Surat's Legendary Namesakes

Call it co-incidence or otherwise, but every place in the world worth going to has another place by the same name ;Surat being no exception to this law of tourism, has a town in Thailand named similar to it –Surat Thani which also has a river Tapi flowing by ,if you please. The province which means ‘city of good people’ was thus called by King Vajiravudh –Rama VI only as recently as 1915. Our good old Tapi town on the other hand, has been known as Surat since ancient ages and has more than one tale attached to the reason it is so called.

How did the name ‘Surat’ come about? Whom is the city named after? What does its name mean? Historians and poets through the ages have pondered over these questions much before you and I did; which has caused speculation regarding the same to run rife in books penned long ago. Some suggestions abide by historic happenings others are merely inspired by local folklore, but, all make interesting stories behind the raison d’être of Surat’s name.

Surat Itihaas Darshan Vol I informs readers that the word ‘Surti’ has its first written reference in an essay ‘Kahanadde’(1456 A.D), which mentions Khambhat and Rander as well. Surat finds its first mention in Jain scriptures dated 1478 .Tapi Puran which is believed to have been written during the 16th century mentions the river as being Suryaputri –the Sun god’s daughter and hence the town was called Suryapur .Ancient texts also mention numerous prayer rituals which were carried out as a salute to the Sun from here and the religious importance attached to the same.

Poet Narmad’s take on the town’s namesake theories are as varied as his works and laced with a certain romance. One of his stories goes that Surat was so christened by Khwaja Safar Suleimani aka Khudawand Khan who built the Castle .Narmad suggests that the town is named after Khan’s amour with a lady named Surat. Another one of Narmad’s fables speaks about a trader named Rumi from Constantinople who fell in love with a concubine called Surtha, she belonged to the harem of the Emperor of Turkey. Both escaped the wrath of the royal rage and sailed out into the sea. They arrived on the shore of Tapi opposite to Rander and set up the trading port with the permission of Gujarat’s sultan. Rumi met with great success thereafter and named the town Surat after his lady love.

Surat also has its share of royal stories that suggest that it has been named after kings. One of them reads that the king of Kamrej had land measuring 1400 vinghas here which had 14 wells. Kavi Narmad tried to find all 14 and is believed to have listed 10. The Bhagwad Golmandal Kosh states that the owner of Surajwadi was Sursen, an heir of the king of Kamrej and that our town has been named after him. Author Ishwarlal Ichharam Desai has written in ‘Surat Sonani Murat’ that Surat was named as the capital of King Surath who has been mentioned in a text named ‘Govind Das Erakrchara’penned by Govind Das,a disciple of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.
French traveller Anquetil Du Perron of Paris, who visited Surat in 1758 mentions in his travelogue that a popular folklore here is about a prominent fisherman called Suratji Mahigir. A leader who protested against the Portuguese attacks and urged the Sultan of Ahmedabad to have a strong castle built to protect the locals. According to Perron, Surat was named after Suratji.

While some believe that the town was named after Malik Gopi’s mother Suraja ,historian Mohan Meghani informs readers via his book ‘Solmi sadi nu Surat’ about the folk lore of trader Malik Gopi who built Gopi Talav and set up the town as a successful trading port .Legend goes that he inherited immense wealth from a beautiful nautch girl named Suraj whom Gopi’s widowed mother served as house help. Suraj willed all her wealth to Gopi and later left for Hajj, never to return. Upon achieving great success as a trader and the title of Malik in 1515, Gopi called for Brahmin to name the trading town and suggested they name it ‘Suraj’, as a tribute to the generous lady who had left him her entire fortune. The reigning Mughal Sultan Muzzafar Shah however thought it would be inappropriate to name the town after a courtesan and suggested the word ‘Surat’ instead.

Suraa is the Arabic word used to mention every stanza of the Holy Quran and the Indian Muslim version of the same is known as Suraat.

RENAISSANCE OF NARMAD NAGARI......
I have been blessed with a daughter who will turn 16 this October. Last fortnight has made her wiser but made me even more so. I belong to that generation of parents in Tapi town who educated themselves in parenthood to raise their children.

We know Dr. Spock’s guidelines like the back of our hands, we figured out and followed vaccination schedules smoothly, we pronounced phonics to help them to spell better, and we make sure we give the best possible exposure of music, books and art to our kids.

We also understood what Kahlil Gibran meant when he wrote,’ you may give your children your love but not your thoughts; for they have their own, you may house their bodies but not their souls, for, their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit even in your dreams. You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you. For life goes not backwards nor tarries with yesterday. ‘

So, In the process of raising them we too learnt. Social networking means being net savvy, writing skills meant speedy sms, colour combination meant purple and yellow nailpolish, noodle and spaghetti meant clothes not food, food is something that comes in a box, delivered piping hot in 30 minutes. In short we learnt to,’chill the pep’ and we thought we were doing a pretty good job with parenting.
Then, this summer, Surat witnessed the heat of a different kind of dilemma.

Murder and gang rapes was something that happened in reel life during our growing up years, but our children have had to face this harsh reality in real life, right in their neighbourhoods! To make matters worse, these crimes were committed by the youth.

Surti parents who always knew what was right for their children were left totally clueless as to how to handle this situation. As panic replaced shock and our elders did what they do best, gave us a lesson or two in,’how much freedom is too much freedom’, ‘don’t clip their wings,give them the strength of more love’, we knew deep down in was time for introspection.

We grew up in this town where Ghoddod road meant bicycle racing, Rander meant’ Ponk and Hollywood movies,’ ’Varachha meant going to watch the circus,’Chowpatty meant garden and stationary’,’ various sheris meant’ Ganpati and Navratri’ and Dumas meant Beach and Picnic.
Our children on the other hand might know these very areas as places for underage driving, lover hotspots, bootlegging, pollution, black money, organised crimes etc.

These are issues that we Surtis have to deal with ourselves, if we seek a better future for our kids.

We belong to the city of veer kavi Narmad known as,’arvachino ma aadya’ [first amongst the modern].Known for modernity, romanticism, he was revolutionary in the field of social reforms for removing ills from the society.

Even as he painfully penned ‘aa te shu tuj haal Surat’,so also he wrote,’vaank nathi kai tuj,vaank toh disha tano re,asamani aafat tethi aa rol banyo re,Tapi dakshin tatey, Surat muj ghayal bhoomi,maney ghanu abhimaan ,bhoy mey taari chumi.’

Let’s turn our town as he called it-Surat sona ni murat.