Place:Madhapar, Kutch, Gujarat, India

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Madhapar is a village located in Kutch district in the state of Gujarat, India. It is one of the richest villages in India in terms of bank deposits. The village has around 7600 households and 5000 crore Indian rupee worth bank deposits.

History

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Madhapar is one of the 18 villages established by the Mistris of Kutch. In the 12th century, many people of this community also known as Kutch Gurjar Kshatriyas moved into a village named Dhaneti and later settled between Anjar and Bhuj. Madhapar is named after Madha Kanji Solanki who had shifted from the Dhaneti village to Madhapar in the year 1473–1474 (VS 1529). Madha Kanji was the third generation of Hemraj Hardas of Solanki dynasty of Gujarat, who moved from the Halar region to Dhaneti and then to Madhapar. This early Madhapar today is known as Juna Vaas (Old Residence). These warrior Kshatriyas later came to be known by Mistri mainly because of their occupation. These Mistris have founded the Juna Vaas and contributed a lot to the development of all early infrastructure, temples of the village and erection of other architects of Kutch.^[1]

The Patel Kanbi community moved into the village around 1576 AD (V.S. 1633). Navo Vaas (New Residence) was started in around 1857, by which time Madhapar had become congested and other communities like the Kanbis had also increased and prospered.^[2]

The village was not heavily affected by the 2001 Gujarat earthquake that had caused severe damage in the region. However, some of the century-old houses of Mistris in Juna Vaas (Old Residence) with unique architect were damaged in the earthquake of 26 January 2001.

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