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BARODA

Baroda or Vadodara has often been called the cultural capital of Gujarat. And rightly so. It is also one of the corporate capitals of Gujarat with IPCL, ONGC and other major industries, and numerous national and multi-national projects coming up in the city and nearby industrial estates like Nandesari, Jagadiya and Halol.

Like Hydrabad and Mysore, Baroda is a city with a mighty hang-over of it’s powerful dynastic rulers, the Gaekwads, a Maratha clan that were generals of the Peshwas and carved out an important kingdom for themselves with Baroda as the capital. The city saw it’s zenith when Maharajah Sayajirao Gaekwad came to the throne in the late-19^th and early-20^th century. He introduced wide ranging reforms, the MS university, important railway links, schools and hospitals.Sayaji Rao became one of the 3 premier princes to be given a salute of 21 guns, after the Nizam and HH Mysore. With this princely past, it is now surprising that Baroda has been called a city of palaces. The Laxmi vilas, built in the 1880s and 90s, is a marvelous work of eclectic architecture with a mix of Islamic, Rajput, Maratha, Bengali, Gujarati, Venetian and Gothic styles. The palace is set in 720 acres landscaped by Mr Gonderling of Kew. Permission is required to visit the palace, with it’s fabulous darbarhall featuring huge Venetian chandeliers, domes, decorous ceiling,

Baroda is a western derivative of the term, Vadodara, which means 'city of Banyan trees', and is one of the few cities in India, which is still influenced by the lost might of its ruling dynasties. Known as the City of Palaces and Gardens, Baroda has a number of magnificent palaces-the Laxmi Vilas palace and Motibagh palaces which are being opened as heritage hotels in the house guest tradition, the Makarpura summer palace still occupied by its owners, the Lalbagh palace which

is now a railway staff college, the Nazzar bagh which was the oldest of all Gaikwar palaces but now dilapidated, the Shiv mahal which is used for functions, the Kanderao palace now housing Municipal corporation offices-besides other reminders of the 19th century Gaikwar rule like the Maharajah Sayaji Rao University building, the Sayaji Bagh city museum, the frescoed Kirti Mandir royal mausoleum, the Nyaya Mandir besides lake Sursagar, the Fatehsingh Rao Gaikwad museum and the Sayaji Bagh garden & zoological park.

Other highlights of Baroda are the beautifully painted Tambakarwada haveli, the 8th century Narayan temple, the Narsinhji haveli temple, the 1763 AD Maratha Brahmin Ganesha haveli, the Mandvi pavilion, Jumma Masjid, the Maqbara and the 1586 AD stepwell in Qutub Ud Din masjid. Some interesting combinations with Baroda are AJWA-NIMETA(lake shore gardens with picnic facilities), DABHOI FORT(13th century Rajput fort, rated among the greatest in India with 4 magnificent gateways), CHAMPANER(An Islamic citadel, rivaling Fatehpur Sikri and Bidar, with some of the grandest Indo-Saracenic architectural monuments in India, built on the foundations of a former Rajput capital city),PAWAGADH(A temple covered fortified hill, overlooking and historically guarding Champaner, with a scenic ropeway service, CHANDOD- SHKLATIRTH: A holy place for bathing in the Narmada river with good hotels including the Savita palace, a former aristocratic mansion 7.JAGADIYA:Jain temple complex of great importance.

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