Kutiyana is a city and a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

Porbandar district Porbandar district is one of the 33 districts of Gujarat state in western India. The district covers an area of 2,316 km2. It had a population of 5.85,449 of which 48.77% were urban as of the 2011 census. This district was carved out of Juna ...

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 is situated on the banks of Bhadar River.

History

The name of the town is supposedly derived from a

Charan Charan (IAST: Cāraṇ; Sanskrit: चारण; Gujarati: ચારણ; Sindhi: چارڻ; IPA: cɑːrəɳə) is a caste in South Asia natively residing in the Rajasthan and Gujarat states of India, as well as the Sindh and Balochistan prov ...

lady named ''Kunti'', who established a ''nes'' (hamlet) at the location which grew into a village called Kuntiyana, later corrupted to Kutiyana. From a village, Kutiyana developed into a town. Kutiyana was the home of poets Bhat Rao Lakhan, Sorathi Sarasvat Vaikunath, Kshatri Mardash Bhagat, Bhat Thakardas, and Bhat Bhupatsingh. Due to its strategic importance in the medieval period being on the main road to

Porbandar Porbandar is a city and the headquarters of Porbandar district in the Indian state of Gujarat. It is the birthplace of Mahatma Gandhi and Sudama. It was the former capital of the Porbandar State, Porbandar princely state. Porbandar and Chhaya, ...

-Barda and on the boundaries of Ghed and hill regions, the city of Kutiyana has seen many sieges and battles in its history. Kutiyana also came to be known as ''Muzafarabad'' by the

Muslims Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

because it is believed that Muzafar Halim, governor of

Saurashtra Saurashtra, Sourashtra, or variants may refer to: ** Kathiawar, also called Saurashtra Peninsula, a peninsula in western India ** Saurashtra (state), alias United State of Kathiawar, a former Indian state, merged into Bombay State and since its d ...

, made it very popular and built a fort around the town. In contemporary

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

records, the town was named as such. In an inscription of Jamamasjid dated 1539 AD, it is stated that one ''Ibrahim Nizam Zermi'' build a mosque there. In 1730-1740, Kalidas, a baniya of Ahmedabad and an official of Vasantray Purabia, built a citadel called Kalikothi in the town. After the

partition of India The partition of India in 1947 was the division of British India into two independent dominion states, the Dominion of India, Union of India and Dominion of Pakistan. The Union of India is today the Republic of India, and the Dominion of Paki ...

, displaced Hindu migrants from

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

were settled here in place of the Muslim population who chose to migrate to Pakistan. Kutiyana is also the original home of

Mahatma Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (2October 186930January 1948) was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalism, anti-colonial nationalist, and political ethics, political ethicist who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful Indian ...

, whose family held ''barkhali'' lands in the town.

Geography

Kutiyana is located at . It has an average elevation of 30 metres (98 feet). Kutiyana town is spread over almost a 2 km range on the banks of the Bhadar River. Kutiyana is around 42 km away from its district center, Porbandar, and 40 km away from Airport. Kutiyana taluka has 52 villages.

Demographics

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 ...

,{{cite web, url=http://www.censusindia.net/results/town.php?stad=A&state5=999, archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20040616075334/http://www.censusindia.net/results/town.php?stad=A&state5=999, archivedate=2004-06-16, title= Census of India 2001: Data from the 2001 Census, including cities, villages and towns (Provisional), accessdate=2008-11-01, publisher= Census Commission of India Kutiyana had a population of 17,108. Males constitute 51% of the population and females 49%. Kutiyana has an average literacy rate of 63%, higher than the national average of 59.5%: male literacy is 71%, and female literacy is 54%. In Kutiyana, 13% of the population is under 6 years of age.

Towns and villages

* Amar * Kansabad * Katvana * Mandva *Khageshri, India

References

Cities and towns in Porbandar district