Note 27 — INDEX

The twelve Gujarát ports mentioned by Barbosa are: On the south coast of the peninsula, two: Patenixi (Pátan-Somnáth, now Verával), very rich and of great trade; Surati-Mangalor (Mangrul), a town of commerce, and Diu. On the shores of the gulf of Cambay four: Gogari (Gogha), a large town; Barbesy (Broach); Guandári or Gandar (Gandhár), a very good town; and Cambay. On the western coast five: Ravel (Ránder), a rich place; Surat, a city of very great trade; Denvy (Gandevi), a place of great trade; Baxay (Bassein), a good seaport in which much goods are exchanged; and Tanamayambu (Thána-Máhim), a town of great Moorish mosques, but of little trade. (Stanley’s Barbosa, 59–68). The only one of these ports whose identification seems doubtful is Ravel, described by Barbosa (page 67) as a pretty town of the Moors on a good river, twenty leagues south of Gandhár. This agrees with the position of Ránder on the Tápti, nearly opposite Surat, which appears in Al Bírúni (a.d. 1030) as Ráhanur one of the capitals of south Gujarát and is mentioned under the name Ránir, both in the Áin-i-Akbari (a.d. 1590) and in the Mirăt-i-Áhmedi for the year a.d. 1571, as a place of trade, ‘in ancient times a great city.’ In his description of the wealth of Cambay, Barbosa is supported by the other European travellers of the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. According to Nicolo de Conti (a.d. 1420–1444), the town, including its suburbs, was twelve miles in circuit abounding in spikenard, lac, indigo, myrobalans, and silk. Athanasius Nikotin (a.d. 1468–1474) found it a manufacturing place for every sort of goods as long gowns damasks and blankets; and Varthema (a.d. 1503–1508) says it abounds in grain and very good fruits, supplying Africa Arabia and India with silk and cotton stuffs; ‘it is impossible to describe its excellence.’ Barbosa’s account of Áhmedábád is borne out by the statement in the Áin-i-Akbari (Gladwin, II. 63) that the whole number of the suburbs (purás) of the city was 360, and in the Mirăt-i-Áhmedi, that it once contained 380 suburbs each of considerable size, containing good buildings and markets filled with everything valuable and rare, so that each was almost a city. Bird, 311. ↑