Bharuch

Bharuch (Gujarati: ભરૂચ;  listen ), also known as Broach, is a City at the mouth of the river Narmada in Gujarat (north-west India). Bharuch is the administrative headquarters of Bharuch District and is a municipality of about 370,000 inhabitants.

The city of Bharuch and its surroundings have been settled since times of antiquity. It was a ship building center and sea port in the pre-compass coastal trading routes to points West, perhaps as far back as the days of the Pharaohs. The route made use of the regular and predictable monsoon winds or galleys. Many goods from the Far East (the famed Spice and Silk trade) were shipped there during the annual monsoon winds, making it a terminus for several key land-sea trade routes. Bharuch was known to the Greeks, the various Persian Empires, in the Roman Republic and Empire, and in other Western centres of civilisation through the end of the European Middle Ages.

In the 3rd century, Bharuch port was mentioned as Barugaza. Arab traders entered Gujarat via Bharuch to do business. The British and the Dutch (Valandas) noted Bharuch’s importance and established their business centers here.