The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c20.107

v4.c20.107

Next to Bengal, Gujarāt was the richest province in the Mughul empire. Its wealth was due to its handicrafts, which had a world-wide celebrity, and its commerce, for which its geography gave it exceptional advantage. On its coast were the greatest ports of India, and in Mughul times it was pre-eminently the gateway of India for pilgrims, travellers, merchants, fortune-hunters, and political refugees from Persia, Arabia, Turkey, Zanzibar and even Khurāsān and Egypt. The province had a very composite population and a large foreign strain from very early times, and even its Hindu inhabitants belonged to an immense variety of tribes and degrees of civilisation, which gave an unparalleled diversity to the racial complexion of Gujarāt. Primitive and predatory races were scattered throughout the province, such as the Kolīs in the south, the Bhīls in Bāglān (south-east), the pseudo-Rājputs in the eastern frontier, the Kāthis in the west, and the Girāsiās in most of the districts. The province of Gujarāt was hard to control and in Mughul times it bore the epithet of *lashkar-khez* (bristling with soldiers). It had also an evil reputation for famines since the Middle Ages, and there were five or six terrible outbreaks of crop failure in Aurangzīb’s reign. Wars in Rājputāna also used to overflow into Gujarāt by way of the Īdar frontier.