A Kutchi Summer: Day 5- The Nawabs of Junagadh and their makbara

I knew nothing about the Nawabs of Junagadh before my recent Gujarat venture - yes, I agree, I was a lousy student of history. For me, the trip has not only shown me lions and wild asses, Indian Coursers and Crested Larks, but it also brought me in touch with a part of the history of Indian independence and that dreaded P word - Partition.

Muslim rulers have been in Junagadh since the fourteenth century, and from the mid-eighteenth until Independence, Junagadh was under the rule of the Babi nawabs.

The sixth Nawab has this mausoleum.
The Mahabat Makbara, over the tomb of Mohammad Mahabat Khanji II, the sixth nawab

Amazing structure, and I just gawked at the Gothic columns, the Islamic domes, the somewhat European large windows...all together!
Click on the picture, and you will get to see the detailed work. I thought the quality of the work rivalled anything I had seen earlier.
The sixth nawab ascended the throne when he was 14, apparently, and ruled for 31 years. He is supposedly responsible for the mango orchards that Junagadh is now famous for. By this time, these nawabs were kowtowing to the "Agency", via the regent at Baroda.

More columns
The makbara was locked and this picture was taken through the grille gate. Strangely unmatched but colourful chandeliers as well!
It was dusty and unkempt inside, and silently reeked of neglect. Why is it not being cleaned regularly?

The Bahauddin makbara stood beside the Mahabat makbara. This was built by the PM of the seventh nawab, and he (the PM) lies buried here.

Less ornate than the Mahabat, it had these interesting winding minarets though.

So then we move ahead to the last nawab, the ninth one, Mahabat Khanji III, famous in India and buried in Pakistan. During my googling I discovered that he was a student of Mayo College, Ajmer. You may wonder, why this caught my attention, but a certain favourite author of mine also studied there!

So, Mahabat III is going along nicely, building dams (Willingdon dam), creating libraries, opening colleges, and being an extravagant dog lover (he had some 300 of them I believe, and used to throw birthday parties for them!).

He was also instrumental in putting a stop to lion hunting, preserving the Gir forests and the Gir cattle, so in terms of conservation in India, I guess he does have a place in history.

He was the nawab in 1947, and soon became friendless in India as he decided to accede to Pakistan. Much manoeuvering and dirty politics from both India and Pakistan, and he soon fled to Karachi, where he lived until his death, never returning once to his home soil. Matters were left to his Dewan to resolve and negotiate, and guess who the Dewan was?! Shah Nawaz Bhutto.

I also discovered that the descendants of Mahabat III continue to claim Junagadh as their state and part of Pakistan, as there is an instrument of accession, signed by the ninth nawab to Pakistan, and our Indian occupation of the state is therefore considered illegal.

Check out this site on the Junagadh state.

The two makbaras.The District Court building on the opposite side. There were lovely and tasty groundnuts being sold at the gate, at a price one-tenth that of the Madras prices!

We drove back to Sasan Gir, and soon it was time to leave for Somnathpur!.

The Somnath temple, destroyed, looted and vandalised countless times in Indian history. Linked with the cruelties of Mahmud Ghazni in every school-going child's brain in India. A temple whose wealth has attained mythical status.

And there we were at its gates, with a strong breeze whipping off the Arabian Sea, facing this mammoth, rather new-looking structure, surrounded by the usual set of temple hawkers, but unusually clean for an Indian temple town. As we moved to get in, we had to ensure we had no leather on us (belts, wallets not alloed), no phones no cameras, and there was security to ensure that everyone was decorously attired. My fifteen year old son was not allowed in, in shorts, and so waited at the gates for us, in a black mood.

The location of the temple is just fabulous, and I could have spent hours just standing and staring across the sea. But in its current, restored pristine state, my imaginations of times gone by were just not stirred...it was like a new Birla mandir, if you know what I mean.

Re-built in 1951, the structure is supposed to be a wonderful example of the Chalukya style of architecture. The ruins of the temple were pulled down in 1950, and Indian's first president Rajendra Prasad was said to be a moving force behind its current restoration.

Probably owes its existence to the ninth nawab!

It was time to head to the Veraval station, where this egret bade us farewell, as we all made our assorted ways back to our homes in Madras.

How fascinating is each and every state of India! Thirteen states that I have still not yet seen!