ભાદરણ
Grandeur & Community Pride
Bhadran wears its history at its gates. The grand bhagols that welcome you into the village recall the era when this was called the “Paris of the Gaekwad state” — the most elegant, best-built village of Baroda’s realm.
Bhadran was founded as Bhadrapur in 1176 CE (Vikram Samvat 1232). Local legend reaches back further still: in nearby Padampur lived two demon brothers, Bhadrasur and Aghasur, slain by the goddesses Bhadrakali and Ambaji — and the temples raised to the two Matajis gave the settlement its name and its protectors.
The Patel line of Bhadran traces to two brothers, Kalidas and Ananda Patel, who left Akkalav (Anklav) and settled here in Samvat 1415 — the mid-14th century — “as land was ample.” Eleven generations on, four brothers of Ananda’s line divided the village between them: the elder two, Revandas and Dhanjibhai, founded Moti Khadki (the great khadki), while Harkhjibhai and Manjibhai founded Nani Khadki (the little one) — the two quarters whose names Bhadran families still carry in memory worldwide. In 1796, Narsinhbhai Patel established the settlement by the Bhadrakali temple.
Bhadrapur is founded in Vikram Samvat 1232, beside the shrine of Bhadrakali Mata. The goddess legend of Padampur — Bhadrakali and Ambaji slaying the demon brothers Bhadrasur and Aghasur — gives the village both its name and its guardians.
Brothers Kalidas and Ananda Patel arrive from Akkalav (Anklav) in Samvat 1415, “as land was ample” — the first of the recorded Patel line, whose family tree, published in 1925, still maps the village’s lineages.
Eleven generations after Ananda, four brothers divide Patidar Bhadran: Revandas and Dhanjibhai found Moti Khadki, the great khadki; Harkhjibhai and Manjibhai found Nani Khadki, the little one.
Narsinhbhai Patel settles the quarter by the Bhadrakali temple, completing the old village’s map.
Bhadran thrives under Baroda State. In the long reign of Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad III (1875–1939) — India’s great modernising prince — paved streets, schools, water works and civic order earn the village its famous nickname: the Paris of the Gaekwad state.
The Chhappaniyo famine strikes the Charotar; like its sister villages, Bhadran begins sending sons to East Africa, whose earnings will fund a century of village works.
The Borsad Satyagraha: in Bhadran’s own taluka, Sardar Patel and Ravishankar Maharaj lead the peasantry to victory against a punitive poll-tax — a dress rehearsal for Bardoli, fought on Bhadran’s doorstep.
Gandhi’s Dandi March crosses Borsad taluka; families from Bhadran walk to the roadside to see the Mahatma pass on the salt road.
The century of gates and giving: donors raise and restore the village’s bhagols — the triple-arched Darwaji Bhagol gifted by the late Ramanbhai Patel among them — monuments of Patidar philanthropy.
Baroda State merges into Bombay, and in 1960 Gujarat is born; Bhadran passes from princely jewel to model village of the new state.
Uganda’s expulsion scatters and then re-roots Bhadran’s African families in Britain; the Bhadran Bandhu Samaj and its sister bodies knit the global village together.
Repeatedly praised among the cleanest, best-kept villages of the region — tree-lined avenues, restored gates, strong schools, and a diaspora that never forgets the way home.
Bhadran’s signature is its bhagols — monumental gateways marking the old entries to the village. The triple-arched Darwaji Bhagol on Station Road, donated by the late Ramanbhai Patel, opens onto a double avenue leading to the Chamerda Bhagol. Each arch is a monument to the village’s culture of giving — generations of Patidar donors building beauty into their home.
The village is also remembered as a nursery of freedom fighters, its families deep in the satyagraha campaigns that swept the Charotar in the 1920s and 30s.
Bhadran today is frequently praised as one of the cleanest and most gracious villages of the region — tree-lined roads, restored gates, strong schools and an active global samaj (the Bhadran Bandhu Samaj and its sister bodies) that keeps the diaspora bound to home.
The six villages of Chha Gam — Dharmaj, Karamsad, Vaso, Nadiad, Bhadran and Sojitra — were settled by Patidar families between the 12th and 16th centuries and rose to become the most prosperous and respected Leuva Patidar villages of the Charotar. In 1869 the villages began formalising their gol (marriage circle), binding their families together through generations of marriage, trust and shared enterprise. That bond is why a community founded in these six villages still gathers as one family today — in Gujarat, in Britain, in East Africa, and here in Chicago.