Champaner-Pavagadh

As the name 'Champaner-Pavagadh' suggests, this site comprises two (contiguous) parts: Champaner (the remains of an Islamic pre-Mughal city) and Pavagadh (a hill with an important Hindu pilgrimage site). They are linked through their prime setting, the hill providing the water the city needed. As it was still relatively early in my 2024 India journey, I deep-dived into it via a day trip on public transport from Vadodara (better known locally under its old name Baroda).

The bus ride to Pavagadh takes about an hour and costs 40~60rs. Buses frequently leave from bays 15-18 at the central bus station; signage is only in Gujarati but just follow the colourful pilgrims on board. From Pavagadh bus station you have to walk about 500m to the right around the walls of the citadel, to where you can see the Jami Masjid – there used to be an entrance right across the street from the bus station (still present in Maps.me), but it is closed off nowadays and looks overgrown.

So I started my exploration with the Jami Masjid, the main mosque and the highlight of the Champaner site. I arrived at the same time as a French tour group, and there were a few local visitors as well. I was immediately taken by the very delicate stone carvings. With their geometrical motifs, they reminded me a bit of the Chaukhandi Tombs in Pakistan. The mosque is walled, with fine gateways, and its design with two minarets against the hilly background …

If any site in India should be de-listed it is Champaner. Unlike Manas which I find has no more value left, this inscription makes a mockery of any kind of buffer zone and management plan requirements. There is definitely value here and I enjoyed what I saw, a massive fort area that covers the two prominent mosque, several tombs and city walls, a hill that I didn't visit because there was a festival and I think the driver wanted to avoid getting stuck in traffic for hours (or an excuse), definitely value. However, even 7 years on since the last review nothing has changed. It has been inscribed for 13 years now. The slums are still inside the archeological park, the trash keeps piling up and we get charged 600 rupees for two mosque entries. The best part of these are the carvings but you will admire it for 20 minutes max and it is not as spectacular as other carvings in India.

The good news is that the road from Vadodara only take 40 minutes now, and if you want another approach you could get off Godrah junction and find a ride from there. I took an Ola for 1,400 half day outstation trip, with the driver coming sightseeing himself. Interesting enough there was NO guide service touting at either mosque. I expected a lot more from this and scheduled half a day else I would have rushed to somewhere else for the afternoon but instead I spent …

The count on this Web site under “most visited sites” for Champaner was a mere 2 visits before we added our 2 from this February 2011. That places Champaner as the least-visited Indian cultural site among our “community”. I wonder why? Even Els on her current epic RTW journey didn’t make the relatively short detour from Bhopal on an overnight train to Vadodara but went straight on to Delhi!

As its title indicates, the site consists of 2 main elements, albeit within a single boundary in the form of the “Champaner-Pavagadh Archaeological Park” extending to over 1300ha (c5sq miles). It contains remains of human occupation from the Stone Age but the main sights relate to Hindu religious and military remains on the hill of Pavagadh, which still operates as a Hindu/Jain pilgrimage destination, together with the remains of the city of Champaner situated below the hill. This was, for a brief period in the late 15th/early 16th centuries, the capital of a pre-Mughal Islamic kingdom in Gujarat. It is particularly important for the quality of the architecture – both in its own right and for its significance in the development of an Indo-Islamic style. The city became deserted after Humayun (he of the tomb in Delhi!!) defeated the Gujarat kingdom in 1536.

The Champaner part of the site is situated around 90 minutes by good road from Vadodara (“Baroda”). There is then a road part way up Pavagadh hill from where you can either walk to the top …