See the Artistic Stone Torans in the Town of Vadnagar in Gujarat State in India

The country of India is full of artistic monuments. Stone art is one of the main arts, which can be seen at in places in India. The State of Gujarat is full of such artistic sculptures. The town of Vadnagar is one such place where there are four artistic gates made up of stone. These artistic gates are known as Torans in India. The Torans were made of wood in ancient times, but they are now made of stone. I was able to visit Vadnagar during my last visit to India. Our main god, Lord Hatkesh's temple is in Vadnagar.

Vadnagar is a small town situated in the Mehasana district in the Gujarat State. It is around 50 miles away from Ahmedabad. One can easily reach Vadnagar by the State Transport buses or hired cars and taxis from the city of Ahmedabad. Vadnagar is famous for the temple of Lord Hatkesh, a form of Lord Shiva, and is considered the Kuldevta of Nagar community. I myself belong to this community of Nagars and hence, I had visited Vadnagar. Accidentally, I was able to see around four artistic Torans, made of stone, here at the town of Vadnagar. Such Torans are made to decide the direction of entry inside the holy places like temples, and stupas. The Toran at Vadnagar is known as Shorya Toran, which was made by the Solanki rulers of Gujarat in the fourteenth century. The toran of Vadnagar is one of the few torans, which has remained in reasonably good condition even today after five hundreds years. This torans, total four in numbers, are situated at the bank of famous Sharmistha Lake. This lake has four stone built approaches with the steps to facilitate taking bath in the holy lake. These stone torans are really artistic and have sculptures pertaining to the wars of Solanki rulers. The statues of various items like elephants, horses, chariots, and the beautiful dancing girls are engraved on these torans. These torans are also known as Shamalsha's chori. It is said that the marriage ceremony of Shamalasa, son of famous Narsinh Mehta had taken place here. Many art and history lovers visit this small town of Vadnagar to see these most beautiful and artistic torans. I have seen many foreigners also visiting this small town just to view and photograph these torans, which are rare pieces of art.

There is also a famous temple of Lord Hatkeshwar, a reincarnation of Lord Shiva, who is also kuldevta of the nagars community. This ancient temple is said to be 1500 years old. Many Muslim rulers have attacked this temple in the past but none of them could succeed in breaking this temple and the Lord Shiva Lingam, installed here. The Lingam of Lord Shiva is white in color and is in elliptical shape. All nagars visit this temple at least once in their life time as they have very strong faith in Lord Hatkeshwar. The large fair is held here at this temple every year on Maha shivratri day, which is the birthday of Lord Shiva.

There are no good hotels and the restaurants here at Vadnagar. Hence, most of the visitors visit Vadnagar as one day outing from any major cities of the Gujarat State like Ahmedabad and Vadodara. One must make sure to carry the packed lunch, mineral water bottles, with them so as to avoid taking food and water at the town of Vadnagar. If you want, you may only order hot tea, milk, or coffee from the small restaurants situated near by in the town. It may take around three hours to see all the historical and religious monuments of Vadnagar. So, if you start at around 8 am in the morning from Ahmedabad, you can safely reach back to your hotel in Ahmedabad by around 6 pm in the evening.

Though, Vadnagar is not amongst the famous tourist's places of Gujarat State, the lovers of ancient historical sculptures, and the Nagars, followers of Lord Hatkeshwar make sure to visit this small town of Vadnagar. I would also suggest all my AC readers and friends to visit Vadnagar at least once to enjoy beautiful, artistic, and historical monuments.