---

Imperial Gazetteer of India, v. 9, p. 30.

30 BROACH CITY With the exception of a stone mosque constructed out of an older Hindu temple, the city contains no buildings of interest. To the west are the groves of the well-wooded suburbs of Vejalpur, and northwards two lofty mounds with Muhammadan tombs relieve the line of the level plain, while on the north-east rows of tamarind-trees mark where a hundred years ago was the Nawab's garden with `summer pavilions, fountains, and canals.' To the east are the spots that, to a Hindu, give Broach a special interest, the site of king Bali's sacrifice and the temple of Bhrigu Rishi. About zoo yards from the bastion, at the north-west corner of the fort, is the tomb of Brigadier David Wedder- burn, who was killed at the siege of Broach on November 14, 1772. Two miles west of the fort are a few large and massive tombs, raised to members of the Dutch factory. Beyond the Dutch tombs are the five Pars! `towers of silence': four being old and disused, and the fifth built lately by a rich merchant of Bombay. The city of Broach was, according to local legend, originally founded by the sage Bhrigu, and called Bhrigupur or Bhrigu's city. In the first century of the Christian era the sage's settlement had given its name Barugaza to a large province, and had itself become one of the chief ports in Western India. In the early part of the seventh century, according to the Chinese pilgrim Hiuen Tsiang, it contained ten Buddhist convents, with 300 monks and 1o temples. Half a century later Broach was a place of sufficient importance to attract some of the earliest Musalman expeditions against Western India. Under the Rajput dynasties of Anhilvada (A.D. 750-13oo) Broach was a flourish- ing seaport. During the troubles that followed the overthrow of the Anhilvada kings, the city would seem to have changed hands on more than one occasion. But with the exception of two years (1534-6), during which it was held by the officers of the emperor Humayûn, Broach remained (1391 to 1572) under the Musalman dynasty of Ahmadabad. About this time the city was twice (1536 and 1546) plundered by the Portuguese, who, except for its streets `so narrow most of them that two horsemen could not pass at the same time,' admired the city `with its magnificent and lofty houses, with their costly lattices, the famous ivory and black-wood workshops, and its townsmen well skilled in mechanics-chiefly weavers, who make the finest cloth in the world' (Decadas de CMIO, v. 325). In 1573 Broach was surrendered to Akbar by Muzaffar Shah III, the last of the line of Ahmadabad kings. Ten years later Muzaffar Shah recovered the city, but held it only for a few months, when it again fell into the hands of the emperor of Delhi. In 1616 a British factory, and about 162o a Dutch factory, were established at Broach. In 166o some of the fortifications of the city were razed to the ground by the order of Aurangzeb. In this defenceless state it was twice, in 1675 and 1686,