Gujarat
This place is known to be as the ancient landscape in India filled with religious monuments and temples around with great memories of historical values and happenings. The buildings and other monuments express the taste of architecture which compensates modern and ancient artistic touch over its every finish; will be the mark to the state… Gujarat is encamped with gorgeous natural sceneries around with wildlife sanctuaries and hill resorts and religious locations for a visit of surprise and excitement.
The History
Gujarat is considered to be the ancient state of the country, since its establishment over dwellings, people did trade with Sumer, Babylon , Assyria and Egypt and did have wonderful civilization even before Aryans intrude for sojourn. Once upon a time Gujarat was known as ‘Gujjar ratta’ or Gujjar rashtra’ ( a Prakrit word which means “the land of Gujjars”) Gujjars is known to be a tribal name for the people who entered India with Huns during ancient times, they were the wanderers through Punjab and Rajasthan and finally settled subtly at the western India.
The human inheritance in this place did start approximately during the 6th century when the Gupta Empire had its great fall, later Gujarat prospered as an independent Hindu Kingdom of the country. During the 6th – 8th centuries the rulers where Gupta Empire, Maitraka dynasty rulers and Harsha were the occupants at Vallabhi as their capital, later the Arab rulers of Sind conquered Vallabhi during 770 and made an end to Maitraka kingship. After 8th century Pratihara clan ruled Gujarat, in the year 775 there came the first Parsi (Zoroastrian) refugees of Iran arrived here.
From BC 960 to 1243 the Solanki clans of Rajput rulers empowered Gujarat, wherein Gujarat was a major Indian Ocean trade centre, therefore the Rajput rulers made Anhilwara (Patan) as their capital city, this city recorded to be as one of the biggest cities in India, the population reports were more than 100,000 during the year 1000. In the year 1026 the temple of Somnath was destroyed by the Mahmud of Ghazni will be a historical evidence and event. After the year 1243 the Solkanis lost control and were dominated by the Vaghela chiefs of Dholka did take charge over Gujarat. 1292 the Vaghelas came as tributaries of the Yadava dynasty of Devagiri in the deccan.
Ala ud din Khilji, the Sultan of Delhi captured Anhilwara and incorporated Gujarat to the Delhi Sultanate during the year 1297 to 1298, later Timur prevailed over Delhi Sultanate in 14th century until then Zafar Khan Muzaffar the Muslim governor and his son Sultan Ahmed Shah were the rulers during the years of 1411 to 1442 and they did nominate Ahmedabad as the capital of the state, the important trade port Cambay eclipsed Bharuch does exist here and until the Mughal’s conquering during 1576 this Sultanate of Gujarat remained independent, later it became as an annexure to the Akbar’s province until the Marathas conquered the eastern and central Gujarat during the 18th century and the western Gujarat (Kathiawar and Kutch) were divided among numerous local rulers.
The first foreign intrusion to Gujarat was made by the Portuguese who entered through the coastal area by acquiring several enclaves which includes Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli. The British East Indian company established a factory in Surat in the year 1614, this was the strong base for the British to encamp India but it was eclipsed by Mumbai after the British acquired it from Portugal in 1668.But during the Second Anglo-Maratha war the East Indian Company seized control over Gujarat from Marathas and many other local rulers such as Maratha Gaekwads of Baroda (Vadodara) made a separate treaty of peace with the British in occurrence to lead self-rule and retain their kingship.
Those days though there were treaties made on par by the British the Gujarat political authority were governed by the Bombay Presidency, the Baroda state had an exception to relate with the Governor General of India. From 1818 to 1947 and even the present day Gujarat northern and eastern parts of the state includes Kathiawar , Kutch are divided into dozens of princely states, but British officials had direct vigilance over central and southern Gujarat, such as Ahmedabad , Broach(Bharuchi)Kaira, Panch Mahals and Surat.
Gujarat is a state, which could be related to the womb of a motherly state which bear great leaders who was born to this piece of Earth as freedom fighters such as: Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Morarji Desai,K.M.Munshi, Narhari Parikh, Mahadev Desai, Mohanlal Pandya and Ravi shankar Vyas etc; and this piece of land did fought for the peace of the country with great revolts like Satyagrahas in Kheda, Bardoli, Borsad and the Salt- Satyagraha.
1947 this was the year of Independence to the country, the new Indian government classified the former princely states into three main units. Saurashtra, Kathiawar peninsula Kutch and Bombay state which combines Bombay presidency, Baroda state and eastern Gujarat. In the year 1956 the Bombay state where enlarged to Kutch, Saurashtra and Hyderbad state and Madhya Pradesh in central India. The state has two major languages such as Gujarati speaking north and Marathi speaking south. Still there is an agitation by the Marathi nationalists for the split of Bombay state on the grounds of linguistic lines, 1960 1st May, it became as the new states of Gujarat and Maharashtra. The first capital of the state was Ahemdabad and now it is the Gandhi Nagar from the year 1970.
Geography
This huge space of beautiful piece of land to this Earth locates in India with a circumference of 196,000 sq.km, situated on the west coast bounded by the Arabian Sea in the west Pakistan and Rajasathan in the north and north – east, Madhya Pradesh to the south- west and Maharashtra in the south.
The place is inherited with thick population of about 70% of the people are Hindus and the rest are the minority community such as Muslims and Jains, people’s official language is Gujarati and Hindi and they live an urban style of living. While visiting Ahemdabad- Vadodara (Baroda) industrial belt one can experience the turban urban living. The major towns are Rajkot, Junagadh, Bhavnagar and Jamnagar.
The major population is enthralled in agriculture as their occupation, the gross area cropped amounting to about half of the total area. The major crops are wheat and millet is their staple food crops and rice in certain wet areas around. Gujarat is mostly known for its industrial backup to the state with variety of industries.
Kandla is the major important shipping terminal port in Gujarat which links with sea trade throughout the world, the state has several domestic airports and one international airport at Ahemdabad which connects domestic travelers to world wide, the state has 4 national parks and 11 sanctuaries for spotting tourism.