Ghogha

History

Ghogha was known as the port of Gundigar during Maitraka rule of Vallabhi (AD 480-720). Under Chaulukya dynasty rule (746-1297), except as a nursery for seamen, Ghogha was not a place of any note. One of the earliest mentions of the town is by French explorer Friar Jordanus, who, in 1321, passing north through Thane and Bharuch or as he writes it Parocco, stayed at 'Gogo'. Of the place he has left no details. At this time Ghogha is said to have been in the hands of Muslim soldiers of fortune, from whom, a few years later (1325), Mokhadaji Gohil, the Gohil chief of Umrala, took it and with the Piram Island made it his headquarters. As ruler of Piram, Mokhadaji levied toll from all ships passing up the Gulf. His exactions came to the knowledge of the emperor Muhammad bin Tughluq (1325-1351), then quelling a revolt in Gujarat, and, in 1347, Gogha was taken, Mokhadaji killed, and the Piram fort destroyed. The Emperor, satisfied with the destruction of Piram, left Gogha, at this time 'a great city with large markets,' in the hands of Dungarji, Mokhadaji's son. For about fifty years the Gohils held Ghogha. Near the close of the century (1390) they were forced to pay tribute to Muzaffar Shah I, the founder of the Gujarat Sultanate. In the fifteenth century, under the powerful Gujarat Sultanate rulers, the Gohils, though they kept their title of Ghogha chiefs, retired to Umrala. At this time Ghogha was probably under a Muslim governor. At the beginning of the sixteenth century (1503) it was entirely a Muslim town 'of great traffic in a fat and wealthy land.' Ten years later (1513), it was a very large town and a good port dealing in merchandize of all kinds and loading ships for Malabar and Aden. In the struggles for mastery at sea between the Gujarat kings and the Portuguese…