CHAPTER 4 – History of Junagadh

Chapter outline and page reference:

Pre-History 112
Proto-History 115
Epic Period 116
Maurya Period (322–184 BC) 117
Sunga Period (184–155 BC) 120
Indo-Greek Period (155–95 BC) 121
Indo-Scythian Period (95–49 BC) 122
Indo-Parthian Period (49 BC–78 AD) 122
Western Kshatrap Period (78–399 AD) 123
Sharva Bhattaraka Period (400–415 AD) 127
Gupta Period (415–458 AD) 127
Maitraka Period (458–788 AD) 129
Post-Maitraka Period (788–875 AD) 134
Chudasama Rajput Period (875–1472 AD) 134
Gujarat Sultans Period (1472–1591 AD) 159
Mughal Period (1591–1748 AD) 161
Babi Period (1748–1947 AD) 170
Mohammad Bahadur Khanji I (1748–1758 AD) 173
Mohammad Mahabat Khanji I (1758–1774 AD) 175
Mohammad Hamid Khanji I (1774–1811 AD) 176
Mohammad Bahadur Khanji II (1811–1840 AD) 179
Mohammad Hamid Khanji II (1840–1851 AD) 181
Mohammad Mahabat Khanji II (1851–1882 AD) 182
Mohammad Bahadur Khanji III (1882–1892 AD) 188
Mohammad Rasul Khanji (1892–1911 AD) 190
Mohammad Mahabat Khanji III (1911–1948 AD) 192
Accession of Junagadh to India (1948 AD) 207
Babi Family in Exile 218
Some Indian Language References on Junagadh History 221
Some English Books on Junagadh History 226

Chapter preview (first two pages only):

Figure 20. Monogram of Junagadh State (from Thakkar 2007).

Pre-History
The discovery of stone tools of the Early Paleolithic Age (50,000–100,000 years BP) in the Rajkot, Jamnagar, Surendranagar and Prabhas Patan (near Veraval) districts indicates that humans inhabited the whole of Saurashtra in early prehistoric times. At Prabhas (Somnath) there have been found tools of the Middle Paleolithic Age, dated to 40,000 years BP, as well as microliths from chalcolithic layers of the Late Paleolithic Age, about 4,500 years BP (Rajyagor 1975). Dhavalikar (2003, page 10) pointed out that: ‘…during the third millennium [BC] north Gujarat was an open sandy savanna, with abundant grasslands. Saurashtra was more forested, but with small acacias and tamarisks, and also graced with abundant pasture lands. …there seems to be an emerging picture that village farming communities were being established in Kachchh, Saurashtra and north Gujarat well before the emergence of the Mature Harappan at c. 2550 B.C…’, and also that (page 44): ‘At the beginning of the third millennium and even earlier, in the fourth, the landscape of Kutch, Saurashtra and mainland Gujarat was occupied by the late hunter-gatherers with vast open expanses in between them.’ Dhavalikar (2003, page 43) also noted that Gujarat settlements of the pre-Harappan period as early as the first half of the third millennium or even earlier ‘subsisted on hunting gathering and fishing and coarse grains such as finger millet – ragi (Eleusine coracana), Panicoid grasses (Panicum sp.) and Italian millet – nachni – (Setaria italica). Since these grains also grow naturally even at present, it is not possible to say with certainty whether they were cultivated or whether they consumed those growing in nature’.
Chakrabarti (1992) noted that: ‘In the Girnar hills there are three Acheulian sites, one on the Sherdi,…one in the section of Adi Khadi Wells…and at Joshipura on the Sonarki nullah.’ In fact, Sherdi is not in the Girnar Hills; it is about 35km west of Junagadh. In 1976, Marathe recovered a flake from the basal boulders and gravel of the Uparkot Adichadi Vav or stepwell at Junagadh (Chakrabarti 1983), and an Acheulian handaxe on basalt was recovered from a fanglomerate (sedimentary rock consisting of slightly waterworn, heterogeneous fragments of all sizes, deposited in an alluvial fan and later cemented into a firm rock), about 5 m thick, exposed on the right bank of the Sonarekh Nullah, at Joshipura, near Uparkot. At Joshipura, the fanglomerate rests on Deccan Traps and is conformably overlain by valley fill miliolite grading into wind-borne aeolianite (Joshi et al 1980). Geo-stratigraphically these artefacts are dated to mid-Pleistocene, and techno-morphologically they represent the lower Acheulian character (Chakrabarti 1983). Pappu and Marathe (1982) noted that: ‘…Early Man occupied the slopes of the Girnar hills in southern Saurashtra prior to the first major Quaternary marine transgression. On the basis of typo-technology, this industry appears to be of Early Acheulian tradition and on stratigraphic ground this industry represents earliest human cultures in this part of western India dating back to mid-Pleistocene.’ Baskaran et al (1986) dated a handaxe, recovered from the miliolite formation at Adichadi Vav, to the Acheulian phase, i.e. 69,000 years BP (+ 3,800/– 3,600). Marathe and Rajaguru (1981) suggested that the radiometric dating placed the date as earlier than 95,000 years BP. In a study of inland miliolite formations, the miliolite deposit from the obstacle dune at the base of Girnar Hill was found to have a radiocarbon date of 34,730 Before Present (+ 5700/– 3340) (Agrawal et al 1980). Sankalia (1967, page 230) suggested that: ‘…clues are sufficient to indicate that the interior of Saurashtra was inhabited by men right from the Early Stone Age, that is at least 100,000 years ago’.