નડિયાદ
Seat of Faith & Learning
Nadiad is the metropolis of the six — a city of saints, scholars and statesmen. Gujarat calls it Sakshar Bhumi, the land of the lettered: birthplace of Sardar Patel, home of the Santram Mandir, and cradle of the greatest novel in the Gujarati language.
Nadiad’s roots are ancient. Tradition holds it was once Natpur or Natapadra — the town of the nats, wandering rope-dancers — a name that softened over the centuries into Nadiad. Standing between Ahmedabad and Vadodara on the great trade road, it grew into the commercial and cultural capital of the Charotar.
Its Patidar chapter opens in Vikram Samvat 1213 — 1156 CE — when Jesti Patel, the first Patidar of Nadiad, settled here: forefather of the Patidar quarters of Kakarkhad, Alhadvago, Ratanji Hirji and Lakhawad. In Samvat 1516 Kheta Patel joined him, and the community grew with the town. Under the Peshwas and the Gaekwads, Nadiad’s leading Patidar families were entrusted with collecting the land revenue — and earned the title Desai, a surname their descendants carry to this day.
Natpur — town of the nats, the rope-dancers — flourishes as a market centre of the Charotar. Its lore counts nine gates and nine sacred ponds, and the name slowly softens into Nadiad.
Jesti Patel, first Patidar of Nadiad, settles in Vikram Samvat 1213 — forefather of the quarters of Kakarkhad, Alhadvago, Ratanji Hirji and Lakhawad. Kheta Patel follows in Samvat 1516, and Patidar Nadiad takes root among the nine gates.
Saint Santram Maharaj takes his seat in the town. The Santram Mandir founded on that spot becomes the spiritual heart of the Charotar — and, through its trust, one of Gujarat’s great engines of charity: hospitals, schools and kitchens that feed the poor to this day.
Govardhanram Tripathi is born. Nadiad’s circle of scholars — the sakshars — is soon the most brilliant in Gujarat, and gives the town its enduring title: Sakshar Bhumi.
The Bombay, Baroda & Central India Railway reaches Nadiad. The station makes the town a trading powerhouse — and, decades later, the junction for the Charotar’s branch lines.
On 31 October, Vallabhbhai Patel is born in Nadiad at his maternal family’s home, and later schooled here — the future Iron Man is a son of this city before the world knows his name.
Govardhanram publishes Saraswatichandra in four volumes — the towering classic of Gujarati fiction, written in and about the world of the Charotar.
Gandhi directs the Kheda Satyagraha from Nadiad’s Hindu Anathashram, with young Vallabhbhai organising at his side. The no-tax campaign for famine-struck farmers forges the Gandhi–Patel partnership that will free India.
The Dandi March passes through Nadiad in its opening days; the town pours out to see Gandhi walk the salt road through the Charotar.
Dharmsinh Desai University is founded, anchoring Nadiad’s modern reputation for engineering and professional education.
The Muljibhai Patel Urological Hospital opens — growing into one of Asia’s premier kidney institutes and drawing patients from across India and the diaspora.
Nadiad is elevated to a municipal corporation — formal recognition of the largest city of the six villages.
Nineteenth-century Nadiad earned its title Sakshar Bhumi as the literary capital of Gujarat — home to Govardhanram Tripathi, author of Saraswatichandra, and a circle of poets and reformers who shaped modern Gujarati letters. The Santram Mandir gave the city its soul: its trust still runs hospitals, schools and kitchens for the poor two centuries on.
And above all stands Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, born here in 1875 — Nadiad shares with Karamsad the honour of raising the unifier of India.
Modern Nadiad is a city of a few hundred thousand — a railway junction, an education centre led by Dharmsinh Desai University, a medical hub around the renowned Muljibhai Patel Urological Hospital, and the administrative heart of Kheda district’s tobacco-rich farmland. It is the urban engine of the Chha Gam.
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.