Power of Local Chiefs.Since the introduction of Musalmán rule in a.d. 1297 each successive government has been subverted by the ambition of the nobles and the disaffection of the chiefs. It was thus that the Gujarát Sultáns rendered themselves independent of Dehli. It was thus that the Sultán’s territories became divided among the nobles, whose dissensions reduced the province to Akbar’s authority. It was thus that the chiefs and local governors, conniving at Marátha inroads, subverted Mughal rule. Finally it was thus that the Gáikwár lost his hold of his possessions and was rescued from ruin solely by the power of the British.
[1] The first notice of the exercise of sovereignty by the Musalmán rulers of Gujarát over lands further south than the neighbourhood of Surat is in a.d. 1428, when king Áhmed I. (a.d. 1412–1443) contested with the Dakhan sovereign the possession of Máhim (north latitude 19° 40′; east longitude 72° 47′). As no record remains of a Musalmán conquest of the coast as far south as Danda Rájapuri or Janjira, about fifty miles south of Bombay, it seems probable that the North Konkan fell to the Musalmáns in a.d. 1297 as part of the recognised territories of the lords of Aṇahilapura (Pátan). Rás Málá, I. 350. One earlier reference may be noted. In a.d. 1422 among the leading men slain in the battle of Sárangpur, about fifty miles north-east of Ujjain in Central India, was Sávant chief of Danda Rájapuri that is Janjíra. Mirăt-i-Sikandari (Persian Text), 40, and Farishtah (Persian Text), II. 468. [↑]
[2] The details of Akbar’s settlement in a.d. 1583 show Sorath with sixty-three subdivisions and Navánagar (Islámnagar) with seventeen. Similarly in the Áin-i-Akbari (a.d. 1590) Sorath with its nine divisions includes the whole peninsula except Jháláváḍa in the north, which was then part of Áhmedábád. Gladwin, II. 64 and 66–71. [↑]
[3] Bird’s History of Gujarát, 418. [↑]
[4] Naiyad is the present Naiyadkántha about ten miles south-west of Rádhanpur containing Jatvár and Várahi in the west near the Ran and spreading east to Sami and Munjpur thirty to forty miles south-west of Pátan. Hálár is in the north-west of the peninsula; Káthiáváḍa in the centre; Gohilváḍa in the south-east; Bábriáváḍa south-west of Gohilváḍa; Chorár or Chorvár north-west of Virával; Panchál in the north-east centre; Okhágir or Okhámandal in the extreme west. Nalkántha is the hollow between Káthiáváḍa and the mainland. Besides these names the author of the Mirăt-i-Áhmedi gives one more district in Sorath and others in Gujarát. The name he gives in Sorath is Nágher or Nághír which he says is also called Sálgogah. Sálgogah is apparently Siálbet and its neighbourhood, as Kodinár, Mádhúpúr, Chingaria, and Pata in south Káthiáváḍa are still locally known as Nagher, a tract famous for its fruitfulness. The Mirăt-i-Áhmedi contains the following additional local names: For Kadi thirty-five miles north-west of Áhmedábád, Dandái; for Dholka twenty-five miles south-west of Áhmedábád, Práth-Nagri; for Cambay, Támbánagri; for Víramgám forty miles north-west of Áhmedábád, Jháláwár; for Múnjpur twenty-two miles south-east of Rádhanpur and some of the country between it and Patan, Párpas; for the tract ten miles south-east of Rádhanpur to the neighbourhood of Pátan, Kakrez; for the town of Rádhanpur in the Pálanpur Political Superintendency and its neighbourhood, Vágaḍh; for the town of Pálanpur and its neighbourhood up to Dísa and Dántiváda, Dhándár; for Bálásinor forty-two miles east of Áhmedábád with a part of Kapadvanj in the Kaira district, Masálwaḍa; for Baroda, Párkher; for the subdivision of Jambúsar in the Broach district fifteen miles north-west of Broach city, Kánam; for Alimohan that is Chhota Udepur and the rough lands east of Godhra, Pálwára. [↑]
[6] Maktaă and iktáă, the district administered by a muktiă, come from the Arabic root kataá, he cut, in allusion to the public revenue or the lands cut and apportioned for the pay of the officers and their establishments. [↑]
[7] Further particulars regarding these village headmen are given below. [↑]
[8] Bird’s History of Gujarát, 192; Mirăt-i-Sikandari, Persian Text, 44. [↑]