Porbandar - India's National Pilgrimage Centre. Review on Porbander

Porbandar, with a population of 178,700, is about mid-way between Veraval and Dwarka. It is considered a very important place, being the birthplace of Mahatma Gandhi. In ancient times, the city was called Sudamapuri,after Sudama, a compatriot of Krishna, and there was once a flourishing trade from here to Africa and the Persian Gulf. The Africa connection is apparent in the number of Indianised Blacks, called Siddis, who form a virtually separate caste of Dalits.

Porbandar has several large cement and chemical factories and a textile mill. Dhows are still built here and fish-drying is an important activity, lending a certain aroma to the city.

The Kirti Mandir, Gandhi's birthplace, houses one of India's many collections of memorabilia. There is also an exhibition of photographs, and a small bookshop.

There are the Nehru Planetarium and the Bharat Mandir. Flocks of flamingoes are an unexpected sight along the creek. Men and women enter the planetarium from the veranda by separate doors whose panels celebrate Indian nonalignment, showing Shastri with Kosygin on one side and Nehru with JFK on the other. The planetarium has afternoon session in Gujarati.

The large Bharat Mandir Hall is in a charming garden opposite the planetarium. On the floor inside is a huge relief map of India and the building's pillars are brilliantly painted with bass-reliefs of more than 100 religious figures and legendary persons from the Hindu epic.

There are regular bus services to Dwarka, Jamnagar, Veraval and Rajkot. Some private airlines have daily flights to Mumbai. Porbandar is the terminus of a railway line: the train is the Saurashtra Express to and from Mumbai via Rajkot and Ahmedabad.