Navsari, Gujarat, India
Welcome to this site. Navsari is a city in South Gujarat very close to Surat. Below is Navsari on Google maps (just so that you do not have to search for it).
History: Navsari has a very old history dating back around 2000 years. This city/port was mentioned by
Ptolemy around ~1800 years ago in his book. The geographic location he showed as Narispa, is in fact the Navsari of today (Ref: Bombay Gazetteer. Record 13). In the past, the city of Navsari has been associated with many names such as Nag Vardhana, Nag Shahi, Nag Sarika, Nag Mandal, Nav Sarika and Nav Sareh. Some of the legends associated with the various names of Navsari are as follows:
Shayashray Shiladitya, who ruled over Navsari in the seventh century named this city NAG VARDHANA in honor of his Guru Nag Vardhana. During the same period, the name changed to NAV SARIKA as is evidenced by a recovered copper plate dated 669 A.D. The legend is that Shayashray Shiladttya presented a copper plate to a priest in his town. The copper plate read that Shiladitya, the ruler of "Nav Sarika," had bestowed a nearby village upon this priest of the Kashyapclan.
The above changes in names show that Navsari, like any other city, has passed through many vicissitudes in the matter of political reign. About fourteen hundred years ago, the kings of the Chalukya Dynasty governed the region of Navsari. Later on, the Parsis, who migrated from Iran, virtually ruled this small town. One group of Parsis, then Persian Zoroastrians, left Iran from a place in north eastern region with Sari, Iran as the main town; its possible this is the name adopted by Parsis (new Sari-Navsari) for Nav Sarika. The reign of the Parsis ended as the Muslim rulers took over. For the last one hundred years, until India's independence in 1947, Navsari was the property of the Gaekwads of Baroda.
Navsari is recognized as the birthplace of the great business tycoons such as Dadabhoy Naoroji, Jamshetji Tata and Sir Jamshetji Jeejeebhoy. A Historical place in the history of India is located just 17 km from main city. Dandi where Mahatma Gandhi and lots and lots of his followers protest against the British salt tax in colonial India. Mahatma Gandhi along with his followers, walked from Sabarmati Ashram(Ahmadabad) to Dandi(Navsari), Gujarat to make salt, large numbers of Indians following him of their own accord. The road toward dandi is lined with tall trees and green fields. A large number of tourists from the different places of the country come to have a look at Navsari. Several people from the Parsi origin also come here to see this site as this was the first dwelling place of the Parsis who migrated to Gujarat. The excellence of the Parsi architecture can be well understood from the various edifices of this place that are built in the authentic Parsi style. The Parsi Vad is one such structure that has become a heritage site and attracts a lot of tourists. Being one of the important tourist attractions in Navsari.
For more information about Navsari, visit the Navsari site.
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