Gandava

Gandava stands on a low rise in the broad, arid Kachhi plain of western South Asia, between the mountains of Balochistan and the Indus country. Its position made it an important centre for the chiefs and armies that moved between the highlands and Sindh. Seasonal streams descending from the hills supplied the surrounding plain, where cultivators diverted floodwater into fields.

In the eighteenth century Gandava was contested by the Kalhora rulers of Sindh and the khans of Kalat. In 1740 Nadir Shah transferred the Kachhi and Sibi country to the khan of Kalat as compensation for the death of a predecessor. Local Baloch chiefs retained an important role in the plain, and the town’s monuments recall the changing rulers of this frontier.