Bhavnagar
city in Gujarat, India
Bhavnagar is a city and the headquarters of Bhavnagar district in the Indian state of Gujarat. Bhavnagar was founded in 1723 by Bhavsinhji Gohil. It was the capital of Bhavnagar State, which was a princely state before it was merged into the Indian Union in February 1948.Bhavnagar currently has the 5th largest population in Gujarat.
Bhavnagar is situated 190 kilometres or 120 miles away from the state capital Gandhinagar and to the west of the Gulf of Khambhat. It has always been an important city for trade with many large and small scale industries along with the world's largest ship breaking yard, Alang which is located 50 kilometres or 31 miles away. Historically, Bhavnagar holds the distinction of being the first princely state to voluntarily merge into the Union of India in January 1948, a move led by Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Gohil.
The city is a significant educational center in Gujarat; Shamaldas Arts College, founded by Maharaja Takhtsinhji in 1885, is historically prominent as the institution where Mahatma Gandhi studied in 1888. Gandhi's admission to the college is recorded as one of the earliest milestones in his academic journey before he left for London to study law. The city serves as the gateway to Blackbuck National Park, Velavadar, which is recognized as the only tropical grassland in India to be designated as a National Park along with Victoria park which is the only urban forest of Gujarat located at the heart of Bhavnagar
Bhavnagar is also famous for its version of the popular Gujarati snack 'Ganthiya' and 'Jalebi'.
History
The Gohil Rajput of the Suryavanshi clan faced severe competition in Marwar.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Bhavnagar” is city in Gujarat, India. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Bhavnagar, city and Gujarat, not as a finished interpretation.
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Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 12, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q242992. VIAF identifies the subject as 136055668. The Library of Congress control number is n81125869. Authority coordinates are 21.765, 72.137. 5 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1723, 1948, 1885 and 1888.
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This entry incorporates text from “Bhavnagar” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.