Lakes in India Kankaria Lake:
| Kankaria Lake | |
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Kankaria Lake during the Kankaria Carnival in Ahmedabad
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| Location | Ahmedabad, Gujarat |
| Coordinates | 23.006°N 72.6011°ECoordinates: 23.006°N 72.6011°E |
| Lake type | Artificial lake |
| Basin countries | India |
| Max. length | 560 m (1,840 ft) |
| Max. width | 560 m (1,840 ft) |
| Surface area | 76 acres (31 ha) |
| Shore length1 | 2 km (1.2 mi) |
| Islands | Nagina Wadi |
| Settlements | Ahmedabad |
Kankaria Lake, formerly known as Hauj-e-Qutb, is the second largest lake in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India. It is located in the south-eastern part of the city, in the Maninagar area. It was completed in 1451 during the reign of Sultan Qutb-ud-Din Ahmad Shah II though its origin is placed in the Chaulukya period sometimes. A lakefront is developed around it, which has many public attractions such as a zoo, toy train, kids city, tethered balloon ride, water rides, water park, food stalls, and entertainment facilities. The lakefront was revamped in 2008. Kankaria Carnival is a week-long festival held here in the last week of December. Many cultural, art, and social activities are organised during the carnival
There are various versions of its origin. According to the 14th century chronicler Merutunga, Chaulukya ruler Karna built a temple dedicated to the goddess Kochharba at Ashapalli after defeating the its Bhil chief Asha. He also established the Karnavati city nearby, where he commissioned the Karneshvara/Karnamukteshwara and Jayantidevi temples. He also built the Karnasagara tank at Karnavati next to Karneshvara temple. Karnavati is identified with modern Ahmedabad and Karnasagar tank is identified with Kankaria lake but this identification is not certain. Another version attributes the lake to the Kankana Devi from which it takes its name.
The construction of the lake started by Sultan Muizz-ud-Din Muhammad Shah II in the 15th century. The inscription at the lake mentions that it was, it was completed during the reign of Sultan Qutb-ud-Din Ahmad Shah II in 1451. According to this plate, its name is placed as “Hauj-e-Qutb” (Pond of Qutb) after him. Whether the lake existed before this and was only widened or deepened in 1452 or whether it was created from scratch at that time is something that still remains unresolved.
Throughout the period of the Gujarat Sultanate and of Mughal rule, the Kankaria lake with its Nagina Bagh were the favourite leisure place of rulers and the people and it were among the tourist sights of Ahmedabad ever since. The European travellers of the seventeenth century, Pietro Della Valle (1623), Johan Albrecht de Mandelslo (1638), Jean de Thévenot (l666), all had visited the lake gave its accounts. Mandelslo who visited Gujarat during the reign of Shah Jahan wrote in 1638
The reservoir is a 34-sided regular polygon covering an area of 76 acres and having a shore length of approximately one and a quarter mile, or 2 km. It is surrounded by flights of cut stone steps and in six places, slopes, giving access to the water. These slopes were covered by square cupolas, each raised on 12 pillars.
An island in the centre of the lake contains a garden and is called Nagina Wadi, formerly Bagh-e-Nagina (beautiful garden in Urdu); it is connected to the bank by a bridge, oiginally of 48 arches. The garden is mentioned in Mirat-e-Ahmadi as “the Jewel (Nagina) in the centre of the ring of lake”. The garden contains a pleasure house called Ghattamandal. During restoration, the British constructed a parapet wall around the garden.
The lake had a water purification system which is lost now. There are well carved supply sluices on the east side. Their buttresses or jambs of sluices resemble those of the minarets of mosques in Ahmedabad. Between these buttresses, there is a screen six feet thick screen punctured by three large openings for inflow of water. These openings are six feet in diametre and the margin of it is beautifully carved.
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