Guhila

The Guhila name in Saurashtra belongs to the Gohils, a Suryavanshi Rajput dynasty traced to the Guhilas of Mewar. Driven from Khera by the Rathores, the chief Sejakji migrated into Saurashtra around the turn of the thirteenth century and served the Chudasama rajas of Junagadh; his sons founded the lines that later ruled Palitana and Lathi.

Ranoji, who ruled from 1254 to 1309, founded Ranpur and seized Vala. His son Mokhadaji (1309-1347) conquered Umrala and Ghogha, occupied Piram island in the Gulf of Cambay and lived by piracy until Muhammad bin Tughluq invaded and killed him in 1347.

Restored soon afterwards, the family built up chiefdoms along the eastern Saurashtra coast, afterwards called Gohilwad. Its main seat moved by stages to Sihor and finally to Bhavnagar, founded in 1723.