Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born on 2nd October, 1869 in the port town of Porbandar in Gujarat on the western part of India. It is an important coastal town, with its shoreline washed by the Arabian Sea. For centuries it was recognised as an important commercial town. Initially Porbandar was the capital of the principality of Kathiawar. The house where Mohandas was born was the ancestral home of the Gandhis. It was bought in 1777 by Harjivan Gandhi, the Mahatma’s great grand father. Gandhiji was barely six years old when his family shifted to Rajkot.