Ghogha - Brief History

Brief History

Gogha is situated on the mid-western bank of the Gulf and about 15 km south of the present port town of Bhavnagar. Gogha was known as the port of Gundigar during Vallabhi kingdom (AD 480-720). The Imperial Gazetteer of India (1908:301) mentions that “the natives of this town are reckoned the best sailor or lascars in India. The ships touching here may procure water and supplies or repair damages”. A famous proverb about Gogha is “Lankani Ladi ane Ghoghono var” (Bride of Lanka and groom of Gogha) which perhaps indicates some kind of direct overseas relations of Gogha with Sri Lanka. According to the historical account, Arabs had established their colony at Gogha in the year 636 AD.The presence of ancient Jaina temples at Gogha dating back to the 10th -11th centuries suggest that this was a religious center also. The earliest Arabic inscription fromGogha dates to 1170 AD. During the British period ships up to 1500 tons were laden here. Pinkerton (1811) mentions that Gogha provided a harbour for the largest ships though they would lie dry on mud at low water. Gogha served as a port for Cambay, cargo being conveyed on small boats from Cambay to Gogha to be loaded on ships, the cargo unloaded from ships at Gogha being similarly transported to Cambay. Cambay was really open only to very small vessels, e.g. boats called tawri (Habib, 1982), one of which said to have been 80 tons.

The port of Gogha has been active since the 5th century AD and flourished as a major trading post during the 10th to 16th century AD before Bhavnagar took the place of Gogha as trading center. Being located at strategic position in the Gulf Gogha has always been subject of an important trading center. Due to this reason Gogha had been several times attacked and captured by local rulers like Gohel Rajputs and Mohammedans during the medieval period (Bell, 1980:73). Stone anchors have been found from several locations along the Indian coast particularly from early the Medieval period ports such as Dabhol (Gaur et al. 2007b) Sindhudurg (Sila and Gaur, 1997), and Vijaydurg (Sila et al., 1998) which are fairly dated between 8th to 14thcentury AD.

Gogha was the important port town during the medieval period and played as transit port between the ports of the upper part of the Gulf of Khambhat and rest of the ports along the Indian Ocean Countries. The discovery of various types of anchors suggests that boats of different origin visited Gogha port. The most important find is an anchor with wide groove on the all four section is probably of the Chinese origin. For the first time glazed ware has been found associated with the stone anchors suggest that these may be dated between the 10th and the 16th century AD.Such a large number of stone anchors in inter tidal zone suggest the correct description provided in the Periplus of the Erythrenean Sea.