Early Period
Archaeologists have found Stone Age settlements around the Sabarmati and Mahi rivers in the south and east of the state. The settlements probably date from the time of the Indus Valley civilization. There were also Harappan centres at Lothal, Rampur, Amri, Lakhabaval, and Rozdi.

Rock inscriptions in the Girnar Hills show that the Maurya Emperor Asoka extended his domain into Gujarat in about 250 B.C. After the fall of the Maurya Empire, the Sakas or Scythians controlled the region from A.D. 130 to 390. Under Rudradaman, their empire contained Malwa (in Madhya Pradesh), Saurashtra, Kutch, and Rajasthan.

During the 300's and 400's, the area formed part of the Gupta Empire, which was succeeded by the Maitraka dynasty. During the 900's, the Solanki dynasty came to power. Under the Solanki, Gujarat reached its greatest extent. There then followed a long period of Muslim rule. Ahmad Shah, the first independent Muslim ruler of Gujarat, founded Ahmedabad in 1411.
The Mughal Emperor Akbar conquered Malwa and Gujarat in the 1570's. The region remained under Mughal rule for nearly 200 years, until the Marathas overran the state in the mid-1700's.

European Invasion.
The Dutch, English, French, and Portuguese all established bases along the coast of the region in the 1600's. The British East India Company set up its first headquarters in India at Surat in 1612. It later moved to Bombay. As British maritime supremacy developed, all but the British and the Portuguese at Daman and Diu withdrew.

The state came under the control of the British East India Company in 1818. After the Indian Revolt of 1857, the British government ruled directly, dividing the area into a number of princely states. Until independence, the region of Kathiawad was divided into 86 states, many of them tiny. Even the largest, Junagadh, only had an area of 9,000 square kilometres.

Independence and partition. On Indian independence in 1947, all of Gujarat except Saurashtra and Kutch became part of Bombay state. On May 1, 1960, the government split Bombay state into the states of Maharashtra and Gujarat. All Gujarati-speaking areas were brought together as the present state of Gujarat.

Since partition, India and Pakistan have disputed possession of parts of the Rann of Kutch. In 1965, the dispute became an armed conflict. In 1968, an international tribunal decided that 90 per cent of the state should remain with India and 10 per cent should pass to Pakistan.