ch Marco Polo's book was
popularly known. The original (French) MSS. all agree with the etymology
in calling it Cambaluc, which should be accented _Cambaluc_.
CAMBAY, a native state of India, within the Gujarat division of Bombay.
It has an area of 350 sq. m. Pop. (1901) 75,225, showing a decrease of
16% in the decade, due to the famine of 1899-1900. The estimated gross
revenue is L27,189; the tribute, L1460. In physical character Cambay is
entirely an alluvial plain. As a separate state it dates only from about
1730, the time of the dismemberment of the Mogul empire. The present
chiefs are descended from Momin Khan II., the last of the governors of
Gujarat, who in 1742 murdered his brother-in-law, Nizam Khan, governor
of Cambay, and established himself there.
The town of CAMBAY had a population in 1901 of 31,780. It is supposed to
be the _Camanes_ of Ptolemy, and was formerly a very flourishing city,
the seat of an extensive trade, and celebrated for its manufactures of
silk, chintz and gold stuffs; but owing principally to the gradually
increasing difficulty of access by water, owing to the silting up of the
gulf, its commerce has long since fallen away, and the town has become
poor and dilapidated. The spring tides rise upwards of 30 ft., and in a
channel usually so shallow form a serious danger to shipping. The trade
is chiefly confined to the export of cotton. The town is celebrated for
its manufacture of agate and carnelian ornaments, of reputation
principally in China. The houses in many instances are built of stone (a
circumstance which indicates the former wealth of the city, as the
material had to be brought from a very considerable distance); and
remains of a brick wall, 3 m. in circumference, which formerly
surrounded the town, enclose four large reservoirs of good water and
three bazaars. To the south-east there are very extensive ruins of
subterranean temples and other buildings half-buried in the sand by
which the ancient town was overwhelmed. These temples belong to the
Jains, and contain two massive statues of their deities, the one black,
the other white. The principal one, as the inscription intimates, is
Pariswanath, or Parswanath, carved in the reign of the emperor Akbar;
the black one has the date of 1651 inscribed. In 1780 Cambay was taken
by the army of General Goddard, was restored to the Mahrattas in 1783,
and was afterwards ceded to the British by the peshwa under the treaty
of 1803.
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