ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the crucial historical factor behind centre–periphery integration, in both regions, is the concentration of trade in the centre, which also underlies state formation in these areas. The situatedness of ‘traditional society’ between the central and peripheral poles is reflected in ideology. A persistent trait of the Gujarat region is the location of its centre in the plains stretching north from the bay of Cambay, largely along the Sabarmati river and eastwards to the Mahi. This fertile alluvial plain has harboured rich and relatively dense agricultural settlements since the beginnings of history. In Saurashtra the transition to ‘feudalism from below’ was preceded by waves of immigration, roughly between the seventh and twelfth centuries. The Solankis were certainly ‘Rajputs’, but the core of their kingdom seems to have been characterised by centralised political organisation. In Gujarat the typical Rajput states formed a periphery to the central plain.
