Khambhat
Khambhat ,
formerly known as Cambay, is a town in
Gujarat state,
India. It was formerly an important trading center, although its harbor 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 was the capital of a
princely state of
British India within the Gujarat division of Bombay. It has an area of 350 square miles (906 km²). As a separate state it dates only from about
1730, the time of the dismemberment of the
Mughal empire. Its
Nawabs were descended from
Momin Khan II, the last of the Mughal governors of Gujarat, who in 1742 murdered his brother-in-law,
Nizam Khan, governor of Khambhat, and established himself there.
The town of Khambhat may be the
Camanes of
Ptolemy, and was formerly a very flourishing city, the seat of an extensive trade, and celebrated for its manufactures of
silk,
chintz and gold stuffs; it was mentioned in 1293 by
Marco Polo, who noted it as a busy port. 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. In
1780 Khambhat was taken by the army of
General Goddard, 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 name
Khambhat is most probably the origin of the family name Khambhatta.
*
*
City of Khambhat
