Chapter I · BOUNDARIES AND NAME.
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Chapter I. Boundaries. The portion of the Bombay Presidency known as Gujarát fills the north-east corner of the coast of Western India.
On the west is the Arabian Sea; on the north-west is the Gulf of Cutch. To the north lie the Little Ran and the Mevád desert; to the north-east Ábu and other outliers of the Árávali range. The east is guarded and limited by rough forest land rugged in the north with side spurs of the Vindhyas, more open towards the central natural highway from Baroda to Ratlám, and southwards again rising and roughening into the northern offshoots from the main range of the Sátpudás. The southern limit is uncertain. History somewhat doubtfully places it at the Tápti. Language carries Gujarát about a hundred miles further to Balsár and Párdi where wild forest-covered hills from the north end of the Sahyádri range stretch west almost to the sea.
The province includes two parts, Mainland Gujarát or Gurjjara-ráshtra and Peninsular Gujarát, the Sauráshṭra of ancient, the Káthiáváḍa of modern history. To a total area of about 72,000 square miles Mainland Gujarát with a length from north to south of about 280 miles and a breadth from east to west varying from fifty to 150 miles contributes 45,000 square miles; and Peninsular Gujarát with a greatest length from north to south of 155 miles and from east to west of 200 miles contributes about 27,000 square miles. To a population of about 9,250,000 Mainland Gujarát contributes 6,900,000 and the Peninsula about 2,350,000.
The richness of Mainland Gujarát the gift of the Sábarmati Mahi Narbada and Tápti and the goodliness of much of Sauráshṭra the Goodly Land have from before the beginning of history continued to draw strangers to Gujarát both as conquerors and as refugees.
By sea probably came some of the half-mythic Yádavas (b.c. 1500–500); contingents of Yavanas (b.c. 300–a.d. 100) including Greeks Baktrians Parthians and Skythians; the pursued Pársis and the pursuing Arabs (a.d. 600–800); hordes of Sanganian pirates (a.d. 900–1200); Pársi and Naváyat Musalmán refugees from Khulagu Khán’s devastation of Persia (a.d. 1250–1300); Portuguese and rival Turks (a.d. 1500–1600); Arab and Persian Gulf pirates (a.d. 1600–1700); African Arab Persian and Makran soldiers of fortune (a.d. 1500–1800); Armenian Dutch and French traders (a.d. 1600–1750); and the British (a.d. 1750–1812). By land from the north Chapter I. The Name. have come the Skythians and Huns (b.c. 200–a.d. 500), the Gurjjaras (a.d. 400–600), the early Jádejás and Káthis (a.d. 750–900), wave on wave of Afghan Turk Moghal and other northern Musalmáns (a.d. 1000–1500), and the later Jádejás and Káthis (a.d. 1300–1500): From the north-east the prehistoric Aryans till almost modern times (a.d. 1100–1200) continued to send settlements of Northern Bráhmans; and since the thirteenth century have come Turk Afghan and Moghal Musalmáns: From the east have come the Mauryans (b.c. 300), the half-Skythian Kshatrapas (b.c. 100–a.d. 300), the Guptas (a.d. 380), the Gurjjars (a.d. 400–600), the Moghals (a.d. 1530), and the Maráthás (a.d. 1750): And from the south the Śátakarṇis (a.d. 100), the Chálukyas and Ráshṭrakúṭas (a.d. 650–950), occasional Musalmán raiders (a.d. 1400–1600), the Portuguese (a.d. 1500), the Maráthás (a.d. 1660–1760), and the British (a.d. 1780–1820).
Gujars.The name Gujarát is from the Prákrit Gujjara-ratta, the Sanskrit of which is Gurjjara-ráshtra that is the country of the Gujjaras or Gurjjaras. In Sanskrit books and inscriptions the name of the province is written Gurjjara-maṇḍala and Gūrjjara-deśa the land of the Gurjjaras or Gúrjjaras. The Gurjjaras are a foreign tribe who passing into India from the north-west gradually spread as far south as Khándesh and Bombay Gujarát. The present Gujars of the Panjáb and North-West Provinces preserve more of their foreign traits than the Gujar settlers further to the south and east. Though better-looking, the Panjáb Gujars in language dress and calling so closely resemble their associates the Játs or Jats as to suggest that the two tribes entered India about the same time. Their present distribution shows that the Gujars spread further east and south than the Játs. The earliest Gujar settlements seem to have been in the Panjáb and North-West Provinces from the Indus to Mathurá where they still differ greatly in dress and language from most other inhabitants. From Mathurá the Gujars seem to have passed to East Rájputána and from there by way of Kotah and Mandasor to Málwa, where, though their original character is considerably altered, the Gujars of Málwa still remember that their ancestors came from the Doab between the Ganges and the Jamna. In Málwa they spread as far east as Bhilsa and Saháranpur. From Málwa they passed south to Khándesh and west probably by the Ratlam-Dohad route to the province of Gujarát.
Like the modern Ahirs of Káthiáváḍa the Gujars seem to have been a tribe of cattle-rearers husbandmen and soldiers who accompanied some conqueror and subsequently were pushed or spread forwards as occasion arose or necessity compelled. In the absence of better authority the order and locality of their settlements suggest that their introduction into India took place during the rule of the Skythian or Kushán emperor Kanerkes or Kanishka (a.d. 78–106) in whose time they seem to have settled as far east as Mathurá to which the territory of Kanishka is known to have extended. Subsequently along with the Guptas, who rose to power about two hundred years later (a.d. 300), the Gujars settled in East Rájputána, Málwa, and Gujarát, provinces all of which were apparently Chapter I. The Name. subjugated by the Guptas. It seems probable that in reward for their share in the Gupta conquests the leading Gujars were allotted fiefs and territories which in the declining power of their Gupta overlords they afterwards (a.d. 450–550) turned into independent kingdoms.
From the fourth to the eighth century the extensive tract of Central Gujarát between the North and South Gurjjara kingdoms was ruled by the Valabhis. The following reasons seem to show that the Valabhi dynasty were originally Gujars. Though it is usual for inscriptions to give this information none of the many Valabhi copper-plates makes any reference to the Valabhi lineage. Nor does any inscription state to what family Senápati Bhaṭárka the founder of the dynasty belonged. Hiuen Tsiang describes the Valabhi king as a Kshatriya and as marrying with the kings of Málwa and Kanauj. The Valabhi king described by Hiuen Tsiang is a late member of the dynasty who ruled when the kingdom had been greatly extended and when the old obscure tribal descent may have been forgotten and a Kshatriya lineage invented instead. Intermarriage with Málwa and Kanauj can be easily explained. Rájputs have never been slow to connect themselves by marriage with powerful rulers.