Product Code Database
Ghogha is a census town in Bhavnagar district in the state of Gujarat, India. It is situated on the mid-western bank of the Gulf of Khambhat. It was an important historical commercial port on the Arabian Sea until the development of nearby Bhavnagar in the nineteenth century.
As of the 2011 census of India, Ghogha had a population of 12,208; 49% male and 51% female, and 12.71% of the population was under 6 years of age. The average literacy rate was 70% (below the national average of 74.4%) with male literacy being 77%, and female literacy 63%.
When taken in 1591 by Khan-i-Azam Mirza Kotaltash, one of Akbar's viceroys, Ghogha was a large, well-built port with many merchants and ships, the cargoes of which went in small boats to Cambay. It was reckoned part of Sorath prant and, besides port dues, yielded a yearly revenue of £1666 (666,560 dams). In 1612, on the advice of Khojah Nasar the Surat Governor, who praised its fine harbour and its trade with Cambay, the English gained leave to settle at Gogha. But the agent, Whittington, found it a poor town and no regular English factory was established. Two years later (1614), the Portuguese a third time destroyed Gogha, burning 120 trading boats and several ships, one of them the Rahimi, the great 1500 ton pilgrim ship. Following decline of Portuguese, the English were chief traders of the sea. With the Dutch, by raising Surat to be the chief port of Gujarat, the English injured the trade of the Cambay ports. Still during the seventeenth and for a few years of the eighteenth centuries, Gogha was the centre of a considerable traffic. The Portuguese boats met in its road and were convoyed to Goa by warships; and vessels belonging to the native merchants of Ahmedabad and Cambay sailed from Ghogha to south India and Arabia. Protected on the sea face by a stone fortification, and later on sheltered all round by a mud wall, with a local governor and a military force, Ghogha had a large number of traders, weavers, and sailors.
The eighteenth century was a time of decay. Trade fell off, and Ghogha, handed from one Muslim noble to another (1730-1751), taken by the Peshwa (1751-1755), recovered by the Nawab of Cambay (1755), and again (1764) taken by the Peshwa, was, under his managers, little able to compete with its pushing rival Bhavnagar. In 1803, when it came under British East India Company, the trade of Ghogha was almost gone. Later it was recovered somewhat under British rule and became part of Kathiawar Agency followed by Western India States Agency in 1924. When India became independent in 1947, it became part of Bhavnagar district in Saurashtra State which was later merged with Gujarat in 1960.
The Ain-i-Akbari further notes that Ghogha was part of a district located at the foot of the Shatrunjaya hill, which also included the fort of Palitana. Though in ruins at the time, the fort was considered worthy of restoration. The island of Biram (Perim), formerly used as a governor's residence, was situated nearby. The local landholder (zamindar) belonged to the Gohel clan. The district was recorded to have 2,000 cavalry and 4,000 infantry forces. Ain-i-Akbari, translated by Heinrich Blochmann and Colonel Henry Sullivan Jarrett, Asiatic Society of Bengal, pp. 241–247
Mosque
Barwada Masjid is located in Ghogha, Gujarat, and is believed to be possibly built by Arab traders.
Inscription
An inscription possibly related to Kamal Hamid under Zafar Khan rule and a inscription near Gundi Gate, is mostly illegible but mentions names like “Muzaffar” and Khan Anaj.Corpus Inscripationum Bhavnagar Edited During the rule of H.11. The Maharaja Takitisihghji, India (State), Antiquarian Dept, Bhavnagar State, India, 1839, p.5 to 15
Ghogha in Ain-i-Akbari
During the Mughal period, Ghogha (then referred to as Gogo) was an important port under the rule of Emperor Akbar (14 October 1542 – 27 October 1605). According to Ain-i-Akbari (Part II) by Abul Fazl Allami, the Mughal Empire received revenue from the port costing 666,560. Ghogha and Cambay (Kambháyat) were listed as ports within the same administrative division (sarkar). Cambay was described as a large city with fine buildings, diverse merchants, and abundant trade. Goods arriving at Ghogha were transported to Cambay using smaller vessels called táwari.
Notable people
See also
|
|
