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.

For more on Indian place names and history, see Toponymy on the Ashoka Express and Gujarat: Land of the Gurjars

For a journey through tribal India and Sri Lanka, see Headhunting with Marguerite

Districts of Gujarat

GUJARAT PLACE NAMES