Bhavnagar State

• 1. Introduction

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  Bhavnagar State was born from a military emergency. In 1722-1723, two warlords named Khanthaji Kadani and Pilaji Gaekwad sent their forces against the town of Sihor, on the coast of Kathiawar. The ruling chief, Bhavsinhji Gohil, held them off. But when the dust settled, he drew a sobering conclusion: the location itself was the problem. So in 1723, just a year after the attack, he picked a new site near a village called Vadva, twenty kilometers from Sihor, and named the place after himself. That town became Bhavnagar.

  Over the next two centuries, what started as a small chieftainship grew into a prosperous princely state with fortified ports trading as far as Mozambique, Zanzibar, Singapore, and the Persian Gulf. Its army fought in Egypt, Palestine, and Mesopotamia during the First World War. Its railway was the first in India built entirely without central government assistance. And in February 1948, its last Maharaja handed power to the people's representatives rather than wait to be absorbed by force.

  How did a refugee dynasty from Marwar build one of Kathiawar's most durable states? And what made Bhavnagar's maritime gamble pay off when so many inland rivals stayed poor?

• 2. The Gohil Origins

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  Around 1260 AD, the Gohil Rajputs were losing ground in Marwar. Facing severe competition there, they made a calculated move southward to the Gujarat coast and set up three successive capitals: Sejakpur, which the source notes was founded in 1194, along with Umrala and Sihor. The family traced an ancient lineage from the Pandavas of the lunar, or Chandravanshi, race, claiming descent through the celebrated Shalivahan, who founded the Shaka era. The historian Colonel James Tod read their ancestry differently, placing them in the solar race instead, but the Gohils held to their own account.

  The old family title of Rawal, or Raol, had a specific origin: it was earned at the battle of Chitor in 1303, when the Gohils fought against Alauddin Khilji. That battle was remembered as a defining moment for the clan's identity. The state motto they eventually adopted was "Man Proposes but God Disposes," displayed on a label azure, while their arms showed an eagle or displayed on a field of gules.

  From Sejakpur, the ruling seat moved through Ranipur, then Umrala, then Gogha, then back to Umrala, and finally to Sihor in 1570, where it stayed until Bhavsinhji's fateful decision in 1723 to build fresh on the coast.

• 3. A Port Built for Trade

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  The new capital was not chosen for defence alone. Bhavsinhji picked the site near Vadva specifically because of its potential for maritime trade. At that time, the commerce of the Gujarat coast was monopolised by the older ports of Surat and Cambay, and breaking into that network required diplomacy as much as geography.

  Surat's castle was controlled by the Sidis of Janjira, a power the Gohils could not simply ignore. Bhavsinhji negotiated with them directly, agreeing to give the Sidis 1.25 percent of the revenue flowing through Bhavnagar port. When the British took over Surat in 1856, he struck a similar agreement with them. These arrangements gave Bhavnagar a place in the coastal trading system rather than forcing it to compete head-on with established interests.

  The old town of Bhavnagar was built as a fortified settlement, with gates oriented toward other important regional towns. For nearly two centuries it served as a major port, with goods moving to and from Mozambique, Zanzibar, Singapore, and the Persian Gulf. A political agent named Mr Peile captured the financial result in a remark that the state carried no debts and its treasury was full.

• 4. Expansion Under the Successors

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  Bhavsinhji's grandson, Vakhatsinhji Gohil, pushed the state's boundaries further than his grandfather had. He took possession of lands belonging to Kolis and Kathis, obtained Rajula from the Navab Saheb Ahmad Khan, and merged Ghogha Taluka into the state. In 1793, Vakhatsinhji conquered the forts of Chital and Talaja, then went on to take Mahuva, Kundla, Trapaj, Umrala, and Botad.

  The ports of Mahuva and Ghogha grew in importance alongside Bhavnagar itself during this period of expansion. The state's prosperity relative to its neighbours was directly tied to that maritime base. Trade revenue funded further consolidation, and the coastal position that Bhavsinhji had chosen for strategic reasons turned out to generate durable wealth across generations.

  In 1807 Bhavnagar State entered into a formal relationship with the British Empire as a protectorate, formalising what had already been a working accommodation. The state was eventually listed in the Imperial Gazetteer for a particular distinction: it built its own railway during the late nineteenth century without drawing on any funding from the central government, a fact that impressed the compilers enough to record it.

• 5. Reform and the Lancers

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  Between 1870 and 1878, Prince Takhtsinhji was a minor, and the state was placed under joint administration. That interlude, which might have been merely an awkward pause, instead produced a range of notable reforms. Mr E. H. Percival of the Bombay Civil Service and Gaurishankar Udayshankar, the Chief Minister, were the two figures responsible. They reshaped administration, revenue collection, the judiciary, postal and telegraph services, and economic policy, and they modernised the ports.

  The state's military had gone through its own evolution. For much of the state's earlier history, Bhavnagar maintained artillery, cavalry, and infantry. By 1866, those units gave way to a police force that was judged more practical for keeping order in towns and villages. Then in 1890, the Thakur of Bhavnagar joined with other Kathiawar rulers in offering state troops for reorganisation under the Imperial Service Troops Scheme. The following year it was agreed that Bhavnagar's contribution would be 300 Rajput cavalry.

  By 1909 the army comprised 256 Imperial Service Lancers, 51 cavalry, and 285 infantry. During the First World War the Bhavnagar Lancers served on active duty in Egypt, Palestine, and Mesopotamia, gaining battle honours and decorations for bravery. In 1911, during this same era of growing imperial connection, HH Maharani Nundkanvarba of Bhavnagar received the Order of the Crown of India, the highest imperial award available to women of the Empire.

• 6. Joining the Indian Union

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  In 1947, Deputy Prime Minister Vallabhbhai Patel took on the task of unifying 565 princely states with the newly independent Indian Union. Bhavnagar's Maharaja, Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavsinhji, became the first king of a princely state to hand over administration to the people's representatives, doing so in 1948. The formal accession to the Indian Union was signed on the 15th of February 1948.

  The military units of the state were wound up in December 1948, when the Bhavnagar Lancers and Infantry were amalgamated with the Dhrangadhra Infantry and the Porbandar Infantry to form the 2nd Battalion, Saurashtra Infantry. That formation eventually became part of the 18th (Saurashtra) Battalion, The Rajputana Rifles, and was later redesignated the 11th Battalion, Mechanised Infantry Regiment, a unit that still exists today.

  The royal family of Bhavnagar remained active in public life and in business after the merger, with interests spanning hotels, real estate, agriculture, and ship breaking. The region that had once been the state is still sometimes called Gohilwad, meaning "Land of the Gohils," after the ruling clan that founded Bhavnagar more than three centuries ago.