Gujarat

Why Gujarat works

Gujarat is a state along the western coast of India with a coastline of about 2,340 kilometres, the longest of any Indian state, most of it running along the Kathiawar peninsula. It is the fifth-largest Indian state by area, covering some 196,024 square kilometres, and the ninth-most populous, with a population of 60.4 million recorded in 2011. Gujarat is bordered by Rajasthan to the northeast, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu to the south, Maharashtra to the southeast, Madhya Pradesh to the east, and the Arabian Sea and Pakistan's Sindh province to the west; its capital is Gandhinagar, while Ahmedabad is its largest city, and Gujarati, the language of the indigenous Gujaratis, is the state's official language.

Gujarat was one of the main centres of the Indus Valley Civilisation, home to ancient metropolitan sites including Lothal, where India's first port was established, Dholavira, one of the largest and most prominent Indus Valley archaeological sites in India, and the more recently discovered Gola Dhoro; altogether, about fifty Indus Valley settlement ruins have been found across the state. Gujarat's ancient history was shaped further by its commercial life, with clear evidence of trade ties to Egypt, Bahrain, and Sumer in the Persian Gulf dating to between 1000 and 750 BCE, and the region later passed through a succession of polities including the Mauryan dynasty, Satavahana dynasty, Gupta Empire, and Gurjara-Pratihara Empire.

Religious sites are central to Gujarat's tourism. Somnath, the first of the twelve Jyotirlingas, is mentioned in the Rigveda, while the Dwarkadhish Temple, along with the Radha Damodar Temple in Junagadh and sites in Dakor, draws pilgrims to temples dedicated to Krishna. The Sun Temple at Modhera is a ticketed monument managed by the Archaeological Survey of India, and other religious sites across the state include Ambaji, Shamlaji, Chotila, Becharaji, Mahudi, and Shankheshwar. The Shatrunjaya Mahatirth on Mount Shatrunjaya at Palitana is considered by the Svetambara and Digambara Jain communities to be among the holiest of all pilgrimage places, and Palitana is the world's only mountain carrying more than 900 temples, while Girnar Mahatirth serves as another major Jain pilgrimage destination.

The Rann of Kutch, from the Gujarati word for desert, is a seasonally marshy saline clay desert within the wider Thar Desert biogeographic region, lying between Pakistan's Sindh province and the rest of Gujarat and beginning about 8 kilometres from the village of Kharaghoda in Surendranagar District. Elsewhere in the state, Gujarat holds 15,016.64 square kilometres of forest cover, about 7.65% of its geographical area, spread across four national parks and 21 sanctuaries; it is the only home of the Asiatic lion and, outside Africa, the only place where lions still live in the wild, with Gir Forest National Park in the state's southwest protecting part of their habitat. Indian leopards are also found across the plains of Saurashtra and the mountains of South Gujarat, alongside other protected areas such as Vansda National Park, Blackbuck National Park, Velavadar, and Narara Marine National Park in the Gulf of Kutchh.

Gujarati food is primarily vegetarian, built around a typical thali of rotli, bhakhari, thepala, or rotlo alongside dal or kadhi, khichdi, bhat, and shak, with athanu, an Indian pickle, and chhundo served as condiments. Gujarat's four main regions each bring their own style to the cuisine, and many Gujarati dishes carry a distinctive combination of sweet, salty, and spicy flavours at once; in the Saurashtra and Kutch regions, chhash, or buttermilk, is regarded as an everyday staple alongside the meal.

• Gujarat — Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Text adapted from the linked articles under CC BY-SA 4.0; edited for length.

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