that is true for the Sultans it is doubly true for their wives entombed nearby.

The tomb of Sultan Ahmed Shah and his successors, Ahmedabad

We continued our walk through the old city, pausing at the sugar cane crusher. A handful of canes are passed through the crusher three or four times, a couple of lemons being folded in on the second pass...

Our sugar cane look well crushed, Ahmedabad

...to make a refreshing drink, the sweetness balanced by the lemon’s acidity.

Lynne and Vijay enjoy a refeshing crushed sugar cane drink

There are some fine old havelis in the narrow streets…

Haveli, Ahmedabad old city

….some of which look to have survived unchanged from medieval times.

Haveli in streets of medieval narrowness, Ahmedabad

Around 7.30 the market starts to transform into a food market and Vijay was keen that we should stay, but we were flagging and there was still a twenty-minute walk back to our hotel, so we decided to leave that for tomorrow.

We returned, shared a paneer curry in the Green House restaurant and retreated to our room to break out the Old Monk for a night-cap and then have some much needed sleep.

*Though Kolkata and Chennai both have bigger metropolitan areas - and some sources put Chennai 5th and Ahmedabad 6th

Gujarat

Part 1: Ahmedabad (1) Liquor Licences, Mosques and Tombs
Part 2: Ahmedabad (2) A Stepwell, Gandhi and a Thali
Part 3: Meeting the Locals
Part 4: Siddhpur, Patan and Modhera
Part 5: Salt and Wild Asses in the Little Rann of Kutch
Part 6: Blackbuck National Park, Velavadar
Part 7: Bhavnagar
Part 8: Palitana and the Temples on Shatrunjaya Hill
Part 9: A Lion Hunt and a Visit to Junagadh
Part 10: Gondal
Part 11: Gondal to Bhuj
Part 12: Bhuj
Part 13: To the Great Rann of Kutch, Craft Villages and a Salt Desert
Part 14: Going to School and Other Entertainments in the Great Rann of Kutch