Description

In its more than 600 years of history, the city has been a seat to at least four regimes of momentous power, which however, departed rather ungracefully. From its inception in early 15th Century to the third quarter of the 16th Century, Ahmedabad was the capital to the independent Sultanate of Gujarat. Succumbing to the relentless Mughal onslaught in the north, the city surrendered without a fight in 1572 to Akbar. Though the city lost its significance to Delhi and Agra over the next century, it gained vital cultural value through the numerous monuments erected by the Mughals. Ethnic conflicts and the weakening of empire brought this era of peace to an end. For the following couple of decades Marathas governed the city along with the Mughals, till they finally took over the city in 1753. Due to instability and I ensuing ing problems problems towards the end of the 18th Century, a considerable population of merchants and craftsmen had abandoned Ahmedabad.

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