Morbi District Guide: Tiles, Clocks and Wankaner

Morbi district, created in 2013 out of Rajkot district, is one of the odder places in Gujarat: an industrial powerhouse producing the great majority of India's ceramic tiles, wrapped around two former princely capitals with buildings of real quality, in flat unremarkable Saurashtra country. It is not a conventional tourist destination and it is a genuinely interesting two days.

The draws are Wankaner's Ranjit Vilas Palace, an early-twentieth-century building that combines Italianate, Gothic, Mughal and Rajput idioms in one confident structure and operates as a heritage hotel; the Morbi ceramic cluster and the Mani Mandir palace complex in the town; and Tankara, the birthplace of Dayanand Saraswati, founder of the Arya Samaj. The district also carries the memory of two modern disasters that any honest visitor should know about.

Why visit Morbi district

For Ranjit Vilas at Wankaner, which is the most enjoyable building in Saurashtra precisely because it refuses to choose a style. Built for Maharaja Amarsinhji, who was closely involved in its design, it stands on a ridge above the town with arcades, a clock tower, domes, cupolas, carved screens and long terraces, and it is still owned by the family. In its grounds are an old stepwell descending in tiers and an early-twentieth-century swimming pool — the whole span of Indian water architecture in one estate.

And for the ceramic cluster, which is a remarkable thing to see even from the road. Hundreds of factories in and around Morbi produce tiles and sanitaryware at a scale that supplies most of India and exports substantially, competing internationally in a sector long dominated by Italy and Spain. There is no public visitor programme, but driving the industrial belt gives you the scale, and the town also holds Mani Mandir, a fine and largely ignored nineteenth-century palace complex.

A palace of four architectural traditions, above a district that tiles the country.

What to do

1. Wankaner: Ranjit Vilas PalaceTelephone ahead — it is a family-run heritage property, not a ticketed monument. Staying a night gets you the terraces at dawn and dusk and the run of the grounds.
2. Wankaner: the stepwell and poolIn the palace grounds. An old tiered vav and a 1930s swimming pool fed from the same water, and often the thing visitors remember best.
3. Morbi: Mani Mandir and the darbargadhA substantial late-nineteenth-century Indo-Saracenic palace complex in the town, damaged and patchily maintained, and almost entirely overlooked.
4. Morbi: the ceramic beltDrive the industrial estates for the scale. Factory visits need advance arrangement through a contact or trade body; there is no visitor programme.
5. TankaraThe birthplace of Dayanand Saraswati, who founded the Arya Samaj in 1875. A memorial site of real significance to that tradition.
6. Know the district's historyThe 1979 Machchhu dam failure and the 2022 Jhulto Pul bridge collapse both killed large numbers of local people. Treat both with real respect.

How to get there

Rajkot is the practical gateway, with an airport, a major railway station and good connections, about 60 km from Morbi and 50 km from Wankaner. Both towns have railway stations on the Saurashtra network with limited services, and buses run frequently. Ahmedabad is roughly 200 km from Morbi.

A car is what you want, both for the palace on its hill and because the district is best combined with Gondal to the south or Dhrangadhra and the Little Rann to the east. Roads are good and distances are short. If you are driving between Ahmedabad and Kutch, the district sits close to the route and costs very little in detour.

Where to stay

Wankaner's Ranjit Vilas is the answer, and it is one of the better heritage stays in Gujarat — a palace on a ridge, still owned by the family, with terraces, grounds, a stepwell and a period pool. Book ahead, and it turns the district from a curiosity into a proper destination.

Morbi itself has business-hotel stock serving the ceramic industry: functional, modern, adequate and entirely without character. Rajkot, an hour away, has the full city range and is the sensible fallback. For a two-day trip, the ideal is a night at Wankaner and a night in Rajkot, with Gondal's palaces as the third element.

Best time to visit

October to March. This is flat, hot Saurashtra with very little shade, and the palace terraces at Wankaner are at their best in cool weather at either end of the day. November to February is ideal.

April to June is hot and the district has no relief. The monsoon brings its own associations here, given the 1979 dam failure, and while travel is straightforward the landscape is unremarkable in the rain. Factory operations run year-round but the industrial belt is a hot place to drive in summer. Whatever the season, telephone ahead about the Wankaner palace rather than turning up with expectations.

Practical tips

• Telephone Wankaner ahead; access for non-residents depends on the hotel operation and needs arranging.
• Stay a night at Ranjit Vilas — the terraces at dawn and dusk are the district's best experience.
• Look for Mani Mandir in Morbi town; almost no visitor bothers and it is a fine building.
• Arrange any ceramic factory visit in advance; otherwise drive the industrial belt for the scale.
• Treat the 2022 bridge site and the 1979 flood with real respect — both are recent and local.

Frequently asked questions

Morbi district is an unusual and rewarding two days: a palace on a ridge that tries four architectural traditions at once and still works, with a stepwell and a 1930s pool in its grounds; a town that makes most of the tiles in India from hundreds of factories; a fine nineteenth-century palace complex nobody looks at; and the birthplace of the Arya Samaj. Sleep at Wankaner, drive the industrial belt, and behave decently near the river at Morbi.