Kingdom, which was then overthrown by Indo-Scythians. The region was later ruled by the Maurya Empire and Sakas. In the first century CE, it was under the Western Satraps, followed by the Gupta Empire. By the fifth century, the Maitraka dynasty of Valabhi took over from which its close association with the ruling clans of Gujarat started. Hieun Tsang refers to Kutch as Kiecha in his writings. In the seventh century, Kutch was being ruled by Charans, Kathis, and Chavdas. The Chavdas ruled the eastern and central parts by the seventh century, but Kutch came under the rule of the Chaulukya dynasty by the tenth century. After the fall of Chaulukya, the Vaghelas ruled the state. By the thirteenth century, the Vaghelas controlled the whole of Kutch and adopted a new dynastic identity, Jadeja. For three centuries, Kutch was divided and ruled by three different branches of the Jadeja brothers. In the sixteenth century, Kutch was unified under one rule by Rao Khengarji I of these branches, and his direct descendants ruled for two centuries and had a good relationship with the Gujarat Sultanate and Mughals. One of his descendants, Rayadhan II, left three sons, of whom two died, and a third son, Pragmalji I took over the state and founded the current lineage of rulers at the start of the seventeenth century. The descendants of the other brothers founded states in Kathiawar. After turbulent periods and battles with the armies of Sindh, the state was stabilized in the middle of the eighteenth century by a council known as Bar Bhayat ni Jamat who placed Rao as a titular head and ruled independently. The state accepted the sovereignty of the British East India Company in 1819, when Kutch was defeated in battle. That same year, the state was devastated by an earthquake. The state stabilized and flourished in business under subsequent rulers. Upon the independence of India in 1947, Kutch acceded unto the dominion of India and was constituted an independent commissionaire. It was made a state within the union of India in 1950. The state witnessed an earthquake in 1956. On 1 November 1956, Kutch State was merged with Bombay state, which in 1960 was divided into the new linguistic states of Gujarat and Maharashtra, with Kutch becoming part of Gujarat as Kutch district. The district was affected by a tropical cyclone in 1998 and the earthquake in 2001.