Gondal

Gondal may refer to:

Places

Tribes

Literature

Other

Gondal, India

Gondal is a city and a municipality in Rajkot district in the Indian state Gujarat. Gondal state was one of the eight first class princely states of Kathiawar Agency during Bombay Presidency. The current population of town is around 200,000.census,

History

Gondal finds mention in texts like Ain-i-Akbari (written in the reign of Akbar) and Mirat-i-Ahmadi as Vaghela state in Sorath (Saurashtra). The Gondal state in Kathiawar Agency was founded in 1634 by Thakore Shri Kumbhoji I Meramanji from Jadeja dynasty, who received Ardoi and other villages from his father Meramanji. With his fourth descendant Kumbhoji IV, the State raised itself, by acquiring parganas of Doraji, Upleta, Sarai etc.

Later Sir Bhagwant Singhji who reigned from 1888 until his death in 1944, was its most noted ruler, known for his various tax reforms, compulsory education for women and also removing the purdah tradition for women at a time when the royal households of India were known for this tradition.

Moreover, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, founder of Pakistan, ancestors belong to Paneli village in Gondal state.

Gondal (fictional country)

Gondal is an imaginary world or paracosm created by Emily Brontë and Anne Brontë in their youthful juvenilia. Gondal is an island in the North Pacific, just north of the island Gaaldine. It included at least four kingdoms: Gondal, Angora, Exina and Alcona. The earliest surviving reference comes from a diary entry in 1834. None of the prose fiction now survives but poetry still exists, mostly in the form of a manuscript donated to the British Museum in 1933; as do diary entries and scraps of lists. The poems are characterised by war, romance and intrigue. The Gondal setting, along with the similar Angria setting created by the other Brontë siblings, has been described as an early form of speculative fiction.

Invention

The world of Gondal was invented as a joint venture by sisters Emily and Anne. It was a game which they may possibly have played to the end of their lives. Early on they had played with their older siblings Charlotte and Branwell in the imaginary country and game of Angria, which featured the Duke of Wellington and his sons as the heroes.