THE PRIDE OF GUJARAT: AHMEDABAD OR KARṆĀVATI?

History holds greater importance for every civilization, since it plays a very defining role in the shaping of collective human psyche. Similarly, a history of any city is equally significant, as it provides one to understand its root, its beginning and the agencies which remain behind its formation. In this context, a history of the city like Ahmedabad becomes of vital significance as it often gets mystified and romanticized in different historical narrations. Hence, a critical inquiry of its historical roots, especially of its different nomenclatures can be of tremendous value. Since, on one hand, it avails the opportunity to understand the socio-economic factors that play a crucial role in the changing of its name at regular historical blocks beside paving a way for understanding the religious-political upheavals forcing the people residing in this town to address it with different names. The present research paper is an attempt to understand these nuances inherent to different names assigned to this city at different temporal phases. Apart from that, the researcher has also tried to locate its pre-sultanate roots which, otherwise, remains outside the mainstream scholarly deliberations.