Idar is a town in Sabarkantha district, Gujarat, India. It is known for the manufacture of handmade wooden toys, tiles, its temples and various beautiful architectural monuments on its hills, and its historical background. Idar is at the southern end of the Aravalli Range. Etymology Idar was historically named Ilvadurg, which means the fortress of Ilvan. Its name was later corrupted into Idar. It was mentioned in Padma Purana as well as in the Mahabharata as Ila. History Legends The town is mentioned in Mahabharata and Bhavishottar Puran as 'Ilvadurg'. The exact date of its origin is not known; but it is believed that it came into existence at the time when Yudhishthira was ruling over Hastinapur at the end of the Kurukshetra War of Mahabharata. According to tradition, Idar has been celebrated from the earliest times. Even in the past cycle, yuga, it was known, and in the present cycle, before the days of Vikram, the legendary king Veni Vachh Raj ruled at Idar, the possessor of a golden figure which helped him to build the hillfort and its reservoirs. His queen was a Nagputri, the daughter of a snake-king of the under world, whither, the legend says, she and her consort betook themselves when the queen found that men were mortal. Ancient history The first clear tradition shows Idar in the possession of Bhils. Raja mandlik Bhil was King of Ider. After the fall of Vallabhi in 770, Kamalavati or Pushpavati, one of the wives of Maitraka king Shiladitya was at Ambaji to fulfil a vow. She heard news and took refuge in a cave in the mountains and there gave birth to a son called Gruhaditya or 'Goha' or cave-born. Making over the child to a Brahmin woman, the queen followed her husband through the fire. The young prince, of a daring character and adventurous spirit, soon passed out of his guardian's hands, and joining the Idar Bhils was by them chosen king. Whether in sport or earnest, the election was real, and for several generations his successors ruled in Idar. At last Nagaditya or Aparajita the eighth prince was killed by his subjects. He left a son named Bappa Rawal who never succeeded to his father's chiefship, but became the founder of Mewar dynasty. The Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang (640) mentions a place which he calls O-clia-li, the Chinese way of writing Vadali, a village nearby. British