The history of Kutch is very old. Traces of the
Indus valley civilization (3000 to 1500 B.C.) have been discovered at
Dholavira – Kutch. When Alexandra the Great reached these parts in 325
BC Rann was not an arm of the sea. The eastern branch of the Indus
emptied itself into the Rann which made it into a fresh water lake.
The Mauryan empire broke of the Gujarat Kutch and Sindh passed under the
rules of Greeks from Bactria in 140-120 BC. Bactrian rule over Gujarat,
Kathiawad and Kutch was ended by Sakas in the 1st Century and ruled upto
the 3rd century. After that Samudragupta attacked the Sakas and ended
their rule.
At the end of the sixth century, the great conqueror king Sahiras of
Sindu found Kutch and easy conquest. A Chinese traveller’s evidence
shows that Buddhism was in fact declining and Jainism was gaining ground
in
Kathiawad and Sindh.
At the end of the seventh century the Arabs conquered Sindh.
Samma Rajputs of the hindu clan settled in Kutch. Some of the chiefs
also settled in Sindh and were allowed by the Arabs to be independent
rulers there. In the early ninth century the chief of that clan was
Lakho Ghuraro, who had two wives.
After the death of Lakho Ghuraro his eldest son Unnad succeeded, but
Unnad’s step brother Mod and Manai plotted against him and killed him.
Later on Mod and Manai conspired to kill their uncle Vagam Chavda and
declared themselves the kings of the area. That time Patgadh was under
the rule of seven brothers of the Sandh tribe "Seven Sandhs", who
threatened to avenge the murder of Vagam. Later on Mod and Manai killed
the seven sandhs and became the masters of the city and of its dependant
territories.
The Gujarati People:
Gujarat's population is overwhelmingly Hindu, with Muslim and Jain
minorities. The diverse ethnic groups may be broadly categorized as
Indic (i.e., northern-derived) or Dravidian (southern-derived). The
former include the Nagar Brahman, Bhatia, Bhadela, Rabari, and Mina
castes (the Parsis, originally from Persia, represent a much later
northern influx); among the people of southern origin are the Bhangi,
Koli, Dubla, Naikda, and Macchi-Kharwa tribes. The rest of the
population, including the aboriginal Bhil tribe, exhibits mixed
characteristics. Members of the scheduled castes and of the aboriginal
tribes form nearly one-fifth of the state's population. Gujarati and
Hindi are the state's official languages.
Culture of Gujarat:
The folklore and folk culture of Gujarat can be traced to the mythology
of Krishna, an incarnation of the god Vishnu. Dances in honour of
Krishna have survived in the form of the popular folk dance, the 'garba'.
A folk drama, the 'bhavai', also has survived. Gujarat is also famous
for its art and craft products. Among the most durable and effective of
the Gujarat's cultural institutions are the trade and craft guilds known
as 'mahajans', which often solves disputes, acted as channels of
philanthropy, and encouraged the arts.
GEOGRAPHICAL IMPORTANCE
Gujarat is the second important district of Gujranwala. Gujarat, situated
beside the grand trunk road and main Railway track is directly connected
with the major cities like provencial and central metropolises of the
country.
The river Jehlum on its north and river Chanab on the southren-eastren
side, both separated this city from the districts of Sialkot and
Gujranwala and because of being amongst these two rivers, it is
resplendently fertile and the agriculture has always been acommon
vocation of its inhabitants. As an industrial hub, the whole city is
dotted with heavy manufacturing factories, spread all over the tract,
where a lot of people perform the blue collor jobs. These people are
probably very laborious, Punjabi, while Urdu and English languages are
also spoken.
The man of valour, Major Aziz Bhatti Shaheed (Nishan-e-Haider) and other
various patriots, too, belonged to the same region.
The region is very rapidly progressing in the industrial scope and
almost two hundred and fifty fan manufacturies have been installed here.
Else these, the glass and show manufacturing factories are also in run.
The cotton wheat, Sugarcane and besides these other various types of
fruits are the major products of this region.
Moveover, Gujarat is famous for its beautiful and artistic handicrafts,
Flower pots, "Changairian" made by leaves of palm and date trees, cotton
mates, "Dhusse" and wollen shawls are famous and very much popular
throughout the country and abroad.
INDUSTRIAL IMPORTANCE
Gujarat has a exclusive status throughout the Punjab due to some of its
manufacturing capabilities and productions. Jalalpur is a large town of
Gujarat, where several small and large textile industrial unit have been
established. There are many other industrial units and factories engaged
in manufacturing of electrical goods (Fan), Electric Motors, Earthen
Utensils, Shoes, Rubber Tyre Tube, Sanitary Ware ,Rice Cleaning Mills
and Furniture. The high quality furniture made here have been used in
National and Provincial Assemblies..
Geography of Gujarat
Gujarat is the westernmost state of India. It is bounded by the
Arabian Sea to the west and southwest, and Pakistan to the north
The major
rivers flowing through the state include the Narmada, Sabarmati, and
Mahi in central and northern Gujarat; Mithi, Khari, and Bhogavo in
Saurashtra; Tapi, Purna, Ambika, Auranga and Damanganga in the southern
part of the state.
Gujarat has the largest coastline and largest number of ports of all
the states of India. It has a 663 km coastline, which is 30% of India's
total of 5700 km.
Gujarat is surrounded by the sea on three sides. Of its 19 districts,
as many as 10 have a sea-coast.
• It is this geography which has governed its history.
Climate of: Gujarat.
Maximum Temperature: 43 ° C.
Minimum Temperature: 12° C.
Annual Rainfall: 33-152 cms.
TEMPERATURE:
In winter, temperatures average between 12°C and 27°C (between 54° and
81° F), although freezing levels have been recorded in the state. In the
summer temperatures average between 25°C and 43°C (77° and 109° F) and
have been known to reach as high as 48°C (118° F).
Temperature Max Min
Winter 27° C 12° C
Summer 25° C 43° C
In Ahmedabad , the daily winter maximum temperature is 26 degrees
Celsius and the minimum 12 degrees Celsius, although sub-zero cold
spells have been recorded. In summer the daily maximum temperature can
reach 48 degrees Celsius, though 42-43 degrees Celsius is more common.
The summer minimum is 25 degrees Celsius. Further south, the winter
temperatures never fall as far, and the summer temperatures are slightly
more moderate.
RAINFALL:
The average rainfall in Gujarat varies from 33 to152 cms. The southern
region of the state has an average rainfall ranging from 76 to 152 cms,
Dangs district having the highest average of about 190 cms. The northern
districts have a rainfall varying from 51 to 102 cms. The rainfall in
the southern highlands of Saurashtra and the Gulf of Cambay is
approximately 63 cms while the other parts of Saurashtra have a rainfall
less than 63 cms.
The semi-desert area of Kachchh has a very low average rainfall. Certain
areas in Ahmedabad, Mehsana, Banaskantha, Panch Mahal, Surendranagar and
Jamnagar districts face chronic scarcity conditions for want of adequate
rains.
Language: Language spoken in Gujarat :
Gujarati, Marathi, Hindi, English, Urdu and Sindhi
Main language: Gujarati & Kutchi
Gujarati :
Indo-Aryan language that is spoken in Gujarat state and in the
neighbouring states of Maharashtra and Rajasthan in India; it is the
official language of Gujarat. It had more than 40 million speakers in
the late 20th century. Gujarati has several dialects, including those of
the south, the northwest, and Saurashtra.
The standard language accords with the central dialect, spoken in such
cities as Vadodara. The language, which is written in a cursive modified
Devanagari script, has a long literary tradition that dates back to the
12th century. Old Gujarati was also dubbed Old Western Rajasthani by the
Italian scholar Tessitori, because the language was in his day used in
an area including part of what is now the state of Rajasthan.
Gujarati has a fairly complex inflectional system, marking, for
instance, three genders (masculine, feminine, and neuter; Hindi has only
masculine and feminine), two numbers, and three cases (nominative,
oblique, and agentive-locative) for nouns.
In the medieval period, poetry was actually the means of expressing
religious sentiments and the first poetry of the language was
Bharateswara Bahubali Rasa.
It was composed by Shalibhadrasuri, a 7th century Jain monk. A number of
Jain Sadhus followed his example and composed short story poems called
Rasas till the end of the 18th century.
All this while in the 15th century, Narsingh Mehta was bringing in a new
era of Vaishnava poetry. His poems portray Krishna as a playful child, a
lover, a friend and the poet’s muse. He became a source of inspiration
for his successors in composing not only similar poetry but also
philosophical poems.
Kutchi :
The Kutchi language (also spelled Kachchi) is an Indo-Aryan Language
spoken in the Kutch region of the Indian state of Gujarat, with about
866,000 speakers. It is related to Sindhi. It is often considered to be
a mixture of Sindhi, Gujarati, Punjabi & Rajasthani. Kutchi phonology is
very much like that of Sindhi, but the vocabulary is closer to that of
Gujarati. Kutchi was originally written using the now extinct Khojki or
Khojaki (of Khojas) script. Kutchi survives only as a spoken language
now as it is written using the Gujarati alphabet. It is spoken mainly by
the people who live in the Kutch region of Gujarat, and by Khojas and
Nizari Ismailis due to their holy scriptures written in this language.
Most Kutchees living in India know Gujarati. Kutch is a part of Gujarat
which is in India. A large population of Kutchees lives in Mumbai
(Bombay) India. Kutchees in Mumbai read Gujarati Newspaper along with
newspapers in English. A large population of Kutchees are India are
mainly Hindus,Jains and Ismailis. They are mainly into businessess of
textiles, diamond trade, shares and shop keepers etc.
Sindhi : Sindhi (سنڌي، سندھی ، सिन्धी sindhī) is the language of the Sindh region
of South Asia, which is now a province of Pakistan. It is an Indo-Aryan
language spoken by approximately 17 million people in Pakistan, and 2.8
million in India; it is also a recognised official language in both of
these countries. َAlthough the language is predominantly Aryan, it also
shows up signs of Dravidan influence, making it unique in its importance
and identity. Most Sindhi speakers in Pakistan are concentrated in Sindh.
The remaining speakers are found spread throughout the many areas of the
world (mainly other parts of India) to which members of an ethnic group
migrated when Sindh became a part of Pakistan during the partition of
British India in 1947. The language is written using the modified Arabic
script. In 1948, the Government of India implemented Devanagari script
for the Sindhi language that did not get wide acceptance.
Geographical distribution
Sindhi is taught as a first language in the schools of south-east
Pakistan. Sindhi language has a vast vocabulary; this has made it a
favourite of many writers and so a lot of literature and poetry has been
written in Sindhi. Dialects of Sindhi are spoken in southern Punjab,
Balochistan, Northwest province of Pakistan (NWFP), and also Gujarat as
well as Rajasthan in India.
History
Sindhi was a very popular literary language around the 14th-18th
centuries. This is when sufis such as Shah Abdul Latif (as well as
numerous others) narrated their theosophical poetry depicting the
relationship between humans and God.
The Qur'an was first translated into Sindhi in rhymatic format. This was
the first ever translation of Qur'an in the 12th century or earlier.
Sounds
Sindhi has a large sound inventory. It has 46 distinctive consonant
phonemes (more than all the phonemes of English combined) and a further
16 vowels. All plosives, affricates, nasals, the retroflex flap and the
lateral approximant /l/ have aspirated or breathy voiced counterparts.
The language also features four separate implosives.
How to Reach:
By Air
Nearest airport Keshod 37 km & Rajkot 99 km. Rajkot is connected to
Bombay by I.A. & Vayudoot. While Keshod is connected to Bombay by
Vayudoot.
By Train
Junagarh is connected by train to Ahmedabad.
By Road
G.S.R.T.C. bus services connect Junagarh with Bhavnagar, Ahmedabad, Gir,
Rajkot, Bhuj, Dwarka, Somnath, Palitana, Surat, Vadodara, Porbandar.
Taxis, Auto-rickshaws, Tongas & City Bus services are available for
local transport.
