Kutch
The Jadejas entered Kutch from Sindh in the twelfth century, claiming Yādava descent through the Samma line, and consolidated control of the peninsula over several centuries. Rao Khengarji I made Bhuj the capital in 1548.
Kutch is largely salt desert and scrub, and the state's economy was maritime. Mandvi was a major shipbuilding centre — Kutchi-built vessels traded to Muscat, Zanzibar and the Malabar coast — and Kutchi merchant communities established themselves across the western Indian Ocean, in Oman, East Africa and the Gulf. That diaspora long outlasted the kingdom.
Later history
The state entered treaty relations with the British in 1819, in the same year as the great Kutch earthquake, which altered the region's drainage and destroyed much of Bhuj. It acceded to India in 1948 and became a separate state before merging into Bombay and then Gujarat.
The Aina Mahal and Prag Mahal palaces at Bhuj, and the town's craft traditions in embroidery, bandhani and metalwork, are the visible legacy. Much of the historic fabric was damaged again in the 2001 earthquake.
Further reading
- Asher, Catherine B. India Before Europe. Cambridge University Press, 2006
- Blurton, T. Richard. Hindu Art. Harvard University Press, 1993
- Davis, Richard H. Lives of Indian Images. Princeton University Press, 1997
- Elgood, Heather. Hinduism and the Religious Arts. Cassell, 1999
- Michell, George. The Hindu Temple: An Introduction to Its Meaning and Forms. University of Chicago Press, 1988
See also
This entry was last revised on 1 August 2026.