A city throbbing with education as well as industry, Bhavnagar is also a cultural city. It was an impOliant center for the freedom struggle activities too. Even after the Independence, the Rashtriya Mahasabha held its conference only in this city. When the plan was drawn up to merge the Indian native kingdoms into Indian Union, the Herculean efforts to that end made by Sardar Patel were successful as the ruler of Bhavnagar, Shri Krishnakumarsinhji, was the first to offer co-operation on his own and to join the Union.

Since a very long time, Bhavnagar had been promoting cultural activities. Its ruler had facilitated Kavi Dalpatram and many other dignitaries of literary world. The love of its rulers for art also made them patronize and encourage many artists, like Kavi Kant, Painters like Ravishankar Raval and Somalal Shah, photographer Jagan Mehta and other talented people. Gandhiji studied in its Shamaldas College. The famous diplomats 'Gaga Oza' and Prabhashankar Pattani and his son Anantrai Pattani, all were leaders of their period before Independence.

In modern times also the Mahila College besides many that have come up, schools, Sir Prabhashankar Pattani Institute of Science, Commerce College, Law College, Ayurvedic Mahavidyalaya, Bhavsinhji Polytechnic etc. are working here. Among the educationist institutions the list would not be complete without mentioning· Oakshinamurti'. Nanabhai Bhatt began a unique experiment by establishing this institute for education at foundation level. He began this unique teaching institute at Bhavnagar first and then he shifted it to the Ambla village, as he wanted to work from village base later.

At 'Gandhismruti' we find a number of things that commemorate this beloved son of Gujarat, Gandhiji. The Barton Library, oldest in the erstwhile state, has thousands of precious books, while the Barton Museum gives us an idea bout the traditional love for artistic creations and antiquities of the state. A very remarkable institute of Bhavnagar is 'Lokmilap', a publication finn managed by Mahendra Meghani. Lokmilap goes straight to the reader through various schemes, and make a large number of books available to him at a very cheap rate.

Other places of interest in Bhavnagar include the old Darbargadh, town hall etc. The town hall was built in 1932 where the state legislature used to hold sessions; it was here that the crowning ceremony of Krishnakumar had also taken place. We find places of worship of all faiths in Bhavnagar; such as lain temples or Derasar, temples, mosques and churches. An Agiary or the Fire Temple of the Parsees is also found here. As the port of Alang is very nearby, we also find a market of the goods obtained from the ship-breaking activities of that port, and named after it as Alang Bazaar. The ruler of Bhavnagar also had a very good collection of birds. So, now we move on to lunagadh. the most ancient-historical city-which we are to visit in this travel.