Kheda District Guide: Dakor, Nadiad and Stepwells

Kheda sits in the Charotar, the fertile and unusually prosperous tract of central Gujarat between Ahmedabad and Vadodara, and it has been consequential out of all proportion to its size. It was the setting for the 1918 Kheda Satyagraha, one of Gandhi's earliest campaigns; it produced or educated a striking number of Gujarati writers and political figures; and it holds one of the state's greatest pilgrimage towns.

For a visitor the district offers three quite different things: Dakor, with its eighteenth-century Ranchhodrai temple and an enormous walking mela; Nadiad, the temple-and-literature town that Gujarat calls the land of the learned; and a scatter of neglected medieval stepwells, of which the complex at Kapadvanj is much the best. It is easily done in a day or two from Ahmedabad or Vadodara.

Why visit Kheda district

For Dakor. The Ranchhodrai temple, built in 1772 by the Maratha noble Gopalrao Jagannath Tambvekar, houses an image of Krishna as Ranchhodrai and is one of the most important Vaishnava shrines in Gujarat, with the Gomti tank beside it for ritual bathing. Its founding story — Bhakta Bodana, too old to keep walking to Dwarka, and a deity who agreed to come home with him — is one of the best-loved narratives in Gujarati devotion. Several times a year, most spectacularly around Falgun Purnima near Holi, hundreds of thousands walk to Dakor from across central Gujarat.

And for the stepwells, which are the district's secret. Kapadvanj has the Batris Kotha Vav, an eleventh-century Solanki structure standing alongside a stepped kund and a torana gateway — the single best stop for anyone who wants medieval Gujarati water architecture without the crowds at Adalaj or Patan. There are others at Mahudha and across the district's villages, many undocumented, most unvisited, and finding them by asking is one of the more enjoyable ways to spend a day here.

A great Krishna temple, a town of writers, and stepwells nobody visits.

What to see

1. Dakor and the Ranchhodrai templeExpect cloakrooms, security and queues. Check the mela calendar: Falgun Purnima around Holi is extraordinary and overwhelming, and an ordinary weekday is a quiet forty minutes.
2. Nadiad: Santram MandirA nineteenth-century temple at the centre of a town, running schools and hospitals. Time it for aarti, and eat at the pilgrim dining hall.
3. Nadiad: the literary townBirthplace of Govardhanram Tripathi, author of Saraswatichandra, and where Sardar Patel practised law. None of it is signposted; a local guide helps.
4. The Hari Om Ashram silence roomsAt Nadiad, associated with Shri Mota — small chambers for sitting in complete silence. Unusual and genuinely worthwhile.
5. Kapadvanj: Batris Kotha VavAn eleventh-century stepwell with an adjoining kund and torana. The best single heritage stop in the district and almost entirely unvisited.
6. Village stepwell huntingAsk for the vav. Many are unsignposted and known to everyone nearby. Watch your footing — crumbling steps, no railings, deep water.

How to get there

Nadiad is on the main Mumbai–Delhi railway line with frequent express services, about 70 km from Ahmedabad and 45 km from Vadodara — one of the easiest towns in Gujarat to reach by train. Dakor has a station with local services and is roughly 80 km from Ahmedabad and 70 km from Vadodara. Buses run constantly on the Ahmedabad–Vadodara corridor.

A car is what you want for the district, because Kapadvanj, the villages and the stepwells are only accessible by road and the whole point of Kheda is moving between small places. Roads are flat and good. Within Nadiad and Dakor everything is walkable from the station or bus stand.

Where to stay

Base in Ahmedabad or Vadodara. Both are around an hour away, both have airports and main-line stations, and both offer everything from budget to comfortable — including, in Ahmedabad, restored haveli hotels inside the walled city. Kheda's own accommodation is basic.

Dakor has a great deal of pilgrim accommodation — dharamshalas, trust guesthouses and simple hotels — which is cheap, functional and completely full during the melas. Nadiad and Anand have basic hotels. If you are attending a Dakor mela and want to be there for it, book pilgrim accommodation far in advance or accept a long drive in from a city.

Best time to visit

October to March, with November to February the pick — this is flat central Gujarat and the difference in comfort is substantial, particularly for stepwell hunting, which involves a good deal of walking and driving in open country.

The critical scheduling issue is the Dakor mela calendar. Falgun Purnima, around Holi in February or March, brings hundreds of thousands of walking pilgrims and severely affects highway traffic across the region for days; Kartik and Sharad Purnima are also major. Check the dates before driving between Ahmedabad and Vadodara in those periods, in either direction. The monsoon is green and agriculturally interesting, but low-lying parts of the district flood and stepwells fill with water.

Practical tips

• Check the Dakor mela dates before travelling through the district in February or March.
• Start your stepwell day at Kapadvanj, then ask your way to village vavs — the word to use is vav.
• Take care descending unmaintained stepwells: crumbling steps, deep water, no railings, occasionally bees or snakes.
• Time Nadiad for aarti at the Santram Mandir and ask about the Hari Om Ashram silence rooms.
• Base in Ahmedabad or Vadodara and combine Kheda with Anand's Amul dairy and Khambhat next door.

Frequently asked questions

Kheda is a district for people who like small places. An eighteenth-century Krishna temple that draws hundreds of thousands on foot, a market town that produced the first great Gujarati novel and hosts rooms built for sitting in silence, and an eleventh-century stepwell at Kapadvanj with a kund and a gateway beside it that has no queue at all. Base in Ahmedabad or Vadodara, check the mela dates, and learn the word vav.