Junagadh

Junagadh

• Junagadh  is the headquarters of Junagadh district in the Indian state of Gujarat. The city is the 7th largest in Gujarat, located at the foot of the Girnar hills, 355  km southwest of the state capitals Gandhinagar and Ahmedabad. Literally translated, Junagadh means "Old Fort".
•  An alternate etymology gives the name as coming from "Yonagadh", literally "City of the Yona (Greeks)," referring to the ancient inhabitants of the city under the Indo-Greek Kingdom. It is also known as "Sorath", the name of the earlier princely state of Junagadh.
•  After a brief struggle between India and Pakistan, Junagadh joined India on November 9, 1947. It was a part of Saurashtra state and later Bombay state. In 1960, after the Maha Gujarat movement, it became part of the newly formed Gujarat state.

Early history.

• An impressive fort, Uparkot Fort, located on a plateau in the middle of town, was originally built during the Mauryan dynasty by Chandragupta in 319 BCE. The fort remained in use until the 6th century, when it was abandoned for about 300 years, then rediscovered by Chudasama ruler Graharipu in 976 CE. The fort was besieged 16 times over an 800-year period. One unsuccessful siege lasted twelve years.
• There is an inscription with fourteen Edicts of Ashoka on a large boulder within 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) of Uparkot Fort. The inscriptions carry Brahmi script in a language similar to Pali and date back to 250 BCE. On the same rock there is an inscription in Sanskrit added around 150 CE by Mahakshatrap Rudradaman I, the Saka(Scythian) ruler of Malwa, a member of the Western Kshatrapas dynasty. This has been described as "the earliest known Sanscrit inscription of any extent".Another inscription dates from about 450 CE and refers to Skandagupta, the last Gupta emperor. Old rock-cut Buddhist "caves" in this area, dating from well before 500 CE, have stone carvings and floral work. There are also the Khapra Kodia Caves north of the fort, and the Bava Pyara caves south of the fort. Bava Pyara caves contains artworks of both Buddhism and Jainism.
• The Maitraka dynasty ruled Gujarat from 475 to 767 CE. The founder of the dynasty, General Bhatarka, military governor of Saurashtra peninsula under the Gupta empire, established himself as the independent ruler of Gujarat around the last quarter of the 5th century.