Ten Talav

Ten Talav, is a small settlement situated 12 KMs from Dabhoi. The town is named after the vast lake called Ten Talav. It is said that the lake was constructed by Hiradhar Shilpi, who was the architect of Dabhoi Fort (Hira Bhagol or gate is named after Hiradhar).

A fort, lake, lover, and vedmi(sweet):

The lake is linked to an interesting relating it to Dabhoi fort and its architect Hiradhar Shilpi.
According to the tale, Hiradhar Shilpi built this lake for his love, a girl whose name was ‘Taini’, who was a servant of the queen. It is said that when he was constructing the Dabhoi Fort, he stole the stones reserved for the fort, to secretly build a talav(lake). These stones were transported to the site of the lake via an underground tunnel.

Subsequently, the queen came to know about this robbery and decided to teach the architect a lesson. So, to tell the king about this, she used a trick. She cooked “vedmi” (a type of sweet stuffed Indian bread eaten with ghee) and gave it to the king, and said that this is our fort of Dabhoi. The king couldn’t quite understand what she was trying to do. So the queen explained to him that just like this vedmi, our fort is built from stone on the outside and is filled from sand inside. (The vedmi has a an outer layer of bread that holds the inner sweet stuffing inside).

Once the king came to know about the scam he wasted no time in punishing the thief Hiradhar. He was sentenced to death by being buried alive in the fort wall. It is said that he was given Ghee a few times through a small hole in the wall but he did not survive & passed away inside fort only.

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Over the years, the name Taini corrupted to Ten, and the lake came to be known as the Ten Talav. Recently, the desilting of the lake was carried out to improve the capacity of the lake. Now the lake is brimming with water, keeping alive the memory of Hiradhar and Taini!!!