Just Tripping!: Dholka – The Medieval Wonder

The Great Gujarat Road Odyssey – Day 17: Dholka

Today you plan to drive out of Saurashtra and get somewhere close to Ahmedabad. You don’t plan to visit any of the large cities like Ahmedabad or Vadodara. But you do have some plans.

Malav Talav in Dholka

There are several choices – places like Wadhawan, Viramgam, Lothal, Nal Sarovar and even Khambhat. The exit plan is to flank Ahmedabad and take off to North on your way back. Dholka seems like a better choice. It will be enroute and will have Nadiad closeby where you can stay for the night and maybe visit Vaso the next day.

You are driving north parallel to Gulf of Khambhat or Gulf of Cambay from what you remember from the Geography classes. This and Gulf of Kutch are what gives Gujarat peninsula its unique shape and that meant extra work trying to sketch the country’s map. You are sure some few million years ago it was all the same land mass before water entered these cracks.

Love these saltpans in Gujarat

You are probably seeing these salt-pans for the last time. Several streams cross the SH6. There is no vegetation here. Just the white encrusted landscape and this hardly discernible water flowing into the Gulf. These scenes bring back the memory of crossing into Dholavira during the twilight hours. You will miss seeing these scenes. The monochrome scenes are broken by this chilli processing farm bringing back memories of Guntur of years ago.

Dholka Map

It is around 3 in the afternoon when you reach Dholka and park near the Malav Talav on the south west side of the town. In the tradition of other Gujarat towns, Dholka too is crowded and dusty and has an old town part where you need to go first. Going into the lanes is impossible so you hire an auto for few hours who will take you around this town that has quite much to offer.

Dholka has a history that mirrors the history of so many towns across India and of Gujarat as a whole. The earliest extant remains in the town point to the reign of the famous Gujarat Solanki King Jayasimha Siddaraja (reign 1092-1142). Jayasimha completed the Rudra Mahalya temple in Sidhpur. Looking at the torans, it was probably the most magnificent temple in Gujarat before being felled. Just like Bijamandal in Vidisha and Bhojshala in Dhar, this site too is contentious. After the Solankis, came Vaghelas in the 13^th century, the last Hindu dynasty of Gujarat with their capital in Dholka.

Then came our friends from Delhi and with them a Governor from Delhi who would follow the same Ghurid template. The main temple would be felled, the pillars resused and the town’s Jami Masjid erected over it. In addition, more mosques and tombs would be added by the later generations of Muslim governors. In 18^th century a local chieftain Ratansingh Bhandari (1735) would take over with the usual skirmishes with the Marathas, Gaekwads and later the British will complete the picture.

Malav Talav built by Minal Devi - Dholka, Ahmedabad

Prithviraj Chauhan must be really kicking himself now for letting his great grandmother down

And that’s how History goes

We have all heard of the Solanki Queen Udaymati (Jayasimha’s grandmother) who built the world-famous Rani-ni-Vav in Patan. Another Solanki queen, Minal Devi or Mayanalla Devi, who was the great-grandmother of Prithviraj Chauhan was also a prolific builder of water bodies. The Malav Talav in Dholka is believed to be built by her. Minal Devi’s son, the famous Jayasimha Siddharaja (r 1092-1142), is believed to have built several temples here in the town.

So as history goes, about 100 years later, her great-grandson lets go of Ghori and then is subsequently killed in 1192, exactly 50 years after the death of his grandfather. The successors of Ghori would come back to Minal Devi’s town and plunder the town and demolish the temples; just like what happened in Prithviraj’s capital of Mehrauli!

Ok, phew - it took some time to wrap your head around it!

You have a few minutes to look at the Malavya Lake. There is a temple like building in the middle of the lake. Surprise. A causeway that would have connected it from the ghats but is ruptured now reaches out into the waters. The lake was probably built by Minal Devi or Mayanalla Devi, mother of Jayasimha. Minal Devi was the daughter of Jayakeshin, a Kadamba king of Karnataka. Minal Devi, it seems was quite a builder in her own right. You remember seeing her Vav in Virpur near Gondal.

Today, the ghat has been taken over by the local women doing laundry. Remains of the original buildings are everywhere – pavilions, pillars, assorted images. In the distance, behind the lake, rises the domes of a mosque. Dholka, they say could be one of the oldest cities of Gujarat and would have presented a pretty sight with all these water bodies and temple spires. It is time to move to see how history changed it.

View of Khan Talav from Khan Masjid in Dholka

On top of Khan-ki-Masjid

Khan Talav in Dholka

Before going into the old city, we drive north on the Hazrat Shah Road, across the railway track, the Dholka station is on the left, and emerge into a clearing that sends your pulse racing. You live for such surprises. On the banks of another lake, this time octagonal, a huge three domed mosque rises. The lake is called Khan Talav and the mosque is called Khan Mosque or Khan-ki-Masjid. The mosque is named after Alif Khan or Alkif Khan Bhukai, a friend and general of Gujarat Sultanate’s most prolific destroyer and builder Sultan Mahmud Begada (reign 1458-1511).

The rear of the mosque with those projecting niches and the filigree windows on the top

The South side staircase of the Khan Masjid in Dholka

Never seen before - a minbar outside and a minbar inside the prayer hall too - Khan Masjid in Dholka

Beautiful incised plasterwork

The edifice is grand and is built in a perfect setting away from the town amidst trees, and three accompanying structures in East, North and South and the lake on the west. The lake has two openings on the West and East. Afternoon is never a good time to visit temples and mosques as the sun setting in the west makes photography difficult. The peeling plaster reveals that this massive structure is built of bricks. Two huge square solid minars flank the façade. The left minar has a surviving mini minar on top. Behind the locked screens you can see three halls topped with these huge domes. The mihrabs are plain and the central hall has a minbar. The north and south sides have stairs that bring you to the top and with it some fine scenes of the lake and the countryside. Below, some boys have arrived for the customary cricket match and with them some damage and littering which is everyone’s civic duty.

Balal Khan Kazi Mosque in Dholka - The Entrance Porch

Hilal Khan Kazi Mosque in Dholka

Cousens say the mosque has one of the finest mihrab and minbar

Balal Khan Qazi Mosque, Dholka

Hilal Khan Qazi, Dholka in Gujarat

Finally the sun helping take a better photo

Now the tank is covered up and has a screen all around. I like his turban though

The front porch looks like the mandap of a temple - Dholka

The second stop is another mosque which the signboard calls Bahelol Khan Gazi Mosque. Cousens refer it to as Hilal Khan Mosque constructed in 1333 and inscribed as Balal Khan Kazi Mosque. Now this is more like the mosques that you have seen in Ahmedabad and Champaner though not executed in the same scale. It is all stone affair with an ornamented mihrab and minbar. Cousens opines that the minbar is one of the finest in India. There appears to be a mezzanine floor with stone filigree screens probably to keep women or the governor’s family away from public eye. On the top you can see two slender decorated turrets. The roof has four chhatris on each end. The entrance porch is an elaborate affair. You can see temple elements everywhere including the richly carved ceiling panels.

Behind there are graves and a ruined structure. Is this the same that Cousens photographed and which were Hindu and Jain temples turned into a makeshift mosque? Yes, they do seem to be the same with the roof gone.

Jami Masjid, Dholka, Gujarat

Filigree Window on the South wall, Jami Masjid, Dholka

Dholka: A beautifully decorated panel of the minaret in the facade of the Jami Mosque

The central mihrab and the minbar of the Jami Masjid in Dholka

Now we are winding through the lanes of the old town towards the Jami Masjid. This is namaz time and you have to wait outside. The auto driver takes the chance to disappear inside to perform namaz too. The Jami Masjid was constructed in the late 15^th Century and is the most solid, imposing and ornamented of all mosques in the town. This mosque has the complete signature of Begada era mosques with the central bay of the façade studded with these elaborate minars. The mihrab and minbar are richly carved.

Tanka Masjid in Dholka, Gujarat

130 Years Apart

A thrill runs down the spine. You have been spending time looking at these unbelievable sketches by Henry Cousens in his book on the Muhammadan Architecture of Gujarat. And you are wondering how people in those years could do something this perfect and so beautiful given the limitations - sifting through these almost abandoned towns and among wildlife and then digging, documenting, observing and then sketching these, probably right there, on-site. Today even machines and computers cannot replicate something this beautiful.

And then you find this frame where your frame mirrors the photo Cousens took about 130 years ago. This is like so amazing, it is like actually walking in the steps of these great historians.

Yes, as far the mosque goes, it is the same story. Temples belonging to Solankis and Vaghelas were demolished to erect this mosque and the architecture is similar to the Ghurid mosques in Mehrauli, Ajmer, Kaman, Dhar and Mandu and elsewhere.

From your experience of reading gazetteers, the Jami Masjids were usually erected on the site of the most majestic temple. And this temple would have been as majestic as the Rudra Mahalya of Sidhpur.

Photo taken by Henry Cousens circa 1896

Dholka: All these elements have come from temples that were constructed during the Solanki and Vaghela dynasties - Tanka Mosque

The wooden pillar corridor on the east - the most recent addition to the Tanka Masjid

Now over to the last and probably the oldest mosque in Dholka which was originally the Jami Masjid of Dholka. The mosque was built in 1361 by Mufakhr Mufarrah though the feel makes it look older than the Hilal Khan Mosque. The design is hypostyle, a characteristic of all Ghurid mosques, with corridors running on three sides. The richly carved pillars would have come from the now disappeared majestic temple at this same spot. The fourth corridor is inexplicably supported by wooden pillars that look quite recent. From your observation, the mosque did not have the corridor on the east and which was raised later using wooden pillars.

So how did all this happen in Dholka?

This is what you think happened:

About 1000 years ago, the Sabarmati would have flowed nearer to the town than it does now. Minal Devi would have liked the town’s location and so along with the talav, a number of temples would have been built by her son Jayasimha. In the early 13^th century more Jain temples were built. Khilji comes calling, temples are destroyed, and the newly installed governor from Delhi does what he would have seen in Delhi and Kaman and Ajmer on his way to Gujarat. The pillars help construct the Tanka Masjid that would have been the original Jami Masjid and probably built on top of the main temple constructed by Jayasimha. Over time more mosques were added as Dholka became seat of the local Gujarat Sultanate Governor. Mahmud Begada than built his own mosque which became the new Jami Masjid probably prompting Khan to build his mosque too but away from the town and constructed of brick.

A never before seen panel of Dashavtar with Matsaya on one end and Kalki on horse on the other end - panel has both zoomorphic and anthropmorphic images - not sure if the panel is in situ or if it was a part of a temple that existed here - Malav Talav, Dholka

A Navgraha panel

The Offering

You are back at the Malav Talav. Dholka has been a revelation. Its historical trajectory has been similar to most medieval towns in North India. The women washing clothes are gone from the lake built by Mainala Devi. The setting sun is turning the ghats golden. The temple in the lake meditates sensing the going-ons in the town like it had all these centuries. Even the birds seem to have gone quiet and some of them are in state of repose. You love these moments of twilight and Gujarat has offered these wonderful moments on a daily basis.

Sunset moments at Malav Talav, Dholka

The journey continues.

Some day would love to follow in Bapu's footsteps to Dandi

Day's Stats

Route Taken – Sihor to Dholera via Bhavnagar, Dholera, Pipali, Dholka and then to Nadiad
Distance covered today – 189 kms
Total Distance covered so far - 3766 kms

References

Gazetteer of the British Presidency, Vol I Part I, History of Gujarat, 1896 – Pages 180, 198, 315, 317, 324, 517

The Imperial Gazetteer of India, Vol IV, 1885 – Page 271-272

Archaeological Survey of Western India, Vol VI on the Muhammadan Architecture of Bharoch, Cambay, Dholka, Champanir, and Mahmudabad in Gujarat by James Burgess, 1896

British Library as usual has large number of images mostly rendered by Henry Cousens and their detailed descriptions on its online gallery – Just type ‘Dholka’

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dholka

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/ahmedabad/ASI-to-renovate-2-Gujarats-ancient-lakes/articleshow/49129466.cms

http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex/apac/photocoll/g/largeimage64743.html

https://www.sid-thewanderer.com/2010/11/gujarat-darshan-dhmakedaar-dholka.html

http://nandakumarr.blogspot.com/2008/11/dholka-jottings.html

https://kevinstandagephotography.wordpress.com/2015/04/03/dholka/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jayasimha_Siddharaja

The Great Gujarat Road Odyssey