Page:The Imperial Gazetteer of India - Volume 2 (2nd edition).pdf/390

 BHAUNAGAR.

380 about ^230,000.

Over about one-half the area, the black cotton earth, the remainder is light and sandy.

soil is

the regar or

Water

is

obtained

from wells and rivers. The climate on the sea-coast is good, but inland it is hot and dry. The most common disease is fever. Products, grain, salt, and cotton manufactures, oil, copper and brass vessels, and cloth. The quantity of cotton produced is very considerable, and forms one of

the chief sources of wealth of the State. ports

in

1880-81 were returned

imports at

The

196,254.

at

The

exports from

a total value

its

various

of ;^i, 164,921

State does not levy transit dues.



A

road has been constructed from Bhaunagar to Vartej and Gogo, and another to Dhasa. About 60 miles of the Kathiawar or BhaunagarGondal Railway runs through the State.

The

present Thakur Sahib of Bhaunagar,

born about 1858.

He

is

named Takht

Singhji,

was

a Gohel Rajput, and was educated at the

Rajkumar College at Rajkot. During was conducted by joint administrators

his minority, the administration

— one a British

officer,

the other

the old Minister of the State.

The tribe of Gohel Rajputs are said to have settled in the country about the year 1260 a.d. under their chief Sejak, from whose three sons Rdnoji, Sarangjf, and Shahji, are descended respectively the chiefs of Bhaunagar, Lathi, and Palitana.

from Bhaunagar.

Bhau

The Wala

State also

is

an offshoot

The town

of Bhaunagar was founded in 1723 by Singh, grandfather of Wakhat Singh, who succeeded to the

Bhau Singh, his son Rawal Akherajji, and his grandson Wakhat Singh, took great pains to improve the trade of their country, and to destroy the pirates who infested the neighbouring seas. A very intimate connection was thus formed between Bhaunagar and chieftaincy in 1772.

the

Bombay Government.

In 1759, the British Government acquired

a right to a fourth share of the customs of the port of Bhaunagar from

whom

had been granted by Bhau Singh, as Nawib of Cambay. In 1771, Rawal Akherajji assisted the Bombay Government in reducing After Talaja and Mahuwa, which were occupied by piratical Kulis. the conquest of Talaja, the fort was offered to Akherajji by the Bombay Government, but he refused to accept it, and it was in consequence made over to the Nawab of Cambay. Wakhat Singh, however, after his accession, dispossessed the Nawab of the fort, which, under an engagement arranged by the British Government in 1773, he was

the Sidi of Surat, to

it

the price of protection from the enmity of the

allowed to retain on paying a

sum

of

The boundaries

of the

Bhaunagar State were largely increased by various other acquisitions made by Wakhat Singh previous to the settlement of Kathiawar. When Gujarat (Guzerat) and Kathiawar were divided between the Peshwaand the Gaekwar, the western and larger portion of the Bhaunagar possessions were included in the Gaekwar’s share ; while the eastern and