Note 25 — INTRODUCTION.

The buildings at Áhmedábád, and the ruins of Chámpáner and Mehmúdábád, prove how much wealth was at the command of the sovereign and his nobles, while the accounts of travellers seem to show that the private expenditure of the rulers was not greater than the kingdom was well able to bear. The Portuguese traveller Duarte Barbosa, who was in Gujarát between a.d. 1511 and a.d. 1514, found the capital Chámpáner a great city, in a very fertile country of abundant provisions, with many cows sheep and goats and plenty of fruit, so that it was full of all things.25 Áhmedábád was still larger, very rich and well Introduction. Condition of Gujarát, a.d. 1297–1760. Under the Kings, 1403–1573. supplied, embellished with good streets and squares, with houses of stone and cement. It was not from the interior districts of the province that the Áhmedábád kings derived the chief part of their wealth, but from those lying along the coast, which were enriched by manufactures and commerce.26 So it was that along the shores of the gulf of Cambay and southward as far as Bombay the limit of the Gujarát kingdom, besides many small sea-ports, Barbosa chooses out for special mention twelve ‘towns of commerce, very rich and of great trade.’ Among these was Diu, off the south coast of Káthiáváḍa, yielding so large a revenue to the king as to be ‘a marvel and amazement.’ And chief of all Cambay, in a goodly, fertile, and pretty country full of abundant provisions; with rich merchants and men of great prosperity; with craftsmen and mechanics of subtle workmanship in cotton, silk, ivory, silver, and precious stones; the people well dressed, leading luxurious lives, much given to pleasure and amusement.27