Gujarat (Guj)

Guj: ગુજરાત gujarāt

‘Land of Gurjars’ 

From Skt/Pkt: gurjara, ‘Gurjara people’; and Skt: rashtra, ‘land’, ‘country’, ‘region’.

The Gurjara/Gujjar tribe, early immigrants from central Asia (originally herdsmen), dominated eastern Rajasthan, northern Gujarat in the 6th-10thC. 

At Independence the ‘Baroda, Western India, and Gujarat States Agency’ had over one-half of India’s princely states. After Independence the region briefly became part of a joint Marathi-Gujarati state from 1956 before emerging as a state in its own right in 1960. 

The modern Gujarat has the third largest state economy in India. Historically, the Gujaratis have been seafarers and traders with a tradition of overseas migration: one-third of the Indian diaspora is Gujarati in origin. 

Gujarati is an Indo-European language and this is reflected in its place-names which are mostly Gujarati and show correspondences with Sanskrit, Prakrit, Urdu and the languages of neighbouring states.

Districts of Gujarat