Just click to know all about Ahmedabad's history

The next time you want some information on Ahmedabad's history, all that you have to do is visit the website www.furdunji.com . For, from February 24 onwards 'Gujarat nu Paatnagar Amadavad' - one of the rare and authentic books on the city's history, written by Ratnamanirao Bhimrao Jote, will be available in digital format on www.furdunji.com.

The website will also feature some other rare books of Gujarati literature.

Talking about the book, city-based historian Rizwan Kadri, who is also involved in the digitisation project of Ratnamanirao Bhimrao Jote's book on the city said, "This book was published in 1929 by Gujarat Sahitya Sabha as part of its silver jubilee year."

"Thousand copies of the book were published and the 802 pages books with 22 additional pages of index cost Rs6. All the copies were soon sold out but since then no other edition was printed and published," said Kadri.

The book is believed to be one of the authentic books on the city's history.

"Prior to this book, Maganlal Vakhatchand had written a book on Ahmedabad's history but it was at a primary level. Ratnamanirao had graduated with Sanskrit in BA but his strong interest in history led him to write the book," said Kadri.  He cited various sources in his book after going through minute details of the original documents available at that time.

 "His work is believed to be the most authentic work that can be helpful to other researchers who plan to take their research further. The book depicts the social and cultural history of the city." said, Kadri.

According to Kadri, initially some critics did not receive Ratnamanirao's work well but later on it was appreciated because of citation of documentary proofs.  Ashutosh Bhatt, secretary of Khadiya Itihas Samiti, said, "It is a pity that such detailed work has never been re-published. This is an authoritative work on the city's history."

"At least now it will be available on the internet so that future generations and researchers can look at it for research work on Ahmedabad," said Bhatt.