120-620: Barda Wildlife Sanctuary is located in Gujarat , India . It is situated approximately 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) from Porbandar and 100 kilometres (62 mi) west of Gir Forest National Park . Previous to its 1979 establishment as a wildlife sanctuary, Barda was a private reserve for Porbandar and Jamnagar . Approximately 4,00,000 people live in Barda. Barda is 282 square kilometres (109 sq mi) in size with an altitude of 79.2–617.8 meters (260–2,027 ft) above sea level. The terrain
240-668: A UNESCO effort tasked to conserve the site at Mohenjo-daro. Other international efforts at Mohenjo-daro and Harappa have included the German Aachen Research Project Mohenjo-daro , the Italian Mission to Mohenjo-daro , and the US Harappa Archaeological Research Project (HARP) founded by George F. Dales . Following a chance flash flood which exposed a portion of an archaeological site at
360-643: A "relatively uniform" material culture in terms of pottery styles, ornaments, and stamp seals with Indus script , leading into the transition to the Mature Harappan phase. According to Giosan et al. (2012), the slow southward migration of the monsoons across Asia initially allowed the Indus Valley villages to develop by taming the floods of the Indus and its tributaries. Flood-supported farming led to large agricultural surpluses, which in turn supported
480-465: A continuity in cultural development but a change in population. According to Lukacs and Hemphill, while there is a strong continuity between the neolithic and chalcolithic (Copper Age) cultures of Mehrgarh, dental evidence shows that the chalcolithic population did not descend from the neolithic population of Mehrgarh, which "suggests moderate levels of gene flow." Mascarenhas et al. (2015) note that "new, possibly West Asian, body types are reported from
600-572: A group that included Arab theologian Ibn Suwaid , several Sayyid Sufi members of the Aydarus family of Tarim in Yemen , Iberian court interpreter Ali al-Andalusi from Granada , and the Arab jurist Bahraq from Hadramaut who was appointed a tutor of the prince. Among the illustrious names who arrived during the reign of Mahmud Begada was the philosopher Haibatullah Shah Mir from Shiraz , and
720-524: A highly uniform and well-planned grid pattern, suggesting they were planned by a central authority; extraordinary uniformity of Harappan artefacts as evident in pottery, seals, weights and bricks; presence of public facilities and monumental architecture; heterogeneity in the mortuary symbolism and in grave goods (items included in burials). These are some major theories: Harappans evolved some new techniques in metallurgy and produced copper, bronze , lead, and tin . A touchstone bearing gold streaks
840-571: A hundred excavated, there are five major urban centres: Mohenjo-daro in the lower Indus Valley (declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1980 as " Archaeological Ruins at Moenjodaro "), Harappa in the western Punjab region , Ganeriwala in the Cholistan Desert , Dholavira in western Gujarat (declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2021 as " Dholavira: A Harappan City "), and Rakhigarhi in Haryana . The Harappan language
960-547: A joint discussion. By 1924, Marshall had become convinced of the significance of the finds, and on 24 September 1924, made a tentative but conspicuous public intimation in the Illustrated London News : "Not often has it been given to archaeologists, as it was given to Schliemann at Tiryns and Mycenae , or to Stein in the deserts of Turkestan , to light upon the remains of a long forgotten civilisation. It looks, however, at this moment, as if we were on
1080-486: A letter to his eldest son, Muhammad Azam Shah , asking him to be kind and considerate to the people of Dahod as it was his birthplace. Muhammad Azam was then the Subedar (governor) of Gujarat. In his letter, Aurangzeb wrote: My son of exalted rank, the town of Dahod, one of the dependencies of Gujarat, is the birthplace of this sinner. Please consider a regard for the inhabitants of that town as incumbent on you. When
1200-590: A lion might indicate that the port city described is in Gujarat. For nearly 300 years from the start of the 1st century CE, Saka rulers played a prominent part in Gujarat's history. The weather-beaten rock at Junagadh gives a glimpse of the ruler Rudradaman I (100 CE) of the Saka satraps known as Western Satraps , or Kshatraps. Mahakshatrap Rudradaman I founded the Kardamaka dynasty which ruled from Anupa on
1320-621: A new viceroy of India, Lord Curzon , pushed through the Ancient Monuments Preservation Act 1904 , and appointed John Marshall to lead the ASI. Several years later, Hiranand Sastri , who had been assigned by Marshall to survey Harappa, reported it to be of non-Buddhist origin, and by implication more ancient. Expropriating Harappa for the ASI under the Act, Marshall directed ASI archaeologist Daya Ram Sahni to excavate
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#17327986867441440-591: A number of earlier states in what is now Gujarat. Pushyagupta, a Vaishya , was appointed the governor of Saurashtra by the Mauryan regime. He ruled Girinagar (modern-day Junagadh ) (322 BCE to 294 BCE) and built a dam on the Sudarshan lake. Emperor Ashoka the Great , the grandson of Chandragupta Maurya , not only ordered his edicts engraved in the rock at Junagadh, but also asked Governor Tusherpha to cut canals from
1560-651: A par with contemporary Venice and Beijing , great mercantile cities of Europe and Asia, and earned the distinguished title, Bab al-Makkah (Gate of Mecca). Drawn by the religious renaissance taking place under Akbar, Mohammed Ghaus moved to Gujarat and established spiritual centers for the Shattari Sufi order from Iran, founding the Ek Toda Mosque and producing such devotees as Wajihuddin Alvi of Ahmedabad whose many successors moved to Bijapur during
1680-435: A population of Asiatic lions , they deserted the area towards the end of the nineteenth century. A proposed reintroduction programme by the state government was cancelled. Gujarat Gujarat ( / ˌ ɡ ʊ dʒ ə ˈ r ɑː t / GUUJ -ə- RAHT ; ISO : Gujarāt , Gujarati: [ˈɡudʒəɾat̪] ) is a state along the western coast of India . Its coastline of about 1,600 km (990 mi)
1800-599: A site whose entire upper layer had been stripped in the interim. Although his original goal of demonstrating Harappa to be a lost Buddhist city mentioned in the seventh century CE travels of the Chinese visitor, Xuanzang , proved elusive, Cunningham did publish his findings in 1875. For the first time, he interpreted a Harappan stamp seal , with its unknown script, which he concluded to be of an origin foreign to India. Archaeological work in Harappa thereafter lagged until
1920-570: A tradition in archaeology, the civilisation is sometimes referred to as the Harappan, after its type site , Harappa , the first site to be excavated in the 1920s; this is notably true of usage employed by the Archaeological Survey of India after India's independence in 1947. The term "Ghaggar-Hakra" figures prominently in modern labels applied to the Indus civilisation on account of a good number of sites having been found along
2040-418: Is a green valley, encompassed by timberland and agricultural fields. There are several forest sub-types, such as southern tropical forest, southern dry mixed deciduous forest and northern tropical thorn forest, while other predominant flora include Euphorbia scrub, dry deciduous scrub, and dry bamboo brakes. Important fauna are blue bull , chinkara , blackbuck , and wolf . While Barda was known to have had
2160-558: Is believed to have been one of the world's first seaports . Gujarat's coastal cities, chiefly Bharuch and Khambhat , served as ports and trading centres in the Maurya and Gupta empires and during the succession of royal Saka dynasties in the Western Satraps era. Along with Bihar , Mizoram and Nagaland , Gujarat is one of four Indian states to prohibit the sale of alcohol . The Gir Forest National Park in Gujarat
2280-604: Is hilly and undulating; there are slopes and exposed rocks. The tropical climate is characterized by very hot summers. There are two rivers, Bileshvary River and Joghri River , and two dams, Khambala and Fodara. There are several forest sub-types, such as southern tropical forest , southern dry mixed deciduous forest and northern tropical thorn forest, while other predominant flora include Euphorbia scrub, dry deciduous scrub, and dry bamboo brakes. The sanctuary area supports around 750 ‘ maldhari ’ families in 68 ‘nesses’. The agricultural fields and wasteland, where water scarcity
2400-662: Is home to the only wild population of the Asiatic lion in the world. The economy of Gujarat is the fourth-largest in India , with a gross state domestic product (GSDP) of ₹ 16.55 trillion (equivalent to ₹ 19 trillion or US$ 220 billion in 2023) and has the country's 10th-highest GSDP per capita of ₹ 215,000 (US$ 2,600). Gujarat has the highest exports of all states , accounting for around one-third of national exports. It ranks 21st among Indian states and union territories in human development index . Gujarat
2520-490: Is no conclusive evidence of palaces or temples. Some structures are thought to have been granaries. Found at one city is an enormous well-built bath (the " Great Bath "), which may have been a public bath. Although the citadels were walled, it is far from clear that these structures were defensive. Most city dwellers appear to have been traders or artisans, who lived with others pursuing the same occupation in well-defined neighbourhoods. Materials from distant regions were used in
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#17327986867442640-507: Is not directly attested, and its affiliations are uncertain, as the Indus script has remained undeciphered. A relationship with the Dravidian or Elamo-Dravidian language family is favoured by a section of scholars. The Indus civilisation is named after the Indus river system in whose alluvial plains the early sites of the civilisation were identified and excavated. Following
2760-468: Is pardonable. There are Gujaratees settled everywhere. They work some for some and others for others. They are diligent, quick men in trade. They do their accounts with fingers like ours and with our very writings. Gujarat was one of the twelve original subahs (imperial top-level provinces) established by Mughal Emperor ( Badshah ) Akbar , with a seat at Ahmedabad, bordering on Thatta (Sindh), Ajmer , Malwa and later Ahmadnagar subahs. Aurangzeb ,
2880-533: Is regarded as one of the most industrialised states and has a low unemployment rate , but the state ranks poorly on some social indicators and is at times affected by religious violence . Gujarat is derived from the Gurjaras , who ruled Gujarat in the 8th and 9th centuries CE. Parts of modern Rajasthan and Gujarat were known as Gurjarat or Gurjarabhumi for centuries before the Mughal period. Gujarat
3000-462: Is shown by their dockyards, granaries , warehouses, brick platforms, and protective walls. The massive walls of Indus cities most likely protected the Harappans from floods and may have dissuaded military conflicts. The purpose of the citadel remains debated. In sharp contrast to this civilisation's contemporaries, Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt , no large monumental structures were built. There
3120-487: Is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the fifth-largest Indian state by area , covering some 196,024 km (75,685 sq mi); and the ninth-most populous state , with a population of 60.4 million in 2011. It is bordered by Rajasthan to the northeast, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu to the south, Maharashtra to the southeast, Madhya Pradesh to
3240-399: Is the main problem. And these maldhari families encounter this problem throughout summer months. And the green patch of the sanctuary helps to provide ecological balance by improving the water system of the area by restoring the ground water. One can also visit Kileshwar, a temple improved by ‘ Jamsahib ’ of Jamnagar, is a magnificent attraction of this area. Barda Hills Wildlife Sanctuary range
3360-599: The Ghaggar-Hakra River in northwest India and eastern Pakistan. The terms "Indus-Sarasvati Civilisation" and "Sindhu-Saraswati Civilisation" have also been employed in the literature by supporters of Indigenous Aryanism , after a posited identification of the Ghaggar-Hakra with the river Sarasvati described in the early chapters of the Rigveda , a collection of hymns in archaic Sanskrit composed in
3480-655: The Ghoris had assumed a position of Muslim supremacy over North India, Qutbuddin Aibak attempted to conquer Gujarat and annexe it to his empire in 1197, but failed in his ambitions. An independent Muslim community continued to flourish in Gujarat for the next hundred years, championed by Arab merchants settling along the western coast. From 1297 to 1300, Alauddin Khalji , the Turko-Afghan Sultan of Delhi , destroyed
3600-648: The Gurjara-Pratihara dynasty, Vikramaditya II of the Chalukya dynasty and Bappa Rawal of the Guhila dynasty . After this victory, the Arab invaders were driven out of Gujarat. General Pulakeshin , a Chalukya prince of Lata , received the title Avanijanashraya (refuge of the people of the earth) and honorific of "Repeller of the unrepellable" by the Chalukya emperor Vikramaditya II for his victory at
3720-699: The Ottoman state . Humayun also briefly occupied the province in 1536, but fled due to the threat Bahadur Shah , the Gujarat king, imposed. The Sultanate of Gujarat remained independent until 1572, when the Mughal emperor Akbar conquered it and annexed it to the Mughal Empire . The Surat port (the only Indian port facing west) then became the principal port of India during Mughal rule, gaining widespread international repute. The city of Surat, famous for its exports of silk and diamonds , had reached
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3840-634: The Ottomans and Egyptian Mamluks naval fleets led by governor-generals Malik Ayyaz and Amir Husain Al-Kurdi , vanquished the Portuguese in the 1508 Battle of Chaul resulting in the first Portuguese defeat at sea in the Indian Ocean . To 16th-century European observers, Gujarat was a fabulously wealthy country. The customs revenue of Gujarat alone in the early 1570s was nearly three times
3960-713: The Republic of India on 19 December 1961 by military conquest. The British East India Company established a factory in Surat in 1614 following the commercial treaty made with Mughal Emperor Nuruddin Salim Jahangir , which formed their first base in India, but it was eclipsed by Bombay after the English received it from Portugal in 1668 as part of the marriage treaty of Charles II of England and Catherine of Braganza , daughter of King John IV of Portugal . The state
4080-732: The Vaghela chiefs of Dholka came to rule the Kingdom of Gujarat . In 1292, the Vaghelas became tributaries of the Yadava dynasty of Devagiri in the Deccan . Karandev of the Vaghela dynasty was the last Hindu ruler of Gujarat. He was defeated and overthrown by the superior forces of Alauddin Khalji from Delhi in 1297. With his defeat, Gujarat became part of the Delhi Sultanate , and
4200-614: The alluvial plain of the Indus River , which flows through the length of Pakistan, and along a system of perennial monsoon -fed rivers that once coursed in the vicinity of the Ghaggar-Hakra , a seasonal river in northwest India and eastern Pakistan. The term Harappan is sometimes applied to the Indus Civilisation after its type site Harappa , the first to be excavated early in the 20th century in what
4320-490: The northwestern regions of South Asia , lasting from 3300 BCE to 1300 BCE, and in its mature form from 2600 BCE to 1900 BCE. Together with ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia , it was one of three early civilisations of North Africa , Southwest Asia and South Asia , and of the three, the most widespread, its sites spanning an area including much of modern-day Pakistan , northwestern India and northeast Afghanistan . The civilisation flourished both in
4440-491: The water buffalo . Early Harappan communities turned to large urban centres by 2600 BCE, from where the mature Harappan phase started. The latest research shows that Indus Valley people migrated from villages to cities. The final stages of the Early Harappan period are characterised by the building of large walled settlements, the expansion of trade networks, and the increasing integration of regional communities into
4560-516: The 5th century, the Gupta empire went into decline. Senapati Bhatarka, the general of the Guptas, took advantage of the situation and in 470 set up the Kingdom of Valabhi . He shifted his capital from Giringer to Valabhi , near Bhavnagar , on Saurashtra's east coast. The Maitrakas of Vallabhi became very powerful with their rule prevailing over large parts of Gujarat and adjoining Malwa . A university
4680-566: The ASI attempted to "Indianise" archaeological work in keeping with the new nation's goals of national unity and historical continuity, in Pakistan the national imperative was the promotion of Islamic heritage, and consequently archaeological work on early sites was left to foreign archaeologists. After the partition, Mortimer Wheeler, the Director of ASI from 1944, oversaw the establishment of archaeological institutions in Pakistan, later joining
4800-567: The Company any historical artifacts acquired during his travels. Masson, who had versed himself in the classics , especially in the military campaigns of Alexander the Great , chose for his wanderings some of the same towns that had featured in Alexander's campaigns, and whose archaeological sites had been noted by the campaign's chroniclers. Masson's major archaeological discovery in the Punjab
4920-611: The Dutch, French, English and Portuguese all established bases along the western coast of the region. Portugal was the first European power to arrive in Gujarat, and after the Battle of Diu , acquired several enclaves along the Gujarati coast, including Daman and Diu as well as Dadra and Nagar Haveli . These enclaves were administered by Portuguese India under a single union territory for over 450 years, only to be later incorporated into
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5040-991: The Early Harappan, Mature Harappan, and Late Harappan phases. Mehrgarh is a Neolithic (7000 BCE to c. 2500 BCE ) mountain site in the Balochistan province of Pakistan , which gave new insights on the emergence of the Indus Valley Civilisation. Mehrgarh is one of the earliest sites with evidence of farming and herding in South Asia . Mehrgarh was influenced by the Near Eastern Neolithic, with similarities between "domesticated wheat varieties, early phases of farming, pottery, other archaeological artefacts, some domesticated plants and herd animals." Jean-Francois Jarrige argues for an independent origin of Mehrgarh. Jarrige notes "the assumption that farming economy
5160-790: The European Middle Ages . The oldest written record of Gujarat's 2,000-year maritime history is documented in a Greek book titled The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea : Travel and Trade in the Indian Ocean by a Merchant of the First Century . In the early 8th century, the Arabs of the Umayyad Caliphate established an empire in the name of the rising religion of Islam , which stretched from Spain in
5280-448: The Ghaggar-Hakra system might yield more sites than the Indus river basin. According to archaeologist Ratnagar, many Ghaggar-Hakra sites in India and Indus Valley sites in Pakistan are actually those of local cultures; some sites display contact with Harappan civilisation, but only a few are fully developed Harappan ones. As of 1977, about 90% of the Indus script seals and inscribed objects discovered were found at sites in Pakistan along
5400-558: The Harappan civilisation lasted from c. 2600 –1900 BCE. With the inclusion of the predecessor and successor cultures – Early Harappan and Late Harappan, respectively – the entire Indus Valley Civilisation may be taken to have lasted from the 33rd to the 14th centuries BCE. It is part of the Indus Valley Tradition, which also includes the pre-Harappan occupation of Mehrgarh, the earliest farming site of
5520-585: The Hindu metropolis of Anhilwara and incorporated Gujarat into the Delhi Sultanate . After Timur sacked Delhi at the end of the 14th century, weakening the Sultanate, Gujarat's Muslim Khatri governor Zafar Khan Muzaffar ( Muzaffar Shah I ) asserted his independence, and his son, Sultan Ahmed Shah (ruled 1411–1442), established Ahmedabad as the capital. Khambhat eclipsed Bharuch as Gujarat's most important trade port. Gujarat's relations with Egypt , which
5640-571: The Indus Civilization , London: Arthur Probsthain, 1931. The first modern accounts of the ruins of the Indus civilisation are those of Charles Masson , a deserter from the East India Company 's army. In 1829, Masson traveled through the princely state of Punjab, gathering useful intelligence for the Company in return for a promise of clemency. An aspect of this arrangement was the additional requirement to hand over to
5760-616: The Indus River Valley site of Mehrgarh and is dated to 7,000 YBP ." The Early Harappan Ravi Phase, named after the nearby Ravi River , lasted from c. 3300 BCE until 2800 BCE. It started when farmers from the mountains gradually moved between their mountain homes and the lowland river valleys, and is related to the Hakra Phase , identified in the Ghaggar-Hakra River Valley to
5880-555: The Indus Valley Civilisation, in the Gomal River valley in northwestern Pakistan, at Manda, Jammu on the Beas River near Jammu , and at Alamgirpur on the Hindon River , only 28 km (17 mi) from Delhi. The southernmost site of the Indus Valley Civilisation is Daimabad in Maharashtra . Indus Valley sites have been found most often on rivers, but also on the ancient seacoast, for example, Balakot ( Kot Bala ), and on islands, for example, Dholavira . "Three other scholars whose names I cannot pass over in silence, are
6000-426: The Indus Valley civilisation. The most recent discovery was Gola Dhoro. Altogether, about fifty Indus Valley settlement ruins have been discovered in Gujarat. The ancient history of Gujarat was enriched by the commercial activities of its inhabitants. There is clear historical evidence of trade and commerce ties with Egypt , Bahrain and Sumer in the Persian Gulf during the time period of 1000 to 750 BCE. There
6120-411: The Indus Valley. Several periodisations are employed for the IVC. The most commonly used classifies the Indus Valley Civilisation into Early, Mature and Late Harappan Phase. An alternative approach by Shaffer divides the broader Indus Valley Tradition into four eras, the pre-Harappan "Early Food Producing Era", and the Regionalisation, Integration, and Localisation eras, which correspond roughly with
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#17327986867446240-573: The Indus river, while other sites accounts only for the remaining 10%. By 2002, over 1,000 Mature Harappan cities and settlements had been reported, of which just under a hundred had been excavated, mainly in the general region of the Indus and Ghaggar-Hakra rivers and their tributaries; however, there are only five major urban sites: Harappa , Mohenjo-daro , Dholavira , Ganeriwala and Rakhigarhi . As of 2008, about 616 sites have been reported in India, whereas 406 sites have been reported in Pakistan. Unlike India, in which after 1947,
6360-551: The Kot Diji related material". He sees these areas as "catalytic in producing the fusion from Hakra, Kot Dijian and Amri-Nal cultural elements that resulted in the gestalt we recognize as Early Harappan (Early Indus)." By 2600 BCE, the Early Harappan communities turned into large urban centres. Such urban centres include Harappa , Ganeriwala , Mohenjo-daro in modern-day Pakistan, and Dholavira , Kalibangan , Rakhigarhi , Rupar , and Lothal in modern-day India. In total, more than 1,000 settlements have been found, mainly in
6480-400: The Marathas was fully exploited by the British, who interfered in the affairs of both Gaekwads and the Peshwas. In Saurashtra , as elsewhere, the Marathas were met with resistance. The decline of the Mughal Empire helped form larger peripheral states in Saurashtra, including Junagadh , Jamnagar , Bhavnagar and a few others, which largely resisted the Maratha incursions. In the 1600s,
6600-402: The Mughal Empire free access to the Arabian sea and control over the rich commerce that passed through its ports. The territory and income of the empire were vastly increased. For the best part of two centuries, the independent Khatri Sultanate of Gujarat was the cynosure of its neighbours on account of its wealth and prosperity, which had long made the Gujarati merchant a familiar figure in
6720-443: The Portuguese, and followed by the Dutch and the English. The Peshwas had established sovereignty over parts of Gujarat and collected taxes and tributes through their representatives. Damaji Rao Gaekwad and Kadam Bande divided the Peshwa territory between them, with Damaji establishing the sway of Gaekwad over Gujarat and making Baroda (present day Vadodara in southern Gujarat) his capital. The ensuing internecine war among
6840-414: The Rajput hold over Gujarat would never be restored. Fragments of printed cotton from Gujarat have been discovered in Egypt, providing evidence for medieval trade in the western Indian Ocean. These fragments represent the Indian cotton traded in Egypt during the Fatimid , Ayyubid and Mamluk periods, from the tenth to sixteenth centuries. Similar cotton was also traded as far east as Indonesia. After
6960-408: The alluvial plain of the Indus and its tributaries. In addition, there was a region with disparate flora, fauna, and habitats, up to ten times as large, which had been shaped culturally and economically by the Indus. Around 6500 BCE, agriculture emerged in Balochistan , on the margins of the Indus alluvium. In the following millennia, settled life made inroads into the Indus plains, setting
7080-408: The banks of the Narmada up to the Aparanta region bordering Punjab. In Gujarat, several battles were fought between the Indian dynasties such as the Satavahana dynasty and the Western Satraps. The greatest and the mightiest ruler of the Satavahana dynasty was Gautamiputra Satakarni who defeated the Western Satraps and conquered some parts of Gujarat in the 2nd century CE. The Kshatrapa dynasty
7200-402: The battle at Navsari , where the Arab troops suffered a crushing defeat. In the late 8th century, the Kannauj Triangle period started. The three major Indian dynasties – the northwestern Indian Gurjara-Pratihara dynasty, the southern Indian Rashtrakuta dynasty and the eastern Indian Pala Empire – dominated India from the 8th to 10th centuries. During this period the northern part of Gujarat
7320-482: The citadel representing centralised authority and an increasingly urban quality of life. Another town of this stage was found at Kalibangan in India on the Hakra River. Trade networks linked this culture with related regional cultures and distant sources of raw materials, including lapis lazuli and other materials for bead-making. By this time, villagers had domesticated numerous crops, including peas , sesame seeds , dates , and cotton, as well as animals, including
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#17327986867447440-514: The cities for constructing seals, beads and other objects. Among the artefacts discovered were beautiful glazed faïence beads. Steatite seals have images of animals, people (perhaps gods), and other types of inscriptions, including the yet un-deciphered writing system of the Indus Valley Civilisation . Some of the seals were used to stamp clay on trade goods. Although some houses were larger than others, Indus civilisation cities were remarkable for their apparent, if relative, egalitarianism . All
7560-437: The civilisation may have contained between one and five million individuals during its florescence. A gradual drying of the region during the 3rd millennium BCE may have been the initial stimulus for its urbanisation. Eventually it also reduced the water supply enough to cause the civilisation's demise and to disperse its population to the east. Although over a thousand Mature Harappan sites have been reported and nearly
7680-448: The cracks had started to develop in the edifice of the Mughal Empire in the mid-17th century, the Marathas were consolidating their power in the west, Chatrapati Shivaji , the great Maratha ruler, attacked Surat in southern Gujarat twice first in 1664 and again in 1672. These attacks marked the entry of the Marathas into Gujarat. However, before the Maratha had made inroads into Gujarat, the Europeans had made their presence felt, led by
7800-410: The death rate increased, as the close living conditions of humans and domesticated animals led to an increase in contagious diseases. According to one estimate, the population of the Indus civilisation at its peak may have been between one and five million. During its height the civilisation extended from Balochistan in the west to western Uttar Pradesh in the east, from northeastern Afghanistan in
7920-409: The development of cities. The IVC residents did not develop irrigation capabilities, relying mainly on the seasonal monsoons leading to summer floods. Brooke further notes that the development of advanced cities coincides with a reduction in rainfall, which may have triggered a reorganisation into larger urban centres. According to J.G. Shaffer and D.A. Lichtenstein, the Mature Harappan civilisation
8040-405: The dissolution of the East India Company and the establishment of Crown rule in India , archaeology on the subcontinent became more formally organised with the founding of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). Alexander Cunningham , the Survey's first director-general, who had visited Harappa in 1853 and had noted the imposing brick walls, visited again to carry out a survey, but this time of
8160-541: The earliest and best-known of which is named after Mehrgarh , in Balochistan , Pakistan. Harappan civilisation is sometimes called Mature Harappan to distinguish it from the earlier cultures. The cities of the ancient Indus were noted for their urban planning , baked brick houses, elaborate drainage systems, water supply systems, clusters of large non-residential buildings, and techniques of handicraft and metallurgy . Mohenjo-daro and Harappa very likely grew to contain between 30,000 and 60,000 individuals, and
8280-549: The east, and the Arabian Sea and the Pakistani province of Sindh to the west. Gujarat's capital city is Gandhinagar , while its largest city is Ahmedabad . The Gujaratis are indigenous to the state and their language, Gujarati , is the state's official language. The state encompasses 23 sites of the ancient Indus Valley civilisation (more than any other state). The most important sites are Lothal (the world's first dry dock), Dholavira (the fifth largest site), and Gola Dhoro (where 5 uncommon seals were found). Lothal
8400-642: The fame and reputation of illustrious Islamic scholars, Sufi-saints, merchants and intellectuals from all over the world: Ranel (Rander) is a good town of the Moors , built of very pretty houses and squares. It is a rich and agreeable place ... the Moors of the town trade with Malacca , Bengal , Tawasery (Tannasserim), Pegu , Martaban , and Sumatra in all sort of spices, drugs, silks, musk, benzoin and porcelain. They possess very large and fine ships and those who wish Chinese articles will find them there very completely. The Moors of this place are white and well dressed and very rich they have pretty wives, and in
8520-401: The foot of the Bolan Pass in Balochistan , excavations were carried out in Mehrgarh by French archaeologist Jean-François Jarrige and his team in the early 1970s. The cities of the ancient Indus had "social hierarchies, their writing system, their large planned cities and their long-distance trade [which] mark them to archaeologists as a full-fledged 'civilisation.'" The mature phase of
8640-487: The furniture of these houses have china vases of many kinds, kept in glass cupboards well arranged. Their women are not secluded like other Moors, but go about the city in the day time, attending to their business with their faces uncovered as in other parts. The conquest of the Kingdom of Gujarat marked a significant event of Akbar's reign. Being the major trade gateway and departure harbour of pilgrim ships to Mecca, it gave
8760-433: The general region of the Indus and Ghaggar-Hakra Rivers and their tributaries. A sophisticated and technologically advanced urban culture is evident in the Indus Valley Civilisation, making them the first urban centre in the region. The quality of municipal town planning suggests the knowledge of urban planning and efficient municipal governments which placed a high priority on hygiene , or, alternatively, accessibility to
8880-571: The graves of Mehrgarh beginning in the Togau phase (3800 BCE)." Gallego Romero et al. (2011) state that their research on lactose tolerance in India suggests that "the west Eurasian genetic contribution identified by Reich et al. (2009) principally reflects gene flow from Iran and the Middle East." They further note that "[t]he earliest evidence of cattle herding in South Asia comes from
9000-537: The great emporia of the Indian Ocean that indeed: Cambay is one of the most beautiful cities as regards the artistic architecture of its houses and the construction of its mosques. The reason is that the majority of its inhabitants are foreign merchants, who continually build their beautiful houses and wonderful mosques – an achievement in which they endeavor to surpass each other. Many of these "foreign merchants" were transient visitors, men of South Arabian and Persian Gulf ports, who migrated in and out of Cambay with
9120-620: The height of the Adil Shahi dynasty . At the same time, Zoroastrian high priest Azar Kayvan who was a native of Fars , immigrated to Gujarat founding the Zoroastrian school of illuminationists which attracted key Shi'ite Muslim admirers of the Safavid philosophical revival from Isfahan . Early 14th-century Maghrebi adventurer, Ibn Batuta , who famously visited India with his entourage, recalls in his memoirs about Cambay, one of
9240-411: The houses had access to water and drainage facilities. This gives the impression of a society with relatively low wealth concentration . Archaeological records provide no immediate answers for a centre of power or for depictions of people in power in Harappan society. But, there are indications of complex decisions being taken and implemented. For instance, the majority of the cities were constructed in
9360-478: The lake where an earlier Indian governor had built a dam. Between the decline of Mauryan power and Saurashtra coming under the sway of the Samprati Mauryas of Ujjain , there was an Indo-Greek defeat in Gujarat of Demetrius . In 16th century manuscripts, there is an apocryphal story of a merchant of King Gondophares landing in Gujarat with Apostle Thomas . The incident of the cup-bearer torn apart by
9480-446: The late Mr. R. D. Banerji , to whom belongs the credit of having discovered, if not Mohenjo-daro itself, at any rate its high antiquity, and his immediate successors in the task of excavation, Messrs. M.S. Vats and K.N. Dikshit . ... no one probably except myself can fully appreciate the difficulties and hardships which they had to face in the three first seasons at Mohenjo-daro." — From, John Marshall (ed), Mohenjo-daro and
9600-490: The local population. Despite these reports, Harappa was raided even more perilously for its bricks after the British annexation of the Punjab in 1848–49. A considerable number were carted away as track ballast for the railway lines being laid in the Punjab. Nearly 160 km (100 mi) of railway track between Multan and Lahore , laid in the mid-1850s, was supported by Harappan bricks. In 1861, three years after
9720-530: The manners and customs of the Portuguese ; yet do they regularly learn their manufactures and workmanship, being all very curious and desirous of learning. In fact, the Portuguese take and learn more from them than they from the Portuguese . Indus Valley civilisation The Indus Valley Civilisation ( IVC ), also known as the Indus Civilisation , was a Bronze Age civilisation in
9840-513: The means of religious ritual. As seen in Harappa, Mohenjo-daro and the recently partially excavated Rakhigarhi , this urban plan included the world's first known urban sanitation systems . Within the city, individual homes or groups of homes obtained water from wells . From a room that appears to have been set aside for bathing, waste water was directed to covered drains, which lined the major streets. Houses opened only to inner courtyards and smaller lanes. The housebuilding in some villages in
9960-663: The north to Gujarat state in the south. The largest number of sites are in the Punjab region , Gujarat, Haryana , Rajasthan , Uttar Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir states, Sindh , and Balochistan. Coastal settlements extended from Sutkagan Dor in Western Baluchistan to Lothal in Gujarat. An Indus Valley site has been found on the Oxus River at Shortugai in Afghanistan which is the northernmost site of
10080-516: The one led by Mortimer Wheeler , a new director-general of the ASI appointed in 1944, and including Ahmad Hasan Dani . After the partition of India in 1947, when most excavated sites of the Indus Valley Civilisation lay in territory awarded to Pakistan, the Archaeological Survey of India, its area of authority reduced, carried out large numbers of surveys and excavations along the Ghaggar-Hakra system in India. Some speculated that
10200-498: The outside world had created the legacy of an international transoceanic empire which had a vast commercial network of permanent agents stationed at all the great port cities across the Indian Ocean . These networks extended to the Philippines in the east, East Africa in the west, and via maritime and the inland caravan route to Russia in the north. Tomé Pires , a Portuguese official at Malacca , wrote of conditions during
10320-425: The ports of the Indian Ocean. Gujaratis, including Hindus and Muslims as well as the enterprising Parsi class of Zoroastrians , had been specialising in the organisation of overseas trade for many centuries, and had moved into various branches of commerce such as commodity trade , brokerage , money-changing , money-lending and banking . By the 17th century, Chavuse and Baghdadi Jews had assimilated into
10440-407: The region still resembles in some respects the housebuilding of the Harappans. The ancient Indus systems of sewerage and drainage that were developed and used in cities throughout the Indus region were far more advanced than any found in contemporary urban sites in the Middle East and even more efficient than those in many areas of Pakistan and India today. The advanced architecture of the Harappans
10560-706: The reigns of Mahmud I and Mozaffar II: " Cambay stretches out two arms; with her right arm she reaches toward Aden and with the other towards Malacca" He also described Gujarat's active trade with Goa , the Deccan Plateau and the Malabar . His contemporary, Duarte Barbosa , describing Gujarat's maritime trade, recorded the import of horses from the Middle East and elephants from Malabar, and lists exports which included muslins, chintzes and silks, carnelian, ginger and other spices, aromatics, opium, indigo and other substances for dyeing, cereals and legumes. Persia
10680-480: The rhythm of the monsoons. But others were men with Arab or Persian patronyms whose families had settled in the town generations, even centuries earlier, intermarrying with Gujarati women, and assimilating everyday customs of the Hindu hinterland. The Age of Discovery heralded the dawn of pioneer Portuguese and Spanish long-distance travel in search of alternative trade routes to " the East Indies ", moved by
10800-615: The scholar intellectual Abu Fazl Ghazaruni from Persia who tutored and adopted Abu'l-Fazl ibn Mubarak , author of the Akbarnama . Later, a close alliance between the Ottoman Turks and Gujarati sultans to effectively safeguard Jeddah and the Red Sea trade from Portuguese imperialism , encouraged the existence of powerful Rumi elites within the kingdom who took the post of viziers in Gujarat keen to maintain ties with
10920-612: The second-millennium BCE, which are unrelated to the mature phase of the Indus Valley Civilization. Recent geophysical research suggests that unlike the Sarasvati, described in the Rigveda as a snow-fed river, the Ghaggar-Hakra was a system of perennial monsoon-fed rivers, which became seasonal around the time that the civilisation diminished, approximately 4,000 years ago. The Indus Valley Civilisation
11040-464: The site's two mounds. Farther south, along the main stem of the Indus in Sind province, the largely undisturbed site of Mohenjo-daro had attracted notice. Marshall deputed a succession of ASI officers to survey the site. These included D. R. Bhandarkar (1911), R. D. Banerji (1919, 1922–1923), and M. S. Vats (1924). In 1923, on his second visit to Mohenjo-daro, Baneriji wrote to Marshall about
11160-417: The site, postulating an origin in "remote antiquity", and noting a congruence of some of its artifacts with those of Harappa. Later in 1923, Vats, also in correspondence with Marshall, noted the same more specifically about the seals and the script found at both sites. On the weight of these opinions, Marshall ordered crucial data from the two sites to be brought to one location and invited Banerji and Sahni to
11280-649: The sixth Mughal Emperor, was born in Dahod , Gujarat. He was the third son and sixth child of Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal . At the time of his birth, his father, Shah Jahan, was then the Subahdar (governor) of Gujarat, and his grandfather, Jehangir , was the Mughal Emperor. Before he became emperor, Aurangzeb was made Subahdar of Gujarat subah as part of his training and was stationed at Ahmedabad. Aurangzeb had great love for his place of birth. In 1704, he wrote
11400-618: The social world of the Surat province, later on their descendants would give rise to the Sassoons of Bombay and the Ezras of Calcutta, and other influential Indian-Jewish figures who went on to play a philanthropical role in the commercial development of 19th-century British Crown Colony of Shanghai . Spearheaded by Khoja , Bohra , Bhatiya shahbandars and Moorish nakhudas who dominated sea navigation and shipping, Gujarat's transactions with
11520-412: The stage for the growth of rural and urban settlements. The more organized sedentary life, in turn, led to a net increase in the birth rate. The large urban centres of Mohenjo-daro and Harappa very likely grew to containing between 30,000 and 60,000 individuals, and during the civilisation's florescence, the population of the subcontinent grew to between 4–6 million people. During this period
11640-518: The sultans of Gujarat possessed ample means to sustain lavish patronage of religion and the arts, to build madrasas and ḵānaqāhs, and to provide douceurs for the literati, mainly poets and historians, whose presence and praise enhanced the fame of the dynasty. Even at the time of Tomé Pires ' travel to the East Indies in the early 16th century, Gujarati merchants had earned an international reputation for their commercial acumen and this encouraged
11760-882: The threshold of such a discovery in the plains of the Indus." In the next issue, a week later, the British Assyriologist Archibald Sayce was able to point to very similar seals found in Bronze Age levels in Mesopotamia and Iran, giving the first strong indication of their date; confirmations from other archaeologists followed. Systematic excavations began in Mohenjo-daro in 1924–25 with that of K. N. Dikshit , continuing with those of H. Hargreaves (1925–1926), and Ernest J. H. Mackay (1927–1931). By 1931, much of Mohenjo-daro had been excavated, but occasional excavations continued, such as
11880-551: The total revenue of the whole Portuguese empire in Asia in 1586–87, when it was at its height. Indeed, when the British arrived on the coast of Gujarat, houses in Surat already had windows of Venetian glass imported from Constantinople through the Ottoman empire . In 1514, the Portuguese explorer Duarte Barbosa described the cosmopolitan atmosphere of Rander known otherwise as City of Mosques in Surat province, which gained
12000-593: The trade of gold , silver and spices . In 1497, Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama is said to have discovered the Europe-to-India sea route which changed the course of history, thanks to Kutchi sailor Kanji Malam, who showed him the route from the East African coasts of Mozambique sailing onwards to Calicut off the Malabar coast in India. Later, the Gujarat Sultanate allied with
12120-496: The visit of merchants from Cairo , Armenia , Abyssinia , Khorasan , Shiraz , Turkestan and Guilans from Aden and Hormuz. Pires noted in his Suma Orientale : These [people] are [like] Italians in their knowledge of and dealings in merchandise ... they are men who understand merchandise; they are so properly steeped in the sound and harmony of it, that the Gujaratees say that any offence connected with merchandise
12240-587: The west to Afghanistan and modern-day Pakistan in the east. Al-Junaid, the successor of Qasim , finally subdued the Hindu resistance within Sindh and established a secure base. The Arab rulers tried to expand their empire southeast, which culminated in the Caliphate campaigns in India fought in 730; they were defeated and expelled west of the Indus river, probably by a coalition of the Indian rulers Nagabhata I of
12360-472: The west, and predates the Kot Diji Phase (2800–2600 BCE, Harappan 2), named after a site in northern Sindh , Pakistan, near Mohenjo-daro . The earliest examples of the Indus script date to the 3rd millennium BCE. The mature phase of earlier village cultures is represented by Rehman Dheri and Amri in Pakistan. Kot Diji represents the phase leading up to Mature Harappan, with
12480-568: Was "a fusion of the Bagor, Hakra, and Kot Diji traditions or 'ethnic groups' in the Ghaggar-Hakra valley on the borders of India and Pakistan". Also, according to a more recent summary by Maisels (2003), "The Harappan oecumene formed from a Kot Dijian/ Amri-Nal synthesis". He also says that, in the development of complexity, the site of Mohenjo-daro has priority, along with the Hakra-Ghaggar cluster of sites, "where Hakra wares actually precede
12600-618: Was Harappa, a metropolis of the Indus civilisation in the valley of Indus's tributary, the Ravi river . Masson made copious notes and illustrations of Harappa's rich historical artifacts, many lying half-buried. In 1842, Masson included his observations of Harappa in the book Narrative of Various Journeys in Baluchistan, Afghanistan, and the Punjab . He dated the Harappa ruins to a period of recorded history, erroneously mistaking it to have been described earlier during Alexander's campaign. Masson
12720-516: Was a succession of various polities such as the Mauryan dynasty , Satavahana dynasty , Gupta Empire , Gurjara-Pratihara Empire, as well as regional ones such as the Western Satraps , the Kingdom of Valabhi , the Kingdom of Gujarat , the Sultanate of Gujarat and finally the Kingdom of Baroda . The early history of Gujarat includes the imperial grandeur of Chandragupta Maurya who conquered
12840-690: Was an early point of contact with the west, and the first British commercial outpost in India was in Gujarat. 17th-century French explorer François Pyrard de Laval , who is remembered for his 10-year sojourn in South Asia, bears witness in his account that the Gujaratis were always prepared to learn workmanship from the Portuguese, and in turn imparted skills to the Portuguese: I have never seen men of wit so fine and polished as are these Indians: they have nothing barbarous or savage about them, as we are apt to suppose. They are unwilling indeed to adopt
12960-551: Was captured by the Indian ruler Tailapa II of the Western Chalukya Empire . Zoroastrians from Greater Iran migrated to the western borders of India (Gujarat and Sindh ) during the 8th or 10th century, to avoid persecution by Muslim invaders who were in the process of conquering Iran. The descendants of those Zoroastrian refugees came to be known as the Parsi . Subsequently, Lāṭa in southern Gujarat
13080-499: Was found in Banawali , which was probably used for testing the purity of gold (such a technique is still used in some parts of India). The people of the Indus civilisation achieved great accuracy in measuring length, mass, and time. They were among the first to develop a system of uniform weights and measures. A comparison of available objects indicates large scale variation across the Indus territories. Their smallest division, which
13200-407: Was impressed by the site's extraordinary size and by several large mounds formed from long-existing erosion. Two years later, the Company contracted Alexander Burnes to sail up the Indus to assess the feasibility of water travel for its army. Burnes, who also stopped in Harappa, noted the baked bricks employed in the site's ancient masonry, but noted also the haphazard plundering of these bricks by
13320-594: Was introduced full-fledged from Near-East to South Asia," and the similarities between Neolithic sites from eastern Mesopotamia and the western Indus valley, which are evidence of a "cultural continuum" between those sites. But given the originality of Mehrgarh, Jarrige concludes that Mehrgarh has an earlier local background, and is not a "'backwater' of the Neolithic culture of the Near East". Lukacs and Hemphill suggest an initial local development of Mehrgarh, with
13440-477: Was one of the main central areas of the Indus Valley civilisation, which is centred primarily in modern Pakistan . It contains ancient metropolitan cities from the Indus Valley such as Lothal , Dholavira and Gola Dhoro . The ancient city of Lothal was where India's first port was established. The ancient city of Dholavira is one of the largest and most prominent archaeological sites in India, belonging to
13560-465: Was replaced by the Gupta Empire with the conquest of Gujarat by Chandragupta Vikramaditya . Vikramaditya's successor Skandagupta left an inscription (450 CE) on a rock at Junagadh which gives details of the governor's repairs to the embankment surrounding Sudarshan lake after it was damaged by floods. The Anarta and Saurashtra regions were both parts of the Gupta empire. Towards the middle of
13680-694: Was roughly contemporary with the other riverine civilisations of the ancient world: Ancient Egypt along the Nile , Mesopotamia in the lands watered by the Euphrates and the Tigris , and China in the drainage basin of the Yellow River and the Yangtze . By the time of its mature phase, the civilisation had spread over an area larger than the others, which included a core of 1,500 kilometres (900 mi) up
13800-632: Was ruled by the Rashtrakuta dynasty until it was captured by the Western Chalukya ruler Tailapa II . The Chaulukya dynasty ruled the Kingdom of Gujarat from 960 to 1243. Gujarat was a major center of Indian Ocean trade, and their capital at Anhilwara ( Patan ) was one of the largest cities in India, with a population estimated at 100,000 in the year 1000. After 1243, the Solankis lost control of Gujarat to their feudatories, of whom
13920-604: Was ruled by the northern Indian Gurjara-Pratihara dynasty and the southern part of Gujarat was ruled by the southern Indian Rashtrakuta dynasty . However, the earliest epigraphical records of the Gurjars of Broach attest that the royal bloodline of the Gurjara-Pratihara dynasty of Dadda I, II and III (650–750) ruled south Gujarat. Southern Gujarat was ruled by the Indian Rashtrakuta dynasty until it
14040-522: Was set up by the Maitrakas, which came to be known far and wide for its scholastic pursuits and was compared with the noted Nalanda University . It was during the rule of Dhruvasena Maitrak that Chinese philosopher-traveler Xuanzang / I Tsing visited in 640 along the Silk Road . Gujarat was known to the ancient Greeks and was familiar with other Western centers of civilisation through the end of
14160-470: Was the destination for many of these commodities, and they were partly paid for in horses and pearls taken from Hormuz . The latter item, in particular, led Sultan Sikandar Lodi of Delhi , according to Ali-Muhammad Khan, author of the Mirat-i-Ahmadi, to complain that the support of the throne of Delhi is wheat and barley but the foundation of the realm of Gujarat is coral and pearls Hence,
14280-500: Was then the Punjab province of British India and is now Punjab, Pakistan . The discovery of Harappa and soon afterwards Mohenjo-daro was the culmination of work that had begun after the founding of the Archaeological Survey of India in the British Raj in 1861. There were earlier and later cultures called Early Harappan and Late Harappan in the same area. The early Harappan cultures were populated from Neolithic cultures,
14400-715: Was then the premier Arab power in the Middle East, remained friendly over the next century and the Egyptian scholar, Badruddin-ad-Damamimi , spent several years in Gujarat in the shade of the Sultan before proceeding to the Bahmani Sultanate on the Deccan Plateau. Shah e Alam , a famous Sufi saint of the Chishti order who was the descendant of Makhdoom Jahaniyan Jahangasht from Bukhara , soon arrived in
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