Khambhat

Khambhat ખંભાત Cambay
city
Shivling, Ralaj, Khambhat,
Khambhat
Coordinates: 22°18′N 72°37′E / 22.3°N 72.62°E / 22.3; 72.62Coordinates: 22°18′N 72°37′E / 22.3°N 72.62°E / 22.3; 72.62
Country	India
State	Gujarat
District	Anand
Population (2011)
• Total	93,197
Languages
• Official	Gujarati, Hindi
Time zone	IST (UTC+5:30)

Khambhat, Gujarati:ખંભાત,(Hindi:खंभात) ( pronunciation (help·info)), formerly known as Cambay, is a city and a municipality in Anand district in the Indian state of Gujarat. It was formerly an important trading center, although its harbour has gradually silted up, and the maritime trade has moved elsewhere. Khambhat lies on an alluvial plain at the north end of the Gulf of Khambhat, which is noted for the extreme rise and fall of its tides, which can vary as much as thirty feet in the vicinity of Khambhat. Khambhat is known for its "Halvasan, Sutar feni and Kites (Patang)". And though being a part of various sources of oil and gas, it is not so developed as compared to other cities around.

Khambhat is also well known for its azadari done here, here all Muslims (shia & sunni) and all Hindus unitedly take out the TAZIYA of IMAM HUSSAIN on 10th mohurrum ASHURA. The ZARI MUBARAK of khambhat is very giant as the NAWAB of khambhat has brought it from IRAN by sea.

Origin of name

Some scholars suggest that the name Khambhat/Khambat -the Kambaya/Kanbāya of the Arabic writers^[1] – is connected with the Kambojas, and it is stated to be an apabhraṃśa form of the Sanskrit Kamboja.^[2][3] Some people believe that the town of Khambhat may be the Camanes of Ptolemy. Lieutenant-Colonel James Tod believes that the name comes from the Sanskrit Khambavati or 'City of the Pillar'. One of the most accepted belief is, 'Khambhat' is made up of 2 words 'Khambh' and 'Aayat', Khambh means pole or pillar & Aayat means Import in Gujarati language. So, it is believed that, there has to be some pole, which must have been an identity for this city & as it was a glorious port, import/export trade was at the extreme.

History

Mausoleum of 1st Wali–ul–Hind Moulai Abdullah, Khambat, Gujarat, Era 1050AD-1100AD.

The city of Cambay was an important Indian manufacturing and trading center noted by Marco Polo and illustrated here in the 15th century.

The king of Cambay, painted by the Italian painter, Ludovico di Varthema in the early 16th century.

Cambay was formerly a flourishing city, the seat of an extensive trade, and celebrated for its manufactures of silk, chintz and gold stuffs. The Arab traveller, al-Mas'udi, visited the city in 915 AD, describing it as a very successful port; it was mentioned in 1293 by Marco Polo, who, calling it Cambaet, noted it as a busy port. He mentions that the city had its own king. Indigo and fine buckram were particular products of the region, but much cotton and leather was also exported through Cambay. A contemporary Italian traveller, Marino Sanudo, said that Cambeth was one of India’s main two ocean ports. Another Italian, visiting in about 1440, Niccolò de' Conti, mentions that the walls of the city were twelve miles in circumference.

In 1072, two arab travellers named Moulai Abdullah and Moulai Ahmed from yemen landed at the port of Khambat to envisage the teachings of Islam from Arab countries. The core teachings of Mohammed SAW and Hadith. There Mausoleums of both Moulai Abdullah and Moulai Ahmed are situated in the same place where they lived. Even today the followers are been blessed in Mausoleums. Upon arriving in Khambhat, Abdullah came across a married couple named Kaka and Kaki Akela. A well on their farm had dried up, but Abdullah reportedly performed a miracle and the well filled with water. Amazed by this, the couple became the first to accept Fatimid Islam in India, and thus the earliest Bohras. Kaka akela and Kaki akela were the first to become mumin in Hind on hands of Moulai Abdullah. Kaka akela and Kaki akela Mausoleum are situated near about 2 KM from city with a cool breezing atmosphere at there farms. ^[4]

The Portuguese explorer Duarte Barbosa visited the city, which he calls Cambaia, in the early sixteenth century.^[5] His description of the city is very full, he states:

"Entering by Cuindarim,^[6] which is the internal river, there is great and beautiful city that they call Cambaia, populated by Mouros (Muslims) and Hindus (Gentios). It has many beautiful houses, very high with windows, and covered with tiles in our manner. The streets are laid out well, with pretty squares and large buildings." He describes the city as very busy and affluent, with merchants coming frequently by sea from the world around.

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 town became poor and dilapidated. The spring tides rise upwards of 30 ft (10 m), and in a channel usually so shallow form a serious danger to shipping. By 1900, the trade was chiefly confined to the export of cotton. The town was celebrated for its manufacture of agate and carnelian ornaments, of reputation, principally in China.

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, 3 miles (5 km) in circumference, which formerly surrounded the town, enclose four large reservoirs of good water and three bazaars. To the southeast there are very extensive ruins of subterranean temples and other buildings half-buried in the sand by which the ancient town was overwhelmed. These temples belong to the Jains, and contain two massive statues of their deities, the one black, the other white. The principal one, as the inscription intimates, is Pariswanath, or Parswanath, carved in the reign of the emperor Akbar; the black one has the date of 1651 inscribed.

Princely State of Cambay

Cambay was the capital of a princely state of British India within the Gujarat division of Bombay. It had an area of 350 square miles (906 km²). It was founded in 1730, the time of the dismemberment of the Mughal empire. Its Nawabs were descended from Mumin Khan, the last of the Mughal governors of Gujarat, who in 1742 defeated his brother-in-law, Nizam Khan, governor of Khambhat, and established himself there.^[7]

In 1780 Cambay was taken by the army of general Goddard Richards, and was restored to the Marathas in 1783, and was afterwards ceded to the British by the Peshwa under the treaty of 1803. It was provided with a railway in 1901.

The Nawabs of Cambay are as below

• 1735 - 1742 Ja`far Nizam-e Sani Mu´min Khan I
• 1742 - 1743 Nur ad-Din Muftakher Khan
• 1743 - 1784 Najm ad-Dowla Ja`far Mu´min Khan II
• 1784 - 1790 Mohammad Qoli Khan
• 1790 - 28 Oct 1823 Fath `Ali Khan
• 1823 - 1841 Banda `Ali Khan
• 1841 - Apr 1880 Hosayn Yawar Khan I
• 1880 - 21 Jan 1915 Najib ad-Dowla Mumtaz al-Molk Ja`far `Ali Khan (b. 1848 - d. 1915)
• 21 Jan 1915 - 15 Aug 1947 Nizam ad-Dowla Najm ad-Dowla Mumtaz al-Molk Hosayn Yawar Khan II (b. 1911)

Geography

Khambhat is located at 22°18′N 72°37′E / 22.3°N 72.62°E / 22.3; 72.62.^[8] It has an average elevation of 8 metres (26 feet). Khambhat has warm & humid climate. It is located on the plains. The land on which Khambhat sits right now is the silt deposited by Mahi river, so Khambhat has got very fertile & wet soil. Soil over here is Coastal Alluvial. 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 muggy climate for most part of the year except winters. Sometimes Khambhat receives heavy rain. And sometimes surrounding areas gets affected from the floods in Mahi river. October to February is winter. max. average temperature remains 25 to 30 and min. average temperature goes until 10 to 12. Summer max. average temperature remains 38 and minimum remains around 22. In summer, wind blows high. Khambhat coast's tides are the highest in the world. It goes high up to 35 feet.^[9]

Creative artwork in a mosque

Demographics

As of 2001 India census,^[10] Khambhat had a population of 80,439. 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

The business has declined due to the salty water which is not feasible for the industries. The local government is stagnant and it is not doing enough to revive the business in the town. Also despite of making repeated requests by the people of Khambhat to the state government to restart port in Khambhat, nothing has been done so far. Mostly here the people have agate business, color stone business (mainly ruby) and have shops which sells eatables and house hold products.

Additional information

In May 2001, India's Union Minister for Human Resource Development, Science and Technology division, Murli Manohar Joshi, announced that the ruins of an ancient civilization had been discovered off the coast of Gujarat, in the Gulf of Khambhat. The site was discovered by NIOT while they performed routine pollution studies using sonar, 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.^[11] Further descriptions of the site by Joshi describe it as containing regularly spaced dwellings, a granary, a bath, a citadel, and a drainage system.^[12]

References

1. ↑ For instance in al-Risālah of Ibn Baṭūṭah, in which this port is referred to many times as Kanbāya, and also once or twice as Kanbāyat.
2. ↑ See some refs: Epigraphia Indica, Vol XXIV, pp 45–46; Vangar Jatya Itihaas, Rajanya Kanda (in Bengali), Nagendra Nath Vasu; The Spirit of Islam Or the Life and Teachings of Mohammad: or the life and teachings of Mohammed, 2002, p 359, Ameer Ali Syed; Asiatick Researches: Or, Transactions of the Society Instituted in Bengal, for Inquiring Into the..., 1801, p 129, Asiatic Society (Calcutta, India); Encyclopedia of Religions Or Faiths of Man 1906, 2003 Edition, p 282, J. G. R. Forlong; Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, 1990, p 232, Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, Published 1990, Cambridge University, Press for the Royal, Asiatic Society etc.; Cultural History of Northern India, Prior to Medieval Invasion, 1988, p 198, Kamala Chauhan; Ancient Kamboja, People and the Country, 1981, pp 305, 332; Kambojas Through the Ages, 2005, pp 161, 216; Kim (by Rudyard Kipling – 1901), Chapter XI, Page 266, line 23, Notes on the text by Sharad Keskar; Cf: Ancient India, 1956, p 383, Dr R. K. Mukerjee.
3. ↑ A Gazetteer of the World, A Dictionary of Geographical Knowledge, 1856, p 213, Royal Geographical Society (Great Britain), Member of the Royal Geographical Society, Royal Geographical Society Great Britain – Geography.
4. ↑ http://aeatkhambat.org/qcms/?dini-taarikh,17
5. ↑ Livro em que dá relação do que viu e ouviu no Oriente. p. 77 sq.
6. ↑ Is this internal river, the Cuindarim, the Narmada?
7. ↑ http://rulers.org/indstat2.html
8. ↑ Khambhat is located between tropical & subtropical climatic zone.Falling Rain Genomics, Inc – Khambhat
9. ↑ A. S. Unnikrishnan, S. R. Shetye and G. S. Michael. "Tidal propagation in the Gulf of Khambhat, Bombay High, and surrounding areas". Journal of Earth System Science 108 (3): 155–177. 
10. ↑ "Census of India 2001: Data from the 2001 Census, including cities, villages and towns (Provisional)". Census Commission of India. Archived from the original on 2004-06-16. Retrieved 2008-11-01. 
11. ↑ Bavadam, Lyla. "Questionable claims: Archaeologists debunk the claim that underwater structures in the Gulf of Khambat point to the existence of a pre-Harappan civilisation." Frontline 2–15 March 2002. .
12. ↑ Mudur, G.S. "Forgotten Metropolis on Seabed." The Telegraph [Calcutta, India] 19 May 2001. .

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press 

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