Few landmarks in Vadodara with its description history and facts.
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Answer:
Etymology
The city in one period was called Chandanavati after[vague] the rule of Chanda of the Dodiya Rajputs. The capital was also known as Virakshetra or Viravati (Land of Warriors). Later on, it was known as Vadpatraka or Vadodará,[vague] and according to tradition, is a corrupt form of the Sanskrit word vatodar, meaning "in the belly of the Banyan tree". It is, as of 2000, almost impossible to ascertain when the various changes in the name were made; early[vague] English travellers and merchants mention the town as Brodera,and it is from this, that the name Baroda is derived; in 1974 (well after independence) the official name of the city was changed to Vadodara.
In 1907, a small village and township in Michigan, United States, were each named after the Indian city.
Old Ankotakka
It is believed that early man lived on the banks of the Mahi River, which formed the floodplain during that age.The movements of these hunter-gatherers, living on the banks of the river, grubbing the roots and killing animals with crude stone tools made out of the cobbles and pebbles available on the river bank, were necessarily controlled by the availability of convenient raw materials for their tools.
Recent History
Baroda State was a former Indian Princely State. Vadodara's more recent history began when the Maratha general Pilaji Gaekwad conquered Songadh from the Mughals in 1726. Before the Gaekwads captured Baroda, it was ruled by the Babi Nawabs, who were the officers of the Mughal rulers. Most notably, from 1705–1716, Sardar Senapati Khanderao Dabhade led the Maratha Empire forces in Baroda. Except for a short period, Baroda continued to be in the reign of the Gaekwads from 1734 to 1948. Initially detailed to collect revenue on behalf of the Peshwa in Gujarat, Pilaji Gaekwad remained there to carve out a kingdom for himself. Damajirao, who was son and successor of Pilaji Gaekwad, defeated the Mughal armies and conquered Baroda in 1734. His successors consolidated their power over large tracts of Gujarat, becoming easily the most powerful rulers in the region.
After the Maratha defeat in the Third Battle of Panipat in 1761,control of the empire by the Peshwas weakened as it became a loose confederacy, and the Gaekwad Maharajas ruled the kingdom until it acceded to Independent Republic of India in 1949. In 1802, the British intervened to defend a Maharaja that had recently inherited the throne from rival claimants, and Vadodara concluded a subsidiary alliance with the British that recognised the Kingdom as a Princely state and allowed the Maharajas of Baroda internal political sovereignty in return for recognising British 'Paramountcy', a form of suzerainty in which the control of the state's foreign affairs was completely surrendered.
The golden period in the Maratha rule of Vadodara started with the accession of Maharaja Sayajirao III in 1875.