Source: https://www.ancestry.ca/dna/origins/773E3F84-796D-4C65-AE7A-4A3A58C218F6/ethnicity/Gujarati/history

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Western and Central India

Primarily located in: India

Our Western and Central India region includes the Kathiawar Peninsula and stretches eastward into modern-day Rajasthan, Maharashtra, and Madhya Pradesh. It is a land of both seaports and deserts, with a history that stretches back to the ancient Indus Valley Civilization. Empires have come and gone, but for centuries, its people have been fabled traders and merchants, and their keen sense for business has spread their descendants throughout much of India and the wider world.

Rocking the Cradle of Civilization

India’s Indus Valley civilization began more than 5,000 years ago. By 2600 B.C. people were living in dozens of towns and cities, including settlements in modern-day Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Rajasthan. Many cities were well planned, laid out in grids with water collection and sanitation systems. Lothal in Gujarat was India’s first seaport and was known for its jewelry, and there is evidence of trade with lands as far away as Egypt by 750 B.C. Residents had systems of standard weights and measures and a writing system that still hasn’t been deciphered. Gujarat has maintained a reputation for savvy merchants and commerce ever since.

Succession of States

After the decline of the Indus Valley civilization, a succession of empires came and went. The earliest known dynasty was the great Maurya Empire, which eventually united almost all of India. Its citizens benefited from public works, including dams, canals, and roads, and inscriptions of the great Mauryan emperor Ashoka’s edicts have been found in Gujarat and Maharashtra. The Western Kshatrapas (Satraps) ruled parts of the region for almost 300 years, starting in the first century A.D., followed by others, including the Guptas, Maitrakas, and Gurjaras. While most of the population is Hindu, Jainism also has a strong presence in the region. Coastal cities, especially Bharuch and Khambhat, were ports and centers of trade, and in 1000 A.D. Gujarat’s capital was one of the largest cities in India.

Rise of the Sultanates

The Gurjara-Pratihara dynasty checked the advance of the Islamic caliphates moving eastward in the 8th and 9th centuries. However, much of India came under the rule of Muslim sultanates in the 13th-16th centuries. Earlier invaders had been assimilated into Indian and Hindu culture, but the Islamic newcomers maintained their religion. Muslim contributions to Indian culture can still be seen in architecture that blends Islamic and Hindu sensibilities in the domes and arches of mosques and tombs, the rise of the Hindustani language, and the translation of Sanskrit works into Persian. Bharuch remained a center of trade and a major port, while Rajasthani merchants profited from land trade between Europe and Asia.

The Mughals

India’s great Mughal Empire was established in 1526. At its height, Mughal India was the world’s greatest economic powerhouse, responsible for almost a quarter of the world’s GDP. Demand for Indian goods rose, and Gujarat was the empire’s outlet to the Arabian Sea and trade routes west. European observers noted Gujarat’s wealth in the 16th century, when houses in Surat boasted Venetian windows and customs revenues in Gujarat outstripped those of Portugal’s entire Asian empire. The great Mughal emperor Akbar recruited Iranians, Hindu Rajputs, and Indian Sayyids into Mughal nobility and established a nonsectarian state, abolishing poll taxes on Hindus and eliminating many discriminatory laws. Monuments of Mughal architecture include the Taj Mahal and Shalimar Gardens.

Marathas, British, and Diaspora

In the 17th century, the Portuguese, French, and English all strengthened their footholds around Gujarat, jockeying for trade. The Hindu Maratha Empire defeated the Muslim Mughals throughout much of India, and then the British East India Company gained control of much of the region. Most of the region was divided into small states until Indian independence in 1947. The peoples’ long relationship to trade made settling in other places a natural fit for many from the region, who have followed business opportunities throughout India and the rest of the world.