59-563: Mindhola River is a river in western India in Gujarat whose origin is near Doswada, Songadh . Its basin has a maximum length of 105 km (65 mi). The total catchment area of the basin is 1,518 km (586 sq mi). This article about a location in the Indian state of Gujarat is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This article related to a river in India
118-572: 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
177-486: 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
236-590: 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
295-591: 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
354-651: 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
413-459: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . 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) is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat
472-558: 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
531-610: 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
590-468: 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 ,
649-533: 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
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#1732779921639708-533: 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 the east, and the Arabian Sea and the Pakistani province of Sindh to
767-655: 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
826-648: 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
885-699: 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
944-634: 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
1003-713: 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
1062-732: 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
1121-516: 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
1180-611: 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
1239-790: 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
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#17327799216391298-585: 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
1357-547: 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
1416-680: 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,
1475-520: 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
1534-496: 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
1593-573: 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
1652-699: 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
1711-469: 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
1770-560: 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
1829-745: 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
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1888-487: 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
1947-537: 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
2006-620: 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
2065-478: 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
2124-565: 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 . List of Indian states and territories by Human Development Index Too Many Requests If you report this error to the Wikimedia System Administrators, please include
2183-498: 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
2242-425: 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
2301-766: 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
2360-480: 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
2419-615: 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
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2478-478: 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
2537-460: 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
2596-459: 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
2655-445: 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
2714-400: 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
2773-438: 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
2832-427: 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
2891-474: 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
2950-406: 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
3009-574: 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
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#17327799216393068-425: 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
3127-417: 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
3186-405: 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
3245-451: 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
3304-412: 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
3363-409: 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
3422-406: 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,
3481-422: 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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