[hotstuff]

Ever since I landed on the IIMA campus in April 2010, life has been mostly following a regular pattern. A normal day revolves around the classroom, dining hall, syndicate-room and the hostel-room... An occasional 'highlight' in the routine would be a visit to the Big Bazaar @ Himalaya mall.

After stumbling through yet another hectic week of classes, case-studies and quizzes, I was itching to get out of campus even if was for a short while. Vaijayanth too was planning to visit the Sabarmati ashram, so we decided to head out at around 5.00pm on Friday the 19th of May 2010.

What a day it turned out to be... An article in the next day's paper mentioned "Ahmedabad saw its hottest day of the decade at 46.8 degrees Celsius, claiming six lives on Friday, with the toll going up to nine since Thursday."

While Googling up for info on the best way to reach the Sabarmati ashram, we had discovered that the sound & light show starts at 5.00pm and the ashram closes at 7.00pm, so the Sabarmati visit had to be pushed out to some other day.

With no other specific plans, we decided to just check out a couple of places in the Old city.

Our first stop - The HathiSingh Jain Temple.

Built in the year 1850 AD, the Hathee Singh Temple is dedicated to the 15th Theerthankara of Jains, Dharmnath. This temple is named after Sri Hathee Singh, a rich jain merchant of yesteryears, who had under took the great task of such an amazing construction. Famed for its brilliant structural designs, this two-storied white marble structure provides a delightful experience to the beholder.

Elaborate porches on three sides are a specialty of this temple. A lovely dome on the front porch gives a peculiar appeal to this architectural splendor. Other two porches displays prolifically carved patterns.

Another unique aspect of the temple is its tiled courtyard, which is encircled by daunting row of pergolas with 52 shrines. Each shrine shows remarkable designs and fine carvings and all of them encompass an image of a Tirthankara. One of the prettiest Jain shrines in India, Hathisingh Temple follows the usual architectural pattern of the Dilwara Jain Temples of Rajasthan."

Source: mustseeindia.com

Currently photography is not allowed inside the temple. A couple of antique pics of the temple. The first one is from 1875...


Courtesy: British Library.


These are from 1880...





Courtesy: British Library.


The temple is quite intricately carved...







A tower / temple outside the main temple...




The Ahmedabad skyline...




The tower / temple as seen from the top floor an adjacent commercial complex...













Next stop - The Sidi Saiyyed Mosque

"The Sidi Saiyyed Mosque, built in 1573, is one of the most famous mosques of Ahmedabad. As per the marble stone tablet fixed on the wall of the mosque, it was built by Sidi Saeed (aka Sidi Saiyyed) an Abyssinian in the retinue of Bilal Jhajar Khan, General in the army of the last Sultan Shams-ud-Din Muzaffar Shah III of Gujarat Sultanate.

Siddi Sayyed Jali is unofficial symbol of city of Ahmedabad. It is a fine example of Indo-Saracenic architecture. This jali inspired the design of the logo of the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad."
Source: Wikipedia

This is the Jaali that was the inspiration for the IIMA logo...




We walked through the narrow lanes of the old city and found a lot of interesting 'Haveli's; with exquisite wood work...










This one is called 'Mangaldas Ni Haveli' and it has been converted into a restaurant and curio shop...



















Like many old Haveli's in Ahmedabad, this one too has a underground water storage tank to harvest rainwater...




Since the time was already around 8pm, we decided to call it a day and head back to the campus.




Need to find some free time over the next few months to check out some of the interesting experiences in and around Ahmedabad.

[akbaree]

A log on Ahemdabad - God I want to come home. Whenever such logs on Ahd or Gujarat surface, I become very nostalgic. And great pictures there. Thanks for sharing.

And those mills in the skyline reminds us that Ahmedabad was once called Manchester of India before the textile mills closed down.

[ampere]

Amazing carvings! Very well done. Never been to this part of the country.

[hotstuff]

@akbaree
@ampere

- Thanks for your comments!

Originally Posted by akbaree

A log on Ahemdabad - God I want to come home. Whenever such logs on Ahd or Gujarat surface, I become very nostalgic. And great pictures there. Thanks for sharing.

And those mills in the skyline reminds us that Ahmedabad was once called Manchester of India before the textile mills closed down.

@akbaree. Nice to know that you are originally from A'bad. One consistent feedback from all my classmates from Blr is that A'bad feels a lot more safer, especially since most commercial places (usually food joints) are open till late in the night.

Autos are a refreshing change from what we are used to in Bangalore - the guys here are very honest (except for an occasional deviation), travelling by auto is cheap and drivers don't refuse to come where you want to go... and they return even a rupee or two in change.

Except for the weather, I think A'bad is great in all other aspects!

Originally Posted by ampere

Amazing carvings! Very well done. Never been to this part of the country.

From what I understand, the places I have been to in this T'log are probably just a small & pale sample of the real stuff that A'bad has to offer. Hopefully I'll be able to take enough time off campus over the year to check out the other places.