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

urban agglomeration An urban area is a human settlement with a high population density and an infrastructure of built environment. Urban areas originate through urbanization, and researchers categorize them as cities, towns, conurbations or suburbs. In urbani ...

in Anand district in the

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

state State most commonly refers to: * State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory **Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country **Nation state, a ...

Gujarat Gujarat () is a States of India, state along the Western India, 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 List of states and union territories ...

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

Surat Surat (Gujarati Language, Gujarati: ) is a city in the western Indian States and territories of India, state of Gujarat. The word Surat directly translates to ''face'' in Urdu, Gujarati language, Gujarati and Hindi. Located on the banks of t ...

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

Gulf of Khambhat The Gulf of Khambhat, also 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 up to wi ...

, 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, akik stone and

kite A kite is a tethered heavier than air flight, heavier-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. Kites often have ...

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. Name Bhil population gave it the name Rajpipla for the ruler resided first under a pipal t ...

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, are an ethno-religious group living mostly in Pakistan. Some Siddis also live in India. They are primarily descended from the Bantu peoples of the Zanj coast in Southeast Africa, most ...

) 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 civilization, Indus Valley civilisation, located in the Bhal region of the Indian state of Gujarat. Construction of the city is believed to have begun around 2200 BCE. Di ...

, 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 (; , ; ; – 160s/170s AD) was a Greco-Roman mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were important to later Byzantine science, Byzant ...

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

believed that the name comes from the

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...

Khambavati or 'City of the Pillar'.

Variants of name

* Cambay

Historical

* Cambaet of

Marco Polo Marco Polo (; ; ; 8 January 1324) was a Republic of Venice, 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 a ...

* Cambaia of Duarte Barbosa * 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 fiber, natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be weaving, woven into textiles. The protein fiber of silk is composed mainly of fibroin and is most commonly produced by certain insect larvae to form cocoon (silk), c ...

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 colo ...

and gold stuffs. The Arab traveler

al-Mas'udi al-Masʿūdī (full name , ), –956, was a historian, geographer and traveler. He is sometimes referred to as the "Herodotus of the Arabs". A polymath and prolific author of over twenty works on theology, history (Islamic and universal), geo ...

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 InterGlobe Aviation Limited (d/b/a IndiGo), is an India, Indian airline headquartered in Gurgaon, Haryana, India. It is the largest List of airlines of India, airline in India by passengers carried and fleet size, with a 64.1% domestic market ...

and fine

buckram Buckram is a stiff cotton, or occasionally, linen or horse hair cloth with a plain, usually loose, weave, produced in various weights similar to muslin and other plain weave fabrics. The fabric is soaked in a sizing agent such as wheat-starch ...

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

Ibn Battuta Ibn Battuta (; 24 February 13041368/1369), was a Maghrebi traveller, explorer and scholar. Over a period of 30 years from 1325 to 1354, he visited much of Africa, the Middle East, Asia and the Iberian Peninsula. Near the end of his life, Ibn ...

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 (name), ...

, mentions that the walls of the city were twelve miles in circumference. The Portuguese explorer Duarte Barbosa 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">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 (, ), also known as Kingdom of Magadazo, was a medieval Muslim Somali-Arab sultanate centered in southern Somalia.M. Elfasi, Ivan Hrbe"Africa from the Seventh to the Eleventh Century", "General History of Africa". Ret ...

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; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

, wax and

ivory Ivory is a hard, white material from the tusks (traditionally from elephants) and Tooth, 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 mamm ...

. 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 ...

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 (), first recorded in ancient India, 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 ...

. The City was celebrated for its manufacture of

agate Agate ( ) is a banded variety of chalcedony. Agate stones are characterized by alternating bands of different colored chalcedony and sometimes include macroscopic quartz. They are common in nature and can be found globally in a large number of d ...

and

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

ornaments, of reputation, principally in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

. 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 is a marketplace consisting of multiple small Market stall, stalls or shops, especially in the Middle East, the Balkans, Central Asia, North Africa and South Asia. They are traditionally located in vaulted or covered streets th ...

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 Jains 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 Akbar (Jalal-ud-din Muhammad Akbar, – ), popularly known as Akbar the Great, was the third Mughal emperor, who reigned from 1556 to 1605. Akbar succeeded his father, Humayun, under a regent, Bairam Khan, who helped the young emperor expa ...

; 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 died 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. Traders generally negotiate through a medium of cr ...

center since the 14th century (Source:

). After 200 years, Duarte Barbosa described Cambay as an important commercial center with

carpets A carpet is a textile floor covering typically consisting of an upper layer of Pile (textile), pile attached to a backing. The pile was traditionally made from wool, but since the 20th century synthetic fiber, synthetic fibres such as polyprop ...

, 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 Khambhat state or Cambay state was a princely state in India during the British Raj. The city of Khambhat in present-day Gujarat was its capital. The state was bounded in the north by the Kaira district ( Kheda) and in the south by the Gul ...

, a princely state of

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance in South Asia. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one form or another ...

. It was the only state in the Kaira Agency of the Gujarat division of the Bombay Presidency. 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 period, early modern empire in South Asia. At its peak, the empire stretched from the outer fringes of the Indus River Basin in the west, northern Afghanistan in the northwest, and Kashmir in the north, to ...

. 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 games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

in India was first played in

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: , ''Marāṭhī lōk'') or Marathis (Marathi: मराठी, ''Marāṭhī'') are an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group who are native to Maharashtra in western India. They natively speak Marathi, an Indo-A ...

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

Peshwa The Peshwa was the second highest office in the Maratha Empire, next in rank and prestige only to that of the Chhatrapati. Initially serving as the appointed prime minister in the Maratha Kingdom, the office became hereditary when Shahu gave t ...

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 . Khambhat has warm and humid climate. It is located on the plains. The land on which Khambhat sits is the silt deposited by the

Mahi River The Mahi (माही नदी) 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 river ...

, 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 and minimum average temperatures are . Summer average maxima are and minima around . In summer, high winds are common. Khambhat coast's tides are among the highest in the world at up to .

Demographics

As of 2011 India

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

, 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. Diamond is tasteless, odourless, strong, brittle solid, colourless in pure form, a poor conductor of e ...

cutting-polishing & colored stone business (mainly

ruby 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 sapph ...

), 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

Ahmedabad Ahmedabad ( ), also spelled Amdavad (), is the most populous city in the Indian state of Gujarat. It is the administrative headquarters of the Ahmedabad district and the seat of the Gujarat High Court. Ahmedabad's population of 5,570,585 ...

Kheda Kheda is a city and a municipality in the Indian state of Gujarat. Kheda was known as Kaira during the British Raj. It was the former administrative capital of Kheda district. The city is known for tobacco farming. The nearest railway statio ...

, Tarapur, Dharmaj, Vataman, Petlad,

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

, Anand (State Highway 16 of Gujarat) Bus Service (GSRTC) Khambhat is well connected to

by GSRTC Bus service route called Ahmedabad - Khambhat.(Via

, Matar, Tarapur) Daily Service To Connect Mega City Of Gujarat.

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 *Vatsalya Institute of Nursing

Tourism

* Babu Shah Baba * Dariyai

Uttarayana The term Uttarāyaṇa (commonly Uttarayanam) is derived from two different Sanskrit words – "uttaram" (North) and "ayanam" (movement) – thus indicating the northward movement of the Sun. In the Gregorian calendar, this pertains to the "actu ...

(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 * 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 one of the founding members of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and served as its President from 1991 to 1993. In addition to his role in the BJP, he has been a lifelong ...

, 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 navigate, measure distances ( ranging), communicate with or detect objects 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 from 2600 BCE ...

. 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