Jakhau (''Ja-kha-oo'', pronounced as Ja-kho by locals) is a village in

Gujarat Gujarat (, ) is a state along the western coast of India. Its coastline of about 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 ; and the ninth ...

, western India. Administratively, it is under Abdasa Taluka, Kutch District, of Gujarat. Jakhau is 17 km by road west-southwest of

Naliya Naliya is a town, which is also the taluka headquarters of Abdasa Taluka of Kutch District, Gujarat, India. It is located on the western end of Kutch 19 km by road from ancient port of Jakhau. History Naliya was a prosperous trading town ...

, the taluka headquarters. Jakhau Salt, the port of Jakhau, is situated a further 15 km westwards.

History

The village and port are named after the legendary Jakh Botera who were shipwrecked on the Kutch coast and came ashore at Jakhau. Variously described as tall and fair-complexioned with an advanced culture (hence why locals name them Yakshas-demigods), their traditional number is 72 with at least one woman. Their origins are obscure-but one school of thought is that they were of Zoroastrian Irani or Parsi origins and good at horsemanship, medicine and archery. One cruel king puanra is said to have been controlled/put to an end by them-thus they attained gods status in region. In the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

, Jakhau was a thriving port and

warehousing A warehouse is a building for storing goods. Warehouses are used by manufacturers, importers, exporters, wholesalers, transport businesses, customs, etc. They are usually large plain buildings in industrial parks on the outskirts of cities, tow ...

village. However, as Godia Creek silted up and ships increased in size, trade went to the dredged port at

Mandvi Mandvi is a Beach town with municipality in the Kutch district in the Indian state of Gujarat. It was once a major port of the region and summer retreat for Maharao (king) of the Cutch State. The old city was enclosed in the fort wall and remai ...

instead and south to

Bombay Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second-m ...

(now Mumbai). Exports were mostly salt cotton, millet, and

castor bean oil Castor oil is a vegetable oil pressed from castor beans. It is a colourless or pale yellow liquid with a distinct taste and odor. Its boiling point is and its density is 0.961 g/cm3. It includes a mixture of triglycerides in which about ...

and later cloth and tobacco, while imports were mostly rice, lumber and dried fruit, and some sugar. The

1998 Gujarat cyclone The 1998 Gujarat cyclone (Joint Typhoon Warning Center designation: 03A; India Meteorological Department designation: ARB 02) was a catastrophic tropical cyclone that killed at least 10,000 people in India, especially the state of Gujarat. Meteo ...

helped to further destroy the port. The major occupation is now fishing.

Demographics

In the 2001 census, the village of Jakhau had 4,076 inhabitants, with 2,032 males (49.9%) and 2,044 females (50.1%), for a gender ratio of 1006 females per thousand males.

Notes

Villages in Kutch district {{Kachchh-geo-stub

History

Demographics

See also

Notes