Sanjan is a town situated in
Umargam
Umargam ( IAST: ''Umargām''), also known as Umbergaon ( IAST: ''Umbargāv'') is a census town and Municipality in the Indian state of Gujarat. The town is known for its beaches, its tourist attractions, and its film industry. In 2017, the tow ...
taluka in the
Valsad district
Valsad district is one of the 33 districts in the Western Indian state of Gujarat. It is bound by Navsari district to the north, Nashik district of Maharashtra state to the east, and Dadra and Nagar Haveli district of the Dadra and Nagar Haveli ...
in the state of
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 ...
,
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 ...
. Sanjan is located around 70 km from the
Valsad
Valsad (Pronunciation: alsɑɖ (Gujarati: વલસાડ), historically known as Bulsar, is a city and a municipality in Valsad district of the Indian state of Gujarat. It is the district headquarters of Valsad district. The city of Valsad ...
city. It is the earliest settlement of the
Parsis
Parsis () or Parsees are an ethnoreligious group of the Indian subcontinent adhering to Zoroastrianism. They are descended from Persians who migrated to Medieval India during and after the Arab conquest of Iran (part of the early Muslim co ...
in India.
Geography
Sanjan Bandar, also called old Sanjan is the initial settlement. Sanjan is situated on the banks of
Maroli River.
Transport
The town is served by
Sanjan railway station which lies on
New Delhi–Mumbai main line
The Delhi–Mumbai line is a major railway line in India. Linking the national capital of New Delhi with financial capital Mumbai, this railway line covers a distance of across the Indian states of Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Prades ...
. The nearest airport is
Surat Airport in
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 ...
.
History
Sanjan is believed to have been founded by
Zoroastrian
Zoroastrianism is an Iranian religion and one of the world's oldest organized faiths, based on the teachings of the Iranian-speaking prophet Zoroaster. It has a dualistic cosmology of good and evil within the framework of a monotheistic on ...
refugees who sought asylum in Gujarat in 698 AD. A widely believed legend is that the Zoroastrians were offered a filled pot of milk by
Jadi Rana, the King of Sanjan to signify that his kingdom was full. In response, the Zoroastrians poured sugar into the milk without spilling any milk, stating they would adapt to the kingdom and cause no disorder, to which the King agreed.
[ Those Zoroastrians, whose descendants are today known as the ]Parsis
Parsis () or Parsees are an ethnoreligious group of the Indian subcontinent adhering to Zoroastrianism. They are descended from Persians who migrated to Medieval India during and after the Arab conquest of Iran (part of the early Muslim co ...
(since they came from Pars/Persia), are thought to have named the settlement after Sanjan in Greater Khorasan, the city of their origin.[
Sanjan was captured by ]Mahmud Begada
Sultan Mahmud Begada or Mahmud Shah I (), was the most prominent Sultan of the Gujarat Sultanate. Raised to the throne at young age, he successfully captured Pavagadh and Junagadh forts in battles which gave him his name ''Begada''. He establishe ...
of the Delhi Sultanate
The Delhi Sultanate was an Islamic empire based in Delhi that stretched over large parts of the Indian subcontinent for 320 years (1206–1526). in the 1480s.[ Later, Sanjan was captured and became part of the Portuguese Northern Provinces until it was captured by the Marathas under ]Chimaji Appa
Chimaji Balaji Bhat was born in a Chitpavan caste family in 1707 and died in 1740, commonly referred to as Appa or Bhau, was the son of Balaji Vishwanath Bhat and the younger brother of Bajirao Peshwa of Maratha Empire. He was an able military ...
in his campaign against the Portuguese (1733–39). Sanjan fell to British forces during 18th century. It became part of Bombay State
Bombay State was a large Indian state created at the time of India's Independence, with other regions being added to it in the succeeding years. Bombay Presidency (roughly equating to the present-day Indian state of Maharashtra, excluding Sou ...
upon independence of India, and later became part of 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 ...
.
Excavations
From 2002 to 2004, the World Zarathushti Cultural Foundation (WZCF) (Mumbai) and the Indian Archaeological Society (IAS) (New Delhi), conducted three seasons of archaeological excavations at the ancient mounds immediately North and East of Sanjan Bandar. The excavation Directors were (late) Dr S P Gupta of the IAS and Dr Kurush F Dalal. Three years (2002, 2003 & 2004) of excavations have revealed a large city (approx 2 km x 1 km) on the banks of the Varoli Creek/River which was occupied from the 8th to the 13th centuries AD. The houses were made of burnt brick and had solid stone foundations, they were equipped with sophisticated drainage in the form of adjacent Ringwells. That the city was involved directly in the trade activities of the Indian Ocean littoral is evidenced by the large amounts of West Asian and Chinese ceramics as also by the numerous numismatic finds and the large amounts of West Asia
Western Asia, West Asia, or Southwest Asia, is the westernmost subregion of the larger geographical region of Asia, as defined by some academics, UN bodies and other institutions. It is almost entirely a part of the Middle East, and includes Ana ...
n glassware and beads.[ West Asian ceramics identified for the first time include Sassanian-Islamic Turquoise Glazed Ware, ]sgraffito
''Sgraffito'' (; plural: ''sgraffiti'') is a technique either of wall decor, produced by applying layers of plaster tinted in contrasting colours to a moistened surface, or in pottery, by applying to an unfired ceramic body two successive laye ...
ware, Kashan Lustre ware, Tin glazed ware and other associated wares like Celadon
''Celadon'' () is a term for pottery denoting both wares glazed in the jade green celadon color, also known as greenware or "green ware" (the term specialists now tend to use), and a type of transparent glaze, often with small cracks, that wa ...
. Chinese wares like eggshell ware, Yeuh and Qingbai
Qingbai ware (青白 qīngbái „green-white“, formerly "Ch'ing-pai" etc.) is a type of Chinese porcelain produced under the Song Dynasty and Yuan dynasty, defined by the ceramic glaze used. Qingbai ware is white with a blue-greenish tint, an ...
porcelains and glazed stoneware were also recovered though in smaller numbers. The ceramics were studied and published by Dr. Rukshana Nanji. The published report is the first volume in the Sanjan Excavation Report Series. The glass was studied by Ms. Rhea Mitra-Dalal. Human remains were studied by Dr Veena Mushrif-Tripathi and published as the second volume in the series. The site has also yielded the first definitive proof of Parsi (Zoroastrian) occupation at Sanjan in the form of a '' dokhma'' or Tower of Silence
A ''dakhma'' ( fa, دخمه), also known as a Tower of Silence, is a circular, raised structure built by Zoroastrians for excarnation (that is, the exposure of human corpses to the elements for decomposition), in order to avert contamina ...
(a uniquely Zoroastrian mortuary structure). The excavations and explorations have also yielded art historical data in the form of Hindu (Shilahara
The Shilahara Kingdom ( IAST: Śilāhāra; also Sinhara, Shailahara, Shrilara, and Silara) was a royal dynasty that established itself in northern and southern Konkan in 8th century CE, present-day Mumbai and Southern Maharashtra (Kolhapur) d ...
Period) sculptural and structural remains.[
]
See also
* Qissa-i Sanjan
The Story of Sanjan (also ''Qissa-i Sanjan'' or ''Kisse-i Sanjan'') ( fa, قصه سنجان, gu, કિસે સનજાન/કિસ્સા-એ-સંજાણ) is an account of the early years of Zoroastrian settlers on the Indian subcontin ...
, an account of the early years of Zoroastrian settlers in India.
* Sanjan Stambh
Sanjan Stambh is a memorial column at Sanjan in Gujarat, which commemorates the arrival of Zoroastrians there eleven centuries ago as a group of shipwrecked migrants who had fled Muslim persecution after the downfall of the Persian Empire and ...
* Jadi Rana
References
{{reflist
Cities and towns in Valsad district
8th-century establishments in India
Zoroastrianism in India
Parsi culture
Parsi people