Referred to as Saurashtra and by some other names over time, this region has been mentioned since the
Mahabharata and
Vedic period. In the first century CE, it is referred to as Surastrene, or
Saraostus in the
Periplus of the Erythraean Sea: The region is mentioned in the Junagadh Rock inscription dating 150 CE, attributed to
Rudradaman I. Prior to this, during the rule of
Ashoka (268–232 BCE), the region was under Yavana Tushaspa, and governed by Pushyagupta during
Chandragupta Maurya's reign (322BC – 298BC).
Saurashtra State After India's independence in 1947, 217
princely states of Kathiawar, including the former Junagadh State, were merged to form the state of Saurashtra on 15 February 1948. Initially, it was named
United State of Kathiawar, which was renamed to
Saurashtra State in November 1948. The exercise took up a lot of Shri Vallabhbhai Patel's time to convince the local princes and petty subas (totalling 222 in Saurashtra alone). However, Maharaja
Krishnakumar Sinhji of
Bhavnagar State readily extended to offer his large and royal empire of Bhavnagar / Gohilwar to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, and Bhavnagar became the first in the country to be merged into the union of India. The capital of Saurashtra was
Rajkot. Uchharangray Navalshankar Dhebar, who later went on to become President of the Indian National Congress between 1955 and 1959, became Saurashtra's first Chief Minister. He was succeeded by Rasiklal Umedchand Parikh on 19 December 1954. On 1 November 1956, Saurashtra was merged into
Bombay state. In 1960 Bombay state was divided along linguistic lines into the new states of
Gujarat and
Maharashtra. The territory of Saurashtra, including Junagadh and all of Sorath, became part of the state of
Gujarat. '' districts:
Halar,
Jhalavad,
Sorath and
Gohilwad The state of the region in the early nineteenth century is shown in
Letitia Elizabeth Landon's poetical illustration, "Scene in Kattiawar", to an engraving of a painting by
Clarkson Frederick Stanfield. == Location ==