Welcome
Travelogues
Begin trip
Previous: Mumbai
When I had to rush to Ahmedabad to meet a minister of the Gujarat government, the quickest way there was an overnight train to Baroda and a car rented with chauffeur from there to Ahmedabad.
I snapped this colourful picture of a camel wagon on the way.
Ahmedabad looks very much like any other crowded Indian city with a population of about 3 million. The Capital of Gujarat state is actually in Gandhinagar, a new administrative city 30 km north east of here.
Founded in 1411 by Ahmed Shah, Ahmedabad grew to be one of India's finest cities in the 17th century but has been declining ever since. This city gate and a few others are all that is left of the city walls that protected the city in its heyday.
I stayed in the comfortable Hotel Cama on the eastern shore of the Sabarmati river.
The Cama was an oasis of peace in the midst of noisy, dirty and smelly Ahmedabad. Its gardens had a shaded gazebo and a small swimming pool.
Another oasis of quiet was the Rani Sipri Mosque built in 1514 by one of the wives of Sultan Mehmood Begada.
Below, the mosque's mihrab (holy niche) on the left and its entrance on the right.
Mosques can be seen all over the world but Gujarat state has the largest number of the more uncommon Jain temples.
After my business meetings, I made a quick visit to the 1850 Hatheesing Jain Temple before flying to New Delhi.
Jain temples are renowned for their fine sculptures.
Jainism was founded around 500 BC by Mahavira in reaction the multitude of gods,
the elaborate ritual and the powerful priesthood of Hinduism. Jains are atheists,
they believe the universe has always existed and always will. They have retained the
concept of reincarnation but not the social implication of castes believed in by Hindus.
Jains can chose to live as monks or lay people but they have no priests nor ritual.
They believe that strict observance of the following five principles can free them
from the wheel of reincarnation.
non-injury (ahimsa)
non-lying (satya)
non-stealing (asteya)
non-possession (aparigrah)
chastity (brahmcharya)
There are strong similarities between Jainism and the original Buddhism taught by Siddhartha Gautama around the same time, also as a reaction against the excesses of Hinduism. Neither predicates the existence of a God and both believe in karma that leads to reincarnations that both seek to escape.
Jains insist on very strict observance to their ethics and have remained few in number (less than four million world wide with less than 10 000 monks and nuns).
Buddhism has grown to be the fourth most popular religion in the world but it has evolved away from its original tenets toward three substantially different orientations, the Therevada or Hinayana (small vehicle) Buddhism of Sri Lanka, Thailand and Myanmar, the Tantric or Lamaist Buddhism of Tibet and the Mahayana or large vehicle Buddhism of everywhere else.
