Where to Stay in Palwal, State of Haryāna

What is Palwal known for?

Gandhi's first political arrest happened here. Officers took Mahatma Gandhi off the train at Palwal railway station on 10 April 1919, as he pushed north into Punjab in defiance of the Rowlatt Act, and the Gandhi Seva Ashram keeps that morning on record. Cotton pays the bills.

Palwal trades the crop for the country around it, while every year the Baldev Chhat Ka Mela draws crowds to honour Balarama, the brother of Krishna.

What are the main landmarks in Palwal?

Two sites carry the town. Matia Fort, also known as Palwal Fort, was raised during the reign of Sher Shah Suri and lies in ruins over the grand palace excavators found beneath it, while the Gandhi Seva Ashram and its museum near Palwal railway station hold the record of Mahatma Gandhi's arrest. A third stands outside.

The Dauji temple at Banchari, 25 km out on the Grand Trunk Road, honours Balarama and fills each year for the Baldev Chhat Ka Mela.

What is the history of Palwal?

The name comes from a demon. Local legend ties Palwal to the Mahabharata and to an asura called Palwasura, slain by Balarama, the brother of Krishna, and the annual Baldev Chhat Ka Mela commemorates the killing. Tradition goes further.

It identifies the town with Apelava, named in the same epic and later restored by Vikramaditya, which gives Palwal a claim older than anything standing in it. Sher Shah Suri left the stone. Matia Fort, also called Palwal Fort, went up in his reign, and excavation at its base has turned up evidence of a grand palace, though the walls themselves have fallen.

The railway brought the rest. Mahatma Gandhi was arrested at Palwal railway station on 10 April 1919, having refused a British order barring him from Punjab under the Rowlatt Act; Mathura was the last stop before the train was halted, and he was taken to Mumbai and released. Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose laid a foundation stone here on 2 October 1938, the Gandhi Seva Ashram took shape around that memory, and a Gandhi exhibition opened in it in 1962 with pictures drawn from the National Gandhi Museum in Delhi.

Boundaries kept moving. Palwal fell into the new Faridabad district when Gurgaon district was split on 15 August 1979, and on 15 August 2008 the town became headquarters of Palwal district, the 21st district of Haryāna.

Where is Palwal?

Flat ground, well inland. Palwal stands on the plain of northern India at an average elevation of 195 metres, with roughly 22 square kilometres inside the municipal council and the cotton country of Palwal district spreading past that edge. Distance does the placing.

Delhi lies 60 kilometres off, Faridabad 29 kilometres, Agra 143 kilometres, and Chandigarh 314 kilometres, so the Braj region and the National Capital Region both reach across this corner of Haryāna.

What is the climate of Palwal?

Cotton sets the working year. The crop that Palwal trades ripens through the warm months on the plain of northern India, so the market's heaviest weeks follow the harvest rather than any visitor calendar. Elevation offers no relief.

At 195 metres the town has no hill air to fall back on, and the cooler half of the subtropical year is simply the easier one for a walk to Matia Fort or a run out to Banchari on the Grand Trunk Road.

How do you get to Palwal?

Trains do most of it. Palwal railway station stands on the line that carried Mahatma Gandhi north from Mathura towards Punjab in April 1919, and it remains the town's main door for arrivals. Road covers the rest.

The Grand Trunk Road runs out to Banchari and its Dauji temple 25 km away, while Delhi at 60 kilometres and Faridabad at 29 kilometres keep Palwal within a short drive of the National Capital Region.