Guj: કાઠીયાવાડ kāṭhīyāvāḍa
‘Land of the Kathis’ -Region/Peninsula, Gujarat
From Kathi and Guj/Hin: vāṛā/vāḍā, ‘place (belonging to)’, ‘colony’, ‘settlement’.
The 61,000 km2 Kathiawar/Saurashtra peninsula (the names are roughly equivalent), reaching out into the Arabian Sea, has been a trading centre for centuries.
The Kathis, a tribe of ‘grazers and incipient plunderers with a marked ability to fight’, migrated here in the 15thC and have dominated central Saurashtra since:
‘Accounts of the early career of the Kathias in Saurashtra contain references to them as ‘free-booters’, ‘predatory’ , ‘ferocious’, but at the same time they have also been referred to as ‘brave’, ‘gallant’ and ‘hospitable’ …The knowledge of horse – breeding can be counted as perhaps the most important contribution of the Kathis to Kathiawar and to this day the Kathi States have been reputed for their famous stables’ [Singhji (1994) p53]
217 princely states of Kathiawar were merged to form the state of Saurashtra on 15 February 1948 thanks to the sterling efforts of Vallabhbhai Patel (see Kheda).
Kathiawar/Saurashtra Peninsula w:User:Miljoshi
