Broach

Broach, BAROACH, or BHARUCH, a town of Guzerat, Bombay Presidency, 228 miles N. of Bombay by rail, on the north bank of the Nerbudda, from whose inundations it is protected by a river-wall, 30 to 40 feet high, built of large blocks of stone. Eighteen hundred years ago Broach was one of the chief ports of Western India, and its foreign commerce did not absolutely disappear until the end of the 18th century. In the 16th century the Portuguese reported it a town of weavers, 'who make the finest cloth in the world'; this fame led to the founding of English and Dutch factories here in the following century, and even yet its hand-loom weaving is of importance. Broach was taken by the British in 1772, ceded to Sindhia in 1783, and again stormed by a British force in 1803, since which date it has remained a British possession. It carries on a small coasting trade, the principal exports being raw cotton, grain, and seeds. There is a Hindu hospital for old and sick animals, maintained at a cost of £530 annually. Broach passed from the Moguls at the death of Aurungzebe to the Mahrattas. Pop. 40,168, including many Parsees and Jains.—The district of Broach, an alluvial plain sloping westwards to the shores of the Gulf of Cambay, is 54 miles in length, and from 20 to 40 miles in breadth, with an area of 1453 sq. m. The black soil of the district is highly fertile. There is a railway bridge of 67 spans over the Nerbudda, with a length of 4122 feet.