Khambhat (, ), also known as Cambay, is a city and the surrounding

urban agglomeration An urban area, built-up area or urban agglomeration is a human settlement with a high population density and infrastructure of built environment. Urban areas are created through urbanization and are categorized by urban morphology as cities, t ...

Anand district Anand District is an administrative district of Gujarat state in western India and whose popular nickname is Charotar. It was carved out of the Kheda district in 1997. Anand is the administrative headquarters of the district. It is bounde ...

in the

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

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 ...

. It was once an important trading center, but its harbour gradually silted up, and the maritime trade moved to

Surat Surat is a city in the western Indian state of Gujarat. The word Surat literally means ''face'' in Gujarati and Hindi. Located on the banks of the river Tapti near its confluence with the Arabian Sea, it used to be a large seaport. It is now ...

. Khambat lies on an alluvial plain at the north end of the

Gulf of Khambhat The Gulf of Khambhat, historically known as the Gulf of Cambay, is a bay on the Arabian Sea coast of India, bordering the state of Gujarat just north of Mumbai and Diu Island. The Gulf of Khambhat is about long, about wide in the north and u ...

, noted for the extreme rise and fall of its tides, which can vary as much as thirty feet in the vicinity of Khambat. Khambat is known for its halvasan sweet,

sutarfeni Sutarfeni (સુતરફેણી) is a Gujarati sweet, made with shredded, all-purpose flour roasted in ghee (clarified butter), blended with melted sugar, and topped with finely chopped pistachios and almonds. The product is typically flavo ...

akik Aqeeq, akik or aqiq ( ar, العقيق) means quartz in Arabic, and agate in Turkish, however in the context of rings usually refers to a ring set with a chalcedony stone. Well-known types of chalcedony are carnelian, agate, and onyx. It is cons ...

stone and

kite A kite is a tethered heavier than air flight, heavier-than-air or lighter-than-air craft with wing surfaces that react against the air to create Lift (force), lift and Drag (physics), drag forces. A kite consists of wings, tethers and anchors. ...

s (patang), and for sources of oil and gas. Khambat is perhaps the only place in India where the Harappan craft of agate bead making is found in the living tradition. Surprisingly Khambat has no stone deposits; the craft has survived mainly through acquiring stones from the

Rajpipla Rajpipla is a town and a municipality in the Narmada district in the Indian state of Gujarat. It was the capital of the former Kingdom of Rajpipla. Geography Rajpipla is located at . It has an average elevation of 148 metres (485 fe ...

hills, about 200 km away from the city. In the folklore of Khambat, the beginning of the craft is attributed to Baba Ghor, a 1500 AD saint from Ethiopia ( Habash) who had led a large contingent of Muslims (

Siddi The Siddi (), also known as the Sheedi, Sidi, or Siddhi, or Habshi are an ethnic group inhabiting India and Pakistan. They are primarily descended from the Bantu peoples of the Zanj coast in Southeast Africa and Ethiopia, most whom arrived to ...

) to settle in the city. However, in the archaeological record the origin of the craft can be traced to nearby

Lothal Lothal () was one of the southernmost sites of the ancient Indus Valley civilisation, located in the Bhāl region of the modern state of Gujarāt. Construction of the city is believed to have begun around 2200 BCE. Archaeological Survey of ...

, a Harappan outpost that flourished about 4000 years ago.

Toponymy

Origin of name

Some people believe that the City of Khambat may be the Camanes of

Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; grc-gre, Πτολεμαῖος, ; la, Claudius Ptolemaeus; AD) was a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist, who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were of importanc ...

James Tod Lieutenant-Colonel James Tod (20 March 1782 – 18 November 1835) was an officer of the British East India Company and an Oriental scholar. He combined his official role and his amateur interests to create a series of works about the his ...

believed that the name comes from the

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

Khambavati or 'City of the Pillar'.

Variants of name

* Cambay

Historical

* Cambaet of

Marco Polo Marco Polo (, , ; 8 January 1324) was a Venetian merchant, explorer and writer who travelled through Asia along the Silk Road between 1271 and 1295. His travels are recorded in ''The Travels of Marco Polo'' (also known as ''Book of the Marv ...

* Cambaia of

Duarte Barbosa Duarte Barbosa (c. 14801 May 1521) was a Portuguese writer and officer from Portuguese India (between 1500 and 1516). He was a Christian pastor and scrivener in a '' feitoria'' in Kochi, and an interpreter of the local language, Malayalam. Barbo ...

* Cambeth of Marino Sanudo * Trambavati of Tod *Kambáya *Combea *Quambaya *Camanes of

History

Illustration of The city of Cambay in the 15th century

Ludovico-di-Varthema-King-of-Khambat-16th-century-India

Cambay was formerly a flourishing city, the seat of an extensive trade, and celebrated for its manufactures of

silk Silk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The protein fiber of silk is composed mainly of fibroin and is produced by certain insect larvae to form cocoons. The best-known silk is obtained from the coc ...

chintz Chintz () is a woodblock printed, painted, stained or glazed calico textile that originated in Golconda (present day Hyderabad, India) in the 16th century. The cloth is printed with designs featuring flowers and other patterns in different colour ...

and gold stuffs. The Arab traveler

al-Mas'udi Al-Mas'udi ( ar, أَبُو ٱلْحَسَن عَلِيّ ٱبْن ٱلْحُسَيْن ٱبْن عَلِيّ ٱلْمَسْعُودِيّ, '; –956) was an Arab historian, geographer and traveler. He is sometimes referred to as the "Herodotus ...

visited the city in 915 AD, describing it as a very successful port; it was mentioned in 1293 by

, who, calling it Cambaet, noted it as a busy port. He mentions that the city had its own king.

Indigo Indigo is a deep color close to the color wheel blue (a primary color in the RGB color space), as well as to some variants of ultramarine, based on the ancient dye of the same name. The word "indigo" comes from the Latin word ''indicum'', m ...

and fine

buckram Buckram is a stiff cotton (occasionally linen or horse hair) cloth with a loose weave, often muslin. The fabric is soaked in a sizing agent such as wheat-starch paste, glue (such as PVA glue), or pyroxylin (gelatinized nitrocellulose, dev ...

were particular products of the region, but much cotton and leather was exported through Cambay. In the early 1340s, the Moroccan traveller

Ibn Battuta Abu Abdullah Muhammad ibn Battutah (, ; 24 February 13041368/1369),; fully: ; Arabic: commonly known as Ibn Battuta, was a Berbers, Berber Maghrebi people, Maghrebi scholar and explorer who travelled extensively in the lands of Afro-Eurasia, ...

remarked on its impressive architecture and cosmopolitan population.

"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 there beautiful houses and wonderful mosques -- an achievement in which they endeavour to surpass each other."

An Italian traveler, Marino Sanudo, said that Cambeth was one of India's main two ocean ports. Another Italian, visiting in about 1440,

Niccolò de' Conti Niccolò is an Italian male given name, derived from the Greek Nikolaos meaning "Victor of people" or "People's champion". There are several male variations of the name: Nicolò, Niccolò, Nicolas, and Nicola. The female equivalent is Nicole. The f ...

, mentions that the walls of the city were twelve miles in circumference. The Kothi gateway traditionally believed to be constructed by an English factory is in fact a 14th-century gate, probably dating to the 1330s, of

Tughluq The Tughlaq dynasty ( fa, ), also referred to as Tughluq or Tughluk dynasty, was a Muslim dynasty of Indo- Turkic origin which ruled over the Delhi sultanate in medieval India. Its reign started in 1320 in Delhi when Ghazi Malik assumed the ...

era. The Portuguese explorer

visited the city, which he calls Cambaia, in the early sixteenth century.''Livro em que dá relação do que viu e ouviu no Oriente''. p. 77 sq. His description of the city is very full. He states:

"Entering by Guindarim andhar_port,_Bharuch.html" ;"title="Bharuch.html" ;"title="andhar port, Bharuch">andhar port, Bharuch">Bharuch.html" ;"title="andhar port, Bharuch">andhar port, Bharuch which is within on the river, there is a great and fair city called Cambaia in which dwell both 'mouros' [Muslims] and 'gentios' [Hindus]. Therein are many fair houses, very lofty, with windows and roofed with tiles in our manner, well laid out with streets and fine open places, and great buildings of stone and mortar."(translation of )

He describes the city as very busy and affluent, with merchants coming frequently by sea from the world around. Duarte Barbosa also noted that many ships from the Kingdom of Cambaya sailed to the

Sultanate of Mogadishu The Sultanate of Mogadishu ( so, Saldanadda Muqdisho, ar, سلطنة مقديشو) (fl.9th- 13th centuries), also known as the Kingdom of Magadazo, was a medieval Somali sultanate centered in southern Somalia. It rose as one of the pre-eminent po ...

in the

Horn of Africa The Horn of Africa (HoA), also known as the Somali Peninsula, is a large peninsula and geopolitical region in East Africa.Robert Stock, ''Africa South of the Sahara, Second Edition: A Geographical Interpretation'', (The Guilford Press; 2004), ...

with cloths and spices for which they in return received

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...

wax Waxes are a diverse class of organic compounds that are lipophilic, malleable solids near ambient temperatures. They include higher alkanes and lipids, typically with melting points above about 40 °C (104 °F), melting to giv ...

and

ivory Ivory is a hard, white material from the tusks (traditionally from elephants) and teeth of animals, that consists mainly of dentine, one of the physical structures of teeth and tusks. The chemical structure of the teeth and tusks of mammals is ...

. Owing principally to the gradually increasing difficulty of access by water by the silting up of the gulf, its commerce has long since fallen away, and the City became poor and dilapidated. The

spring tide Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravitational forces exerted by the Moon (and to a much lesser extent, the Sun) and are also caused by the Earth and Moon orbiting one another. Tide tables ca ...

s rise upwards of 30 ft (10 m) and in a channel usually so shallow that it is a serious danger to shipping. By 1900, the trade was chiefly confined to the export of

cotton Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus ''Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose, and can contain minor perce ...

. The City was celebrated for its manufacture of

agate Agate () is a common rock formation, consisting of chalcedony and quartz as its primary components, with a wide variety of colors. Agates are primarily formed within volcanic and metamorphic rocks. The ornamental use of agate was common in Ancie ...

and

carnelian Carnelian (also spelled cornelian) is a brownish-red mineral commonly used as a semi-precious gemstone. Similar to carnelian is sard, which is generally harder and darker (the difference is not rigidly defined, and the two names are often use ...

ornaments, of reputation, principally in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. The houses in many instances are built of stone (a circumstance which indicates the former wealth of the city, as the material had to be brought from a very considerable distance); and remains of a brick wall, three miles (five km) in circumference, which formerly surrounded the City, enclose four large reservoirs of good water and three

bazaar A bazaar () or souk (; also transliterated as souq) is a marketplace consisting of multiple small Market stall, stalls or shops, especially in the Middle East, the Balkans, North Africa and India. However, temporary open markets elsewhere, suc ...

s. To the southeast there are very extensive ruins of subterranean temples and other buildings half-buried in the sand by which the ancient City was overwhelmed. These temples belong to the

Jain Jainism ( ), also known as Jain Dharma, is an Indian religion. Jainism traces its spiritual ideas and history through the succession of twenty-four tirthankaras (supreme preachers of ''Dharma''), with the first in the current time cycle being ...

s and contain two massive statues of their deities: one black, the other white. The principal one, as the inscription intimates, is Pariswanath or Parswanath, carved in the reign of the emperor

Akbar Abu'l-Fath Jalal-ud-din Muhammad Akbar (25 October 1542 – 27 October 1605), popularly known as Akbar the Great ( fa, ), and also as Akbar I (), was the third Mughal emperor, who reigned from 1556 to 1605. Akbar succeeded his father, Hum ...

; the black one has the date of 1651 inscribed. A few members of Shia community settled in Khambhat during 18th century from Iran. Among these the most known was Nawab Mohammed Jaffar Ali Khan Najamesani and his son Nawab Yavar Ali khan Najamesani. Nawab Yavar Ali khan Najamesani ruled 84 villages when he was crowned as a Nawab. Nawab Yavar Ali Khan was titled Sarkar Sahab (Governing Prince), because he was able to maintain peace and unity. The name Cambay to Khambhat was also given by Nawab Yavar Ali Khan during Pre-independence period. Nawab Yavar Ali Khan passed away in July 1996. His family still lives in Khambhat.

Hub of mercantile activity

The traders and the merchants reached here from across the world. Cambay was known for its cotton and silk cloths. Cambay was one of India's most active

trade Trade involves the transfer of goods and services from one person or entity to another, often in exchange for money. Economists refer to a system or network that allows trade as a market. An early form of trade, barter, saw the direct excha ...

center since the 14th century (Source:

). After 200 years,

described Cambay as an important commercial center with

carpets A carpet is a textile floor covering typically consisting of an upper layer of pile attached to a backing. The pile was traditionally made from wool, but since the 20th century synthetic fibers such as polypropylene, nylon, or polyester have ...

, and other textile goods in Mughal established industries.

Cambay cloth

Cambay was famous for its cloth manufacturing and trading activities. There were certain coarse cotton cloths which were called Cambay cloth. For instance, the checked cloths. There are records of extensive trading of Gujarati Cambay cloth.

Princely State of Cambay

Khambat was the capital of Cambay State, a

princely state A princely state (also called native state or Indian state) was a nominally sovereign entity of the British Raj, British Indian Empire that was not directly governed by the British, but rather by an Indian ruler under a form of indirect rule, ...

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

. It was the only state in the Kaira Agency of the Gujarat division of the

Bombay Presidency The Bombay Presidency or Bombay Province, also called Bombay and Sind (1843–1936), was an administrative subdivision (province) of British India, with its capital in the city that came up over the seven islands of Bombay. The first mainl ...

. It had an area of . It was founded in 1730, at the time of the dismemberment of the

Mughal Empire The Mughal Empire was an early-modern empire that controlled much of South Asia between the 16th and 19th centuries. Quote: "Although the first two Timurid emperors and many of their noblemen were recent migrants to the subcontinent, the d ...

. The Nawabs of Cambay were descendants of Mumin Khan, the last of the Mughal governors of

, who in 1742 defeated his brother-in-law Nizam Khan, governor of Khambhat, and established himself there. The sport of

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

in India was first played in Cambay State in 1721. In 1780 Cambay was taken by the army of general Goddard Richards, but it was restored to the

Maratha The Marathi people (Marathi: मराठी लोक) or Marathis are an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group who are indigenous to Maharashtra in western India. They natively speak Marathi, an Indo-Aryan language. Maharashtra was formed as a M ...

s in 1783. Finally it was ceded to the British by the

Peshwa The Peshwa (Pronunciation: e(ː)ʃʋaː was the appointed (later becoming hereditary) prime minister of the Maratha Empire of the Indian subcontinent. Originally, the Peshwas served as subordinates to the Chhatrapati (the Maratha king); later, ...

under the treaty of 1803. The state was provided with a railway in 1901.

Geography and Climate

Khambhat is at . It has an average elevation of 8 metres (26 feet). Khambhat has warm and humid climate. It is located on the plains. The land on which Khambhat sits is the silt deposited by

Mahi River The Mahi is a river in western India. It rises in Madhya Pradesh and, after flowing through the Vagad region of Rajasthan, enters Gujarat and flows into the Arabian Sea. It is one of the relatively few west-flowing rivers in India, alongside the ...

, so Khambhat has very fertile, wet coastal alluvial soil. The area south of Khambhat is muddy wetlands and then coast line comes. Normally April to June is summer. From July, it rains until September. It has a muggy climate for most of the year except winters. Sometimes Khambhat receives heavy rain, and surrounding areas get affected from floods in the

. Mid November to January is winter, which results in essentially mild cold during the nights and early mornings with warm noons. Maximum average temperatures are 25 to 30 degrees Celsius and minimum average temperatures are 10 to 12 C. Summer maximum average temperatures are 38 C and minimum around 22 C. In summer, high winds are common. Khambhat coast's tides are among the highest in the world. It runs up to 35 feet. Creative artwork in a mosque

Demographics

As of 2011 India

census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses incl ...

, Khambhat had a population of 201,964. Males constitute 52% of the population and females 48%. Khambhat has an average literacy rate of 73%, higher than the national average of 59.5%: male literacy is 78%, and female literacy is 67%. In Khambhat, 10% of the population is under 6 years of age.

Economy

In the 14th and 15th centuries, Khambhat was well known for Muslim gravestones carved in marble which were exported to various locations along the Indian Ocean rim, including Southeast Asia. Many here are in the

business,

diamond Diamond is a Allotropes of carbon, solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Another solid form of carbon known as graphite is the Chemical stability, chemically stable form of car ...

cutting-polishing & colored stone business (mainly

ruby A ruby is a pinkish red to blood-red colored gemstone, a variety of the mineral corundum ( aluminium oxide). Ruby is one of the most popular traditional jewelry gems and is very durable. Other varieties of gem-quality corundum are called sa ...

), and have shops which sell eatables and household products. Kite making is another important business in the City among few particular communities. Fishing and salt harvesting are other businesses some particular communities are occupied with.

Transport

Railway

Khambhat is connected with Anand by Railway Line. Total 8 trains depart per day for Anand.

Road

Khambhat is connected with Tarapur, Dharmaj,

Vataman Vataman or Vataman Chowkdi is a small village in the western state of Gujarat in India, located at a crossroads about an hour and a half from Ahmedabad or Amdavad airport on the road to Palitana. Vataman is famous for its Jain ''derasar''. ...

, Petlad,

Nadiad Nadiad is a city in the state of Gujarat, India and the administrative centre of the Kheda district. The city is managed by the Nadiad Municipality. It is known for the Santram Mandir, the Mai Mandir,

, Anand, undel and Dali by Regional roads.

Schools

Adarsh Saraswati Vidhya Mandir, NAGRA
* Bits Education High School * Chachaldeep Vidyavihar, NANAKALODRA * Dr. J.B. Patel Primary School, ALING * Harsh Balvatika, NANAKALODRA * Jalsan High School, JALSAN * Kendriya Vidyalaya ONGC (CBSE) * Lok Jagruti High School
M.T. High School

Madhavlal Shah High School
* Metpur High School * N.A. Patel Shishuvidhyalay, NANAKALODRA * RC Mission School * S.B. Vakil Primary School (English Medium) * S.D. Kapadiya High School * Shree S.K. Vaghela High School * Shree S.Z. Vaghela High School (Science + Common Stream) * Smt. B.C.J. High School, JALUNDH, PIPLOI * Smt. K.M.J. Patel High School, SAYAMA (Arts + Commerce Stream) * St Xavier's High School (Science + Common Stream) * Supath High School * Vatsalya International School

Colleges

* L.B. Rao Institute of Pharmaceutical Education * Nav Jagruti Arts & Commerce College for Women * R.P. Arts, K.B. Commerce & B.C.J. Science College * Shri M N College of Pharmacy * Smt. B.C.J. College of Education

Tourism

* Babu Shah Baba * Dariyai

Uttarayana The term Uttarāyaṇa (commonly Uttarayan) is derived from two different Sanskrit words – "uttara" (North) and "ayana" (movement) – thus indicating a semantic of the northward movement of the Sun on the celestial sphere. This movement begi ...

(Organized on first Sunday after

at Seashore) * Jain

Derasar A Jain temple, Derasar (Gujarati: દેરાસર) or Basadi (Kannada: ಬಸದಿ) is the place of worship for Jains, the followers of Jainism. Jain architecture is essentially restricted to temples and monasteries, and Jain buildings gen ...

Jami Masjid A congregational mosque or Friday mosque (, ''masjid jāmi‘'', or simply: , ''jāmi‘''; ), or sometimes great mosque or grand mosque (, ''jāmi‘ kabir''; ), is a mosque for hosting the Friday noon prayers known as ''jumu'ah''.* * * * * * * ...

* Saiyed Miran Ali and Wali * Sikotar Mata Mandir, Ralaj * Swaminarayan Mandir * Neja

Marine archeology

In May 2001, India's Union Minister for Human Resource Development, Science and Technology division,

Murli Manohar Joshi Murli Manohar Joshi (born 5 January 1934) is an Indian politician. He is a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of which he was the President between 1991 and 1993, and the former Member of Parliament for Kanpur parliamentary constitue ...

, announced that the ruins of an ancient civilization had been discovered off the coast of Gujarat, in the

. The site was discovered by NIOT while they performed routine pollution studies using

SONAR Sonar (sound navigation and ranging or sonic navigation and ranging) is a technique that uses sound propagation (usually underwater, as in submarine navigation) to navigation, navigate, measure distances (ranging), communicate with or detect o ...

, and was described as an area of regularly spaced geometric structures. It is located 20 km from the Gujarat coast, spans 9 km, and can be found at a depth of 30–40 meters. In his announcement, Joshi represented the site as an urban settlement that pre-dates the

Indus Valley civilization The Indus Valley Civilisation (IVC), also known as the Indus Civilisation was a Bronze Age civilisation in the northwestern regions of South Asia, lasting from 3300 BCE to 1300 BCE, and in its mature form 2600 BCE to 1900&n ...

. However, these claims were made without the backing of any experts and have since been debunked by prominent archaeologists.Bavadam, Lyla. "Questionable claims: Archaeologists debunk the claim that underwater structures in the Gulf of Khambhat point to the existence of a pre-Harappan civilisation." ''Frontline'' 2–15 March 2002

References

External links

* {{Authority control Gulf of Khambhat Cities and towns in Anand district