Walled City of Surat

This book is a comprehensive study of the historic walled city of Surat, in Gujarat, India. Being one of the most important port and trading towns since its inception, the city had gone through a range of influences, visible even today, through its lifestyle, art, architecture and urban fabric. Of great significance in the city's history was its role as the royal port in Mughal times and as the first and prominent British port and trading town until the capture of Bombay. This book maps the two distinct characteristics of urban fabric that emerged in the Medieval and Colonial phases of city development, by understanding the prevalent socio-political, cultural and commercial phenomena. The study thereby attempts to link the various elements and scales of the built environment in Surat's walled city. 'The House' and 'the City' formally establishes the relationship between part to whole and whole to part.