Junagadh

Town in Gujarat state, western India, 322 km/200 mi southwest of Ahmadabad; population (1991) 166,800. It is an agricultural trading centre. The area contains remarkable monastic caves, some dating from the period of the Mauryan emperor Asoka in the 3rd century BC. Girnar, a mountain of 1,097 m/3,600 ft, is studded with ancient temples and shrines, including the Asoka Stone bearing the Fourteen Edicts of Asoka.

Junagadh was the capital of Gujarat in the 2nd-4th century AD, and the present fort dates from 1475. It was subsequently the capital of a princely state, which joined India rather than Pakistan at Partition against the wishes of the Muslim nawab, who was exiled.