Editing Gujarat (section)

=== Ancient history ===
Gujarat was one of the main central areas of the Indus Valley civilisation, which was spread across modern-day northern India and Pakistan.<ref>{{Cite web |date=18 October 2017 |title=Devdutt Pattanaik explores Gujarat through the ages and finds, in its archaeology, its myths and legends, its cultures and histories, a microcosm of the multilayered country he loves |url=https://www.cntraveller.in/story/india-via-gujarat/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171027131256/https://www.cntraveller.in/story/india-via-gujarat/ |archive-date=27 October 2017 |access-date=27 October 2017}}</ref> It contains ancient metropolitan cities from the [[Indus Valley]] such as [[Lothal]], [[Dholavira]] and [[Gola Dhoro]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=18 October 2017 |title=Where does history begin? |url=https://www.cntraveller.in/story/india-via-gujarat/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171027131256/https://www.cntraveller.in/story/india-via-gujarat/ |archive-date=27 October 2017 |access-date=27 October 2017}}</ref> The ancient city of Lothal was where India's first port was established.<ref name=kulke /> The ancient city of Dholavira is one of the largest and most prominent archaeological sites in India, belonging to the Indus Valley civilisation. The most recent discovery was [[Gola Dhoro]]. Altogether, about fifty Indus Valley settlement ruins have been discovered in Gujarat.<ref name="mapsofindia.com">{{Cite web |title=History of Gujarat |url=http://www.mapsofindia.com/gujarat/history/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100526165223/http://www.mapsofindia.com/gujarat/history/ |archive-date=26 May 2010 |access-date=16 July 2010 |publisher=Mapsofindia.com}}</ref>

{{multiple image
| caption_align     = center
| align             = center
| title             = [[Indus Valley civilisation]]
| image1            = DHOLAVIRA SITE (24).jpg
| caption1          = [[Dholavira]], one of the largest cities of Indus Valley civilisation, with [[stepwell]] steps to reach the water level in artificially constructed reservoirs<ref name="news">{{Cite journal |author=Shuichi Takezawa |journal=Journal of Architecture and Building Science |volume=117 |issue=1492 |date=August 2002 |page=24 |url=http://news-sv.aij.or.jp/jabs/s1/jabs0208-019.pdf |title=Stepwells – Cosmology of Subterranean Architecture as seen in Adalaj |access-date=18 November 2009 |archive-date=20 July 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110720175341/http://news-sv.aij.or.jp/jabs/s1/jabs0208-019.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>
| image2            = The drainage system at Lothal 2.JPG
| caption2          = Archaeological remains of washroom drainage system at [[Lothal]]
}}

The ancient history of Gujarat was enriched by the commercial activities of its inhabitants. There is clear historical evidence of trade and commerce ties with [[Egypt]], [[Bahrain]] and [[Sumer]] in the [[Persian Gulf]] during the time period of 1000 to 750 BCE.<ref name="mapsofindia.com" /><ref>S. R. Rao (1985). Lothal. Archaeological Survey of India. p. 11.</ref> There was a succession of various polities such as the [[Mauryan dynasty]], [[Satavahana dynasty]], [[Gupta Empire]], [[Gurjara-Pratihara]] Empire, as well as regional ones such as the [[Western Satraps]], the [[Kingdom of Valabhi]], the Kingdom of Gujarat, the [[Sultanate of Gujarat]] and finally the [[Kingdom of Baroda]].

The early history of Gujarat includes the imperial grandeur of [[Chandragupta Maurya]] who conquered a number of earlier states in what is now Gujarat. Pushyagupta, a [[Vaishya]], was appointed the governor of [[Saurashtra (region)|Saurashtra]] by the Mauryan regime. He ruled Girinagar (modern-day [[Junagadh]]) (322 BCE to 294 BCE) and built a dam on the Sudarshan lake. Emperor [[Ashoka|Ashoka the Great]], the grandson of [[Chandragupta Maurya]], not only ordered his edicts engraved in the rock at Junagadh, but also asked Governor Tusherpha to cut canals from the lake where an earlier Indian governor had built a dam. Between the decline of Mauryan power and Saurashtra coming under the sway of the [[Samprati]] Mauryas of [[Ujjain]], there was an [[Indo-Greek]] defeat in Gujarat of [[Demetrius I of Bactria|Demetrius]]. In 16th century manuscripts, there is an apocryphal story of a merchant of King [[Gondophares]] landing in Gujarat with [[Apostle Thomas]]. The incident of the cup-bearer torn apart by a lion might indicate that the port city described is in Gujarat.<ref>The Acts of Judas Thomas, M.R. James, Tr. by M.R. James, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1924.</ref><ref>Medlycott, A. E. [http://www.indianchristianity.com/html/chap4/chapter4a.htm India and the Apostle Thomas] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924034342/http://www.indianchristianity.com/html/chap4/chapter4a.htm |date=24 September 2015 }}</ref>

For nearly 300 years from the start of the 1st century CE, [[Saka]] rulers played a prominent part in Gujarat's history. The weather-beaten rock at [[Junagadh]] gives a glimpse of the ruler [[Rudradaman I]] (100 CE) of the Saka satraps known as [[Western Satraps]], or Kshatraps. Mahakshatrap [[Rudradaman I]] founded the [[Kardamaka]] dynasty which ruled from [[Anupa]] on the banks of the [[Narmada]] up to the [[Aparanta]] region bordering Punjab. In Gujarat, several battles were fought between the Indian dynasties such as the [[Satavahana dynasty]] and the Western Satraps. The greatest and the mightiest ruler of the Satavahana dynasty was [[Gautamiputra Satakarni]] who defeated the Western Satraps and conquered some parts of Gujarat in the 2nd century CE.<ref>Trade And Trade Routes In Ancient India, von Moti Chandra, page: 99</ref>

[[File:Gujuras of Sindh Circa AD 570-712.jpg|thumb|Coin of the Gujuras of [[Sindh]], [[Chavda dynasty]], {{circa|570|lk=no}}–712 CE. Crowned [[Sasanian Empire|Sasanian]]-style bust right / Fire altar with ribbons and attendants; star and crescent flanking flames.<ref>{{Cite web |title=CNG: eAuction 343. INDIA, Post-Gupta (Gujura Confederacy). Gujuras of Sindh. Circa AD 570–712. AR Drachm (25&nbsp;mm, 3.84 g, 9h). |url=https://www.cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=277200 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170811103733/https://www.cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=277200 |archive-date=11 August 2017 |access-date=15 July 2017 |publisher=cngcoins.com}}</ref>]]

The Kshatrapa dynasty was replaced by the [[Gupta Empire]] with the conquest of Gujarat by [[Chandragupta Vikramaditya]]. Vikramaditya's successor [[Skandagupta]] left an inscription (450 CE) on a rock at Junagadh which gives details of the governor's repairs to the embankment surrounding Sudarshan lake after it was damaged by floods. The [[Anarta]] and [[Saurashtra (region)|Saurashtra]] regions were both parts of the Gupta empire. Towards the middle of the 5th century, the Gupta empire went into decline. Senapati Bhatarka, the general of the Guptas, took advantage of the situation and in 470 set up the [[Kingdom of Valabhi]]. He shifted his capital from Giringer to [[Valabhi]], near [[Bhavnagar]], on Saurashtra's east coast. The [[Maitraka]]s of Vallabhi became very powerful with their rule prevailing over large parts of Gujarat and adjoining [[Malwa]]. A university was set up by the Maitrakas, which came to be known far and wide for its scholastic pursuits and was compared with the noted [[Nalanda University]]. It was during the rule of Dhruvasena Maitrak that Chinese philosopher-traveler [[Xuanzang]]/ [[I Tsing]] visited in 640 along the [[Silk Road]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mote |first=Sally Hovey Wriggins; with a foreword by Frederick W. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RwQLAAAAYAAJ |title=Xuanzang : a Buddhist pilgrim on the Silk Road |date=1996 |publisher=Westview Press |isbn=978-0-8133-2801-0 |location=Boulder, Colo. |access-date=22 December 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190304110046/https://books.google.com/books?id=RwQLAAAAYAAJ |archive-date=4 March 2019 |url-status=live}}</ref>

Gujarat was known to the [[ancient Greeks]] and was familiar with other Western centres of civilisation through the end of the European [[Middle Ages]]. The oldest written record of Gujarat's 2,000-year maritime history is documented in a Greek book titled ''[[Periplus of the Erythraean Sea|The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea]]: Travel and Trade in the Indian Ocean by a Merchant of the First Century''.<ref>{{Citation |last=Vashi |first=Ashish |title=Saga of Barygaza |date=21 October 2010 |url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/ahmedabad/Saga-of-Barygaza/articleshow/6782964.cms |work=[[The Times of India]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120121042919/http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2010-10-21/ahmedabad/28239734_1_bharuch-port-book |quote="The book describes an episode of a foreigner bringing costly gifts for kings, saying, "And for the King there are very costly vessels of silver, singing boys, beautiful maidens for the harem, fine wines, thin clothing of the finest weaves, and the choicest ointments." |access-date=19 August 2014 |archive-date=21 January 2012 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Citation |last=William H. Schoff |title=The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea: Travel and Trade in the Indian Ocean by a Merchant of the First Century |url=http://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/texts/periplus/periplus.html |year=1912 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110224165507/http://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/texts/periplus/periplus.html |place=New York |format=digitalized |quote=As a sign of these places to those approaching from the sea there are serpents, very large and black; for at the other places on this coast and around Barygaza, they are smaller, and in color bright green, running into gold&nbsp;... Now the whole country of India has very many rivers, and very great ebb and flow of the tides; increasing at the new moon, and at the full moon for three days, and falling off during the intervening days of the moon. But about Barygaza it is much greater, so that the bottom is suddenly seen, and now parts of the dry land are sea, and now it is dry where ships were sailing just before; and the rivers, under the inrush of the flood tide, when the whole force of the sea is directed against them, are driven upwards more strongly against their natural current, for many stadia. |access-date=1 October 2013 |archive-date=24 February 2011 |url-status=live}}</ref>