Page:History of India Vol 7.djvu/243

 THE EMPORIUM OF SURAT 193 Surat, the emporium of this ocean inlet and the capital of Gujarat, lies on a bend of the Tapti where the stream sweeps abruptly westward toward the sea. The name Surat is the modern representative of the ancient province of Surashtra, which at one time in- cluded not only Gujarat but part of Kathiawar. In ancient times the city was the chief maritime centre of India, and Ptolemy, about 150 B.C., speaks of the - E o • A GENERAL VIEW OF SURAT. After an old print. trade of Pulipula, which has been identified with Phul- pada, the old sacred part of Surat town. In course of time, however, the silt-bearing currents of its river and sand-laden ocean tides blocked its approach to medi- aeval shipping, although they formed a roadstead pro- tected by mud-banks at Suwali, near the river mouth. Gujarat was cut off from the Moghul base in Northern India by mountains and deserts, and its annexation to the Moghul Empire cost twenty* years of war, from 1572 to 1592. The work of conquest was rudely inter- rupted by revolts, which flared up afresh in the early