Navsari
Encyclopedia
Navsari is a city
City
A city is a relatively large and permanent settlement. Although there is no agreement on how a city is distinguished from a town within general English language meanings, many cities have a particular administrative, legal, or historical status based on local law.For example, in the U.S...

 and municipality
Municipality
A municipality is essentially an urban administrative division having corporate status and usually powers of self-government. It can also be used to mean the governing body of a municipality. A municipality is a general-purpose administrative subdivision, as opposed to a special-purpose district...

 in the Surat Metropolitan Region
Surat Metropolitan Region
The Surat Metropolitan Area/Surat Metropolitan Region is a metropolitan area consisting of the Indian metropolis of Surat and its satellite towns. Developing over a period of about 18 years, it consists of one municipal corporation, 7 municipalities and 6 Counter Magnets...

 and also the administrative headquarters Navsari District
Navsari district
Navsari is an administrative district in the state of Gujarat in India, with its headquarters at Navsari city. The district covers an area of 2,211 square kilometres, and had a population of 1,229,250 in 2001.Dudhia Talao:...

 of Gujarat, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

. Navsari is also the Twin City of Surat, and only 37 km south of Surat
Surat
Surat , also known as Suryapur, is the commercial capital city of the Indian state of Gujarat. Surat is India's Eighth most populous city and Ninth-most populous urban agglomeration. It is also administrative capital of Surat district and one of the fastest growing cities in India. The city proper...

.

Geography

Navsari is located at 20.95°N 72.93°E. It has an average elevation of 9m (29') above sea level. The city is located in southern Gujarat and is situated near the Purna
Purna
Purna is a town with a municipal council in Parbhani district in the Indian state of Maharashtra.-Geography:Purna is located at . It has an average elevation of 386 metres ....

 River, within a few kilometres of the river's delta, which is west of the city and empties into the Gulf of Khambhat
Gulf of Khambhat
The Gulf of Khambhat is an inlet of the Arabian Sea along the west coast of India, in the state of Gujarat. It is about 80 miles in length, and divides the Kathiawar peninsula to the west from the eastern part of Gujarat state on the east. The Narmada and Tapti rivers empty into the Gulf...

.

Weather in Navsari is sunny from September to May, rainy from June to August. The average maximum and minimum temperatures are 40 °C (104 °F) and 18 °C (64 °F) respectively. The average annual rainfall is 122 cm (48 in).

The soil of the region is black. There are two lakes in the city: Dudhiya Talav (Talāv means Lake in Gujarati
Gujarati language
Gujarati is an Indo-Aryan language, and part of the greater Indo-European language family. It is derived from a language called Old Gujarati which is the ancestor language of the modern Gujarati and Rajasthani languages...

), and Sharbatiya Talav.

Demographics

The city's first settlers were Parsi
Parsi
Parsi or Parsee refers to a member of the larger of the two Zoroastrian communities in South Asia, the other being the Irani community....

 Zoroastrians.

According to the 2001 census
Census
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...

, Navsari had a population of 134,009. Males constitute 52% of the population and females 48%. Navsari has an average literacy rate of 76%, higher than the national average of 59.5%: male literacy is 80%, and female literacy is 72%. 11% of the population is under 6 years of age. Gujarati is the main language spoken in Navsari. Other languages spoken are Hindi
Hindi
Standard Hindi, or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi, also known as Manak Hindi , High Hindi, Nagari Hindi, and Literary Hindi, is a standardized and sanskritized register of the Hindustani language derived from the Khariboli dialect of Delhi...

 and Marathi
Marathi language
Marathi is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people of western and central India. It is the official language of the state of Maharashtra. There are over 68 million fluent speakers worldwide. Marathi has the fourth largest number of native speakers in India and is the fifteenth most...

.

Landmarks

One of the Seven Atash Behrams is located near Tarota Bazar and many Parsi Zoroastrians from
all over the world visit.

The Sayaji Vaibhav Public Library Navsari
Sayaji Vaibhav Public Library Navsari
The Sayaji Vaibhav Public Library, located in Navsari. is one of the largest libraries of the Gujarat state. This is the only library in Gujaratto have received the prestigious Late Motibhai Amin Library Award five times by the Government of Gujarat.-History:...

 is an important public building in Navsari. The Meherji Rana
Meherji Rana
The first Dastur Meherji Rana was the undisputed spiritual leader of the Parsi community in India during the sixteenth century. He was renowned not just among the Parsis but also other communities on account of his piety, vast knowledge and spiritual powers....

 library at Tarota Bazaar is home to some of the oldest texts of the Indian Zoroastrian community. The Clock Tower, Laxman Hall, Junathana, Court Building and Old Post Office Building serve as important landmarks. The city's main market is Mota Bazaar. There is also a statue of Dadabhai Naoroji
Dadabhai Naoroji
Dadabhai Naoroji , known as the Grand Old Man of India, was a Parsi intellectual, educator, cotton trader, and an early Indian political leader. His book Poverty and Un-British Rule in India brought attention to the draining of India's wealth into Britain...

 in Tower area.

Dudhia Talao, another of the area's major commercial centers, was once a lake. There is a well-known ophthalmic hospital called Rotary Eye Hospital near Dudhia Talao, which was built in the early 1970s. The regionally popular Ashapuri Temple is situated near Dudhia Talao. At Dudhia Talao is built one of the finest auditoriums in south Gujarat, J.N. Tata Memorial Hall.

On the banks of river Purna
Purna
Purna is a town with a municipal council in Parbhani district in the Indian state of Maharashtra.-Geography:Purna is located at . It has an average elevation of 386 metres ....

 is the famous temple of Ravariya Bapa. Another important place of worship is BAPS
BAPS
Bochasanwasi Shri Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha , often abbreviated as BAPS , is a major organization within the Swaminarayan sect of Hinduism...

 Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, located on the National Highway no. 8, which links Mumbai
Mumbai
Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...

 and Delhi
Delhi
Delhi , officially National Capital Territory of Delhi , is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest by population in India, next to Mumbai. It is the eighth largest metropolis in the world by population with 16,753,265 inhabitants in the Territory at the 2011 Census...

. VIRWADI HANUMANJI MANDIR and TAPOVAN SANSKAR DHAM are highly visited worship places.Both temples are main worship places of Hinduism and Jainism.

At coastal line there lies a village, which is known as DANDI .The place where the salt Satyagraha took place against British rule. The Salt Satyagraha, which began with the Dandi March on March 12, 1930, was an important part of the Indian independence movement.On March 12, 1930, Gandhi and 78 male satyagrahis set out on foot for the coastal village of Dandi, Gujarat, over 390 kilometres (240 mi) from their starting point at Sabarmati Ashram. According to The Statesman, the official government newspaper which usually played down the size of crowds at Gandhi's functions, 100,000 people crowded the road that separated Sabarmati from Ahmedabad.[38][39] The first day's march of 21 kilometres (13 mi) ended in the village of Aslali, where Gandhi spoke to a crowd of about 4,000. At Aslali, and the other villages that the march passed through, volunteers collected donations, registered new satyagrahis, and received resignations from village officials who chose to end cooperation with British rule.There a statue of Gandhiji and small museum in which photo gallery is there.

History

Navsari, one of the oldest cities of Gujarat, has an inspiring history of over 2000 years. According to the Greek historical writings, a celebrated Egyptian astronomer and geographer named Tolemy mentioned about Navsari's port in his book written about 1850 years ago (150 A.D.). The geographic location he showed as Narispa, is in fact the Navsari of today.

The origin of the name "Navsari" has a very fascinating history. 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.

Another recovered copper plate dated 821 A.D. implies that the city's name later changed into NAG SARIKA. The copper plate indicates that a Rashtrakut king named Kark Suvarna Varsh gave "Nag Sarika" as a gift to his teacher named AparaJeet, pupil of Sumati kaharishi, who in turn was a pupil of the famous Digambar Jain teacher Acharya Mallavadi. There is a popular legend behind the name "Nag Sarika." Fables suggest that there was a big papal tree on the bank of a pond in the city. A huge Cobra lived in a hollow of this tree. On this same tree, Sarika _ a singing bird _ had her nest. As they resided in the same place, both became friends. Everyday Sarika entertained the Cobra by singing her melodious tunes. The legends have it that due to this remarkable friendship between the Nag (Cobra) and the Sarika (singing bird), the city's name became popular as NAG SARIKA.

Another legend of the Nag talks about the origins of a different name for the city: NAG SHAHI. Historically, a Nag (Black Cobra) temple was situated next to a talav (pond) in the city. People worshiped the Black Cobra for its power and Prowess. Although the pond (talav) does not exist any more, the historical Nag Temple still exists in the area known as "Nag Talavdi" today. Hence the city came to be known as NAG SHAHI, which means the power and prowess of the Black Cobra.

According to the Parsi tradition, in 1142 A.D., when they first came to Navsari, the city was named as NAG MANDAL. The Parsis found the city's atmosphere to that of "Sari" prant of Iran. In the Persian
Persian language
Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...

 language, "now" means new and "Sari" refers to the place in Iran. Hence, the name NAO SARI came into being.

The Fourteenth century marked the beginning of Muslim rule in Gujarat. Navsari came under the Muslim rule in the late sixteenth century when its name was changed to NAV SAREH. The anecdote is that according to the Muslim tradition, there were nine "Sarchs" of Muslims in the city and hence the name was derived as NAV (Nine) SAREH (Sarchs).

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
Chalukya dynasty
The Chalukya dynasty was an Indian royal dynasty that ruled large parts of southern and central India between the 6th and the 12th centuries. During this period, they ruled as three related yet individual dynasties. The earliest dynasty, known as the "Badami Chalukyas", ruled from Vatapi from the...

 governed the region of Navsari
. Later on, the Parsis, who migrated from Iran, virtually ruled this small town. 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.
  • Jamsetji Tata
    Jamsetji Tata
    Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata was an Indian entrepreneur and industrialist, prominent for his pioneering work in Indian industry. He was born to a Parsi family in Navsari, Gujarat, India....


Navsari is also the birth place of Jamsetji Tata
Jamsetji Tata
Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata was an Indian entrepreneur and industrialist, prominent for his pioneering work in Indian industry. He was born to a Parsi family in Navsari, Gujarat, India....

, the founder of what would later become the Tata Group of companies; he is regarded as the "father of Indian industry"
  • Dadabhai Navroji

Dadabhai Navroji, known as the "Grand Old Man of India," was born in Navsari. He was an elected Member of Parliament (MP) in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom between 1892 and 1895, and the first Asian to be a British MP.

Transportation

By Air: The nearest local airport is at Surat
Surat
Surat , also known as Suryapur, is the commercial capital city of the Indian state of Gujarat. Surat is India's Eighth most populous city and Ninth-most populous urban agglomeration. It is also administrative capital of Surat district and one of the fastest growing cities in India. The city proper...

, 30 km north of Navsari, with the nearest international airports being Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport at Mumbai
Mumbai
Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...

 (Bombay), 260 km to the south and to the north the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport
Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport
Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport is India's eighth busiest airport with an average of 250 aircraft movements a day. It services the metropolitan areas of two cities in the State of Gujarat - Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar. The airport is located from the Ahmedabad Railway Station. It is...

, Ahmedabad
Ahmedabad
Ahmedabad also known as Karnavati is the largest city in Gujarat, India. It is the former capital of Gujarat and is also the judicial capital of Gujarat as the Gujarat High Court has its seat in Ahmedabad...

.
By Rail: Navsari also lies on the Mumbai-Delhi
Delhi
Delhi , officially National Capital Territory of Delhi , is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest by population in India, next to Mumbai. It is the eighth largest metropolis in the world by population with 16,753,265 inhabitants in the Territory at the 2011 Census...

 railway link, one of the busiest railway routes in India.
By Road: Navsari is well connected by NH 228 also known as Sabarmati-Dandi Highway. NH 8 also passes through the city. Navsari is only 40 km south of Surat. Navsari has one of the best road connectivity.

Notable people

  • Ketan Mehta
    Ketan Mehta
    Ketan Mehta is an Indian film director, who has also directed documentaries and television serials.-Early life and education:Born in Navsari in Gujarat, Ketan Mehta did his schooling from Sardar Patel Vidyalaya, Delhi and later graduated in film direction from Film and Television Institute of...

    , Indian film director and husband of actress Deepa Sahi
    Deepa Sahi
    -Early life:Deepa Sahi was born in India in Dehradun. Her family later shifted to Canada but she continued to stay in India.-Early career:An alumnus of National School of Drama, Delhi, Sahi started off with a theater career, with strong Leftist leanings and social activism a core value of the...

  • Dr. Dababhoy Nowroji
  • Jamsetji Tata
    Jamsetji Tata
    Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata was an Indian entrepreneur and industrialist, prominent for his pioneering work in Indian industry. He was born to a Parsi family in Navsari, Gujarat, India....

  • Homai Vyarawalla
    Homai Vyarawalla
    Homai Vyarawalla , commonly known by her pseudonym "Dalda 13," is India's first woman photojournalist. First active in the late 1930s, she retired in the early 1970s. In 2011, she was chosen for the second highest civilian award Padma Vibhushan by Govt...

     (1913- ), 1st woman photojounalist of India, Padma Vibushan

Universities and colleges

  • Sorabji Burjorji Garda Arts College
  • B.P. Baria Science College
  • Navsari Agricultural University
    Navsari Agricultural University
    Navsari Agricultural University is an agricultural university at Navsari in the Indian state of Gujarat. It was part of Gujarat Agricultural University until May 2004.-Colleges:*Faculty of Agriculture*Faculty of Horticulture & Forestry...

  • P.K. Patel Commerce College
  • Navsari Law College
  • Mahatma Gandhi institute of technical education and research
  • Vallbhbudhi polytechnic navsari
  • Arts And Commerce College,Chovisi(Dist:Navsari)
  • Narnlala College of Profesional and Applied Science
  • S.S.Agrawal College of Arts, Commerce and Management, Navsari
  • S.S.Agrawal College of Nursing Training College and Research Centre, Navsari
  • S.S.Agrawal Institute of Management and Technology, Navsari

Schools

  • The Vidyakunj High School
    The Vidyakunj High School
    The Vidya Kunj School is an English language middle school located in Navsari in Gujarat, a state in western India. It offers G.S.E.B. courses in science and commerce tracks through to grade 12...

  • Seth P.H.Vidyalaya (Sanskarbharti)
  • A.H.M.P.High School (Akhil Hind Mahilaa parishad High School)
  • Bai Navajbai Tata Girls' High School, Dastur Wad
  • Seth R.J.J. High School
    Seth R.J.J. High School
    Seth R.J.J. High School is one of the oldest schools in Navsari, India. It was founded in 1846 by Sir Jamsetjee Jeejebhoy, an Indian merchant and philanthropist.-External links:**...

  • The Navsari High School
  • Sheth H.C. Prekh,Navsari High School
  • St. Francis of Assisi Convent High School
    St. Francis of Assisi Convent High School
    The St. Francis of Assisi Convent High School is a high school located in Navsari, Gujarat, India. The school number is 258004.This was one of the first English medium schools in the city and offers GSEB courses up to grade 12 standard, the Higher Secondary Certificate, in science and commerce...

  • Bhakta Ashram
  • Seventh-Day Adventist English School
  • Sheth Purushottamdas Harjivandas Vidyalaya
    Sheth Purushottamdas Harjivandas Vidyalaya
    Sheth Purushottamdas Harjivandas Vidyalaya is a school situated near Dudhiya Talaw in Navsari district of Gujarat state of India....

     (Sanskar Bharti)
  • D.K. Tata High School
  • Dinbai Daboo Girls High School
  • Sir Cowasjee Jehangir Nauserwanjee Zarthostri Madresa High School (Madresa High School)
  • Tapovan Sanskardham Vidyalaya
  • SGM Shiroiya School
    Savitaben Girdharlal Mayachand Shiroiya Senior Secondary School
    Savitaben Girdharlal Mayachand Shiroiya Senior Secondary School is a School in Navsari, Gujarat. It was Established in the year 1996. The School Principal is Mr.Thaliyachira K. Joy. It is affiliated to C.B.S.E.. It is an ISO 9000:2000 certified school...

  • R.D Patel Sarvajanik High School, Kabilpore
  • Mamta Mandir
  • Seth Banatwala High School
  • Sir C.J.Z Madresha High School, Navsari
  • Shree Sardar Patel Vidhtabhavn, Jalalpore, Navsari
  • Shree Sardar Sharda Mandir, Vijalpore, Navsari
  • Seema Patel Higher Secondary School,Navsari
  • A.B. Higher Secondary School,Navsari

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK