Porbandar District Guide: Gandhi's Coast

Porbandar is a small port town on the Saurashtra coast with one internationally known fact attached to it: Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born there on 2 October 1869, in a house in the old quarter that is now preserved inside the Kirti Mandir memorial. It is the first reason anybody comes.

The district has rather more than that. Tradition identifies the town with Sudamapuri, home of Krishna's poor friend Sudama, and it holds what is generally described as India's only Sudama temple; there is a wetland bird sanctuary inside the municipal limits; the Barda hills inland hold a wildlife sanctuary and the forgotten ruins of Ghumli with its substantial twelfth-century Navlakha temple; and Madhavpur Ghed on the coast has a beach and an annual Krishna-Rukmini fair. Two days is right.

Why visit Porbandar district

For Kirti Mandir, and specifically for the contrast it stages. The memorial, completed in the early 1950s with a tall multi-storeyed spire, a prayer hall, a library and photographic exhibitions, encloses and preserves the original family house — a dark, cramped three-storey building with steep wooden stairs and small rooms around a light shaft, with a swastika on the floor marking the birth room. You walk through the grand building into an entirely ordinary one, and that does more than any interpretation could.

And for what almost nobody knows about. Porbandar Bird Sanctuary sits inside the town and holds flamingos, pelicans, ducks and waders in winter — a wetland within municipal limits, which is a genuine oddity. Inland, Barda Wildlife Sanctuary covers hilly forest with leopard, hyena and chinkara, and within it lie the ruins of Ghumli, an old capital whose Navlakha temple is a substantial Solanki-period structure standing largely forgotten in the hills. Both go through the forest department and neither gets visitors.

A memorial built around a small dark ordinary house on the Saurashtra coast.

What to see

1. Kirti Mandir and the birth houseDo them together; the memorial and the small dark house inside it are one experience. An hour covers both, and entry is nominal.
2. Sudama MandirGenerally described as the only temple in India dedicated to Sudama, with a maze pattern in the courtyard that pilgrims walk. A short walk from Kirti Mandir.
3. Bharat MandirA hall of relief sculptures with a large floor map of India, built as a nationalist memorial and part of the same commemorative complex.
4. Porbandar Bird SanctuaryA wetland inside the town, best at first light in winter for flamingos, pelicans and waders. Genuinely unusual, and takes an hour.
5. Barda Sanctuary and GhumliInland towards Ranavav. Hill forest plus the Navlakha temple and the ruins of an old capital. Arrange access with the forest department; infrastructure is minimal.
6. Madhavpur GhedEast along the coast: a good beach and an annual fair around Ram Navami commemorating the marriage of Krishna and Rukmini.

How to get there

Porbandar has an airport with limited domestic connections and a railway station on the Saurashtra network. By road it is roughly 180 km from Rajkot, 130 km from Junagadh and about 100 km from Dwarka up the coast, with Ahmedabad around 400 km away. Buses run along the coast and inland.

Within the town, autos cover everything and the main sights — Kirti Mandir, Sudama Mandir, Bharat Mandir, the beach — are close together and walkable. For Barda, Ghumli and Madhavpur you want a car; there is no useful public transport into the hills, and the sanctuary requires forest department arrangement anyway.

Where to stay

Porbandar has a modest range of town hotels plus some options along the seafront, and they are adequate rather than appealing. It is fine for a night or two, and its position on the coast between Dwarka and Junagadh makes it a natural stop rather than a base for a longer stay.

If you want a more comfortable night in the region, Dwarka to the north and Junagadh or Rajkot inland all have larger and better ranges. Most travellers doing the Saurashtra coast fit Porbandar in as a day and a half between Dwarka and Junagadh or Gir, which suits the geography well.

Best time to visit

November to February is the clear answer. The Saurashtra coast is pleasant in winter with warm days and cool evenings, and this is also when the wetland birds are present in numbers — both the town bird sanctuary and the Mokarsagar wetland nearby are winter propositions, which materially changes what the district offers.

March to June is hot and humid on this coast, and the exposed Gandhi sites and beaches are uncomfortable in the middle of the day. The monsoon brings heavy rain and rough seas, and access into the Barda hills becomes difficult. One date worth knowing: the Madhavrai fair at Madhavpur Ghed falls around Ram Navami in spring and has in recent years been developed into a larger cultural festival, which is worth checking against your dates.

Practical tips

• Do Kirti Mandir and the birth house together — the contrast between memorial and dwelling is the whole point.
• Walk between Kirti Mandir, Sudama Mandir and Bharat Mandir; they are close together in the old quarter.
• Go to the town bird sanctuary at first light in winter; a wetland inside a city is a real curiosity.
• Arrange Barda Sanctuary and Ghumli through the forest department in advance; infrastructure is minimal.
• Fit Porbandar in as a day and a half between Dwarka and Junagadh on the Saurashtra coast route.

Frequently asked questions

Porbandar earns a day and a half. Walk through a tall commemorative building into the small dark ordinary house where Gandhi was born, visit the only Sudama temple in India a few minutes away, spend a winter dawn at a wetland inside the municipal limits looking at flamingos, and then head inland to find a twelfth-century temple standing in hill forest that almost nobody has heard of. Come November to February, between Dwarka and Junagadh.