Baroda State बडोदा संस्थान બડોદા રિયાસત बड़ोदा रियासत |
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Princely state of British India | ||||||
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Baroda state in 1909 | ||||||
History | ||||||
• | Established | 1721 | ||||
• | Accession to India | 1949 | ||||
Area | ||||||
• | 1921 | 3,239 km2(1,251 sq mi) | ||||
Population | ||||||
• | 1921 | 2,126,522 | ||||
Density | 656.5 /km2 (1,700.4 /sq mi) | |||||
Today part of | Gujarat, India | |||||
"A Catalogue of Manuscript and Printed Reports, Field Books, Memoirs, Maps ..." Vol. iv, "Containing the treaties, etc., relating to the states within the Bombay presidency" |
Baroda State was a princely state in present-day Gujarat, ruled by the Gaekwad dynasty of the Maratha Confederacy from its formation in 1721 until 1949 when it acceded to the newly formed Union of India. With the city of Baroda (Vadodara) as its capital, during the British Raj its relations with the British were managed by the Baroda Residency. At the time of Indian independence, only five rulers—the Nizam of Hyderabad, the Maharaja of Mysore, the Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir state, the Maharaja Gaekwad of Baroda and the Maharaja Scindia of Gwalior—were entitled to a 21-gun salute. Baroda formally acceded to the Union of India, on 1 May 1949, prior to which an interim government was formed in the state.
Baroda derives its native name Vadodara from the Sanskrit word vatodara, meaning 'in the heart of Banyan (Vata) tree. It also has another name, Virakshetra or Virawati (land of warriors), mentioned alongside Vadodara by 17th century Gujarati poet Premanand Bhatt, native to the city. Its name has been mentioned as Brodera by early English travellers and merchants, from which its later name Baroda was derived. Geographically it comprised several disjoint tracts of land, measuring over 8000 square miles, spread across the present Gujarat state; this was subdivided into four prant (states), namely Kadi, Baroda, Navsari and Amreli, which included coastal portions of the state, in the Okhamadal region near Dwarka and Kodinar near Diu.