Note 2 — INTRODUCTION.

Sorath.Though, under the Musalmáns, peninsular Gujarát did not bear the name of Káthiáváḍa, it was then, as at present, considered part of the province of Gujarát. During the early years of Musalmán rule, the peninsula, together with a small portion of the adjoining mainland, was known as Sorath, a shortened form of Saurâshṭra, the name originally applied by the Hindus to a long stretch of sea-coast between the banks of the Indus and Daman.2 Towards the close of the sixteenth century the official use of the word Sorath was confined to a portion, though by much the largest part, of the peninsula. At the same time, the name Sorath seems then, and for long after, to have been commonly applied to the whole peninsula. For the author of the Mirăt-i-Áhmedi, writing as late as the middle of the eighteenth century (a.d. 1756: a.h. 1170), speaks of Sorath as divided into five districts or zilláhs, Hálár, Káthiáváḍa, Gohilváḍa, Bábriáváḍa, and Jetváḍa, and notices that though Navánagar was considered a separate district, its tribute was included in the revenue derived from Sorath.3 In another passage the same writer thus defines Sauráshṭra: