The Chavda (IAST:Chávaḍá), also spelled Chawda or Chavada was a dynasty which ruled the region of modern-day Gujarat in India, from c. 690 to 942.

The chief sources of information regarding the Chavda rule are the opening chapters of the Prabandhachintámaṇi and Vicháraśreṇi, Sukṛitasankírtana, and Ratnamálá.

[3][4][5] The reference to them was found in a Navsari copperplate of Chalukya governor of Lata region (modern-day South Gujarat) Avanijanashraya Pulakeshin dated 738-39 CE which enlisted the dynasties defeated by Arabs (Tajika) and finally repelled by him.

[5][6] Dharanivaraha's Haddala grant dated Shaka 836 (914 CE) mentions himself as Chapas of Vardhamana (now Wadhwan).

[6][9][5] A small Chavda chiefship centred at Pañchásar (now a village in Patan district, Gujarat) in the 7th century.

Before his death Jayaśekhara, he sent his pregnant wife Rupasundarí to the forest in charge of her brother Surapála, one of his chief warriors.

[5] Merutunga, the author of the Prabandhachintámaṇi, tells a story that Rupasundarí was living in the forest swinging her son in a hammock, when a Jain monk named Śílaguṇasúri noticing as he passed royal marks on the boy bought him from his mother.

The story adds that a nun named Víramatí brought up the boy whom the monks called Vanarája, literally "the forest king".

[A][5] In the forests where Vanarája passed his youth lived his maternal uncle Surapála, one of Jayaśekhara's generals, who, after his sovereign's defeat and death, had become an outlaw.

In six months Vanarája collected 24 lákhs of Páruttha drammas[B] and 4000 horses, which the deputation took and started for Kanyákubja.

With the wealth thus acquired Vanarája enrolled an army and established his power assuming the title of king.

[5] Founding of Aṇahilaváḍa (now Patan, Gujarat), 746–765 CE, he fixed the site of a capital which afterwards rose to be the great city of Aṇahilapura.

Vanarája is said to have asked a Bharváḍ or Shepherd named Aṇahila, son of Śákhadá to show him the best site.

The city may have been called after some local chief since it was popularly known as Aṇahilaváḍa (Sanskrit:Aṇahilaváta) that is "the place of Aṇahila".

[5] Vanarāja secured the support of rich merchants by giving them administrative positions, such as his chief minister Jamba.

[6] The lists of Vanarája's successors vary so greatly in the names, in the order of succession, and in the lengths of reigns, that little trust can be placed in them.

The Prabandhachintámaṇi notes that Bhúyada reigned twenty-nine years and built in Aṇahilaváḍa Patan the temple of Bhúyadeshvar.

Samantsinh Chavda did not have any children so he adopted his nephew Mularaja who overthrew him c. 942 and established the Chaulukya dynasty.

[3][4][13] The Merutunga's Prabandhachintamani states about Vanrajavihara temple at Anahilapathaka (now Patan, Gujarat) as well as the construction of Kanteshwari-prasada by Vanraja.

The Prabandhachintamani mentions the construction of the temple of Bhattaraka Shri Yogishwari by Yogaraja at Patan in the early 9th century.

The Prabandhachintamani also mentions the construction of Bhuyadeshwara temple built by Bhuyada at Patan in last quarter of the 9th century.

According to Haribhadra Suri (middle of the 12th century), Minister Nihhaya's son Lahara had built the temple of Vindhyavasini (Laharadhanuhavi) at Sander in Patan district.

In the later half of the 9th century, king Yashobhadra had built a Jain temple at Dinduanapura, which is mentioned in Purnagaccha-pattavali.

[14] Based on Dharanivaraha's grant, it is known that in 914 CE, he, a Chapa or Chavda king, was ruling at Vardhamana (now Wadhwan) as a feudatory of Gurjara-Pratiharya Mahipaladeva.

[6][7][15] King Vyaghramukha of the Chapa dynasty, who was a patron of the astronomer Brahmagupta and was ruling in A.D. 628, had his capital at Bhillamala (Bhinmal).

The lineage of succession was Vibhuraja, Takulji, Seshkaranji, Vaghji, Akheraja, Tejasi, Karamsinha, Takhansinha, Mokasinha, Punjaji.

[3] During the British Raj, the small Varsoda and Mansa princely states under the Mahi Kantha Agency (now in Gujarat) remained ruled by the claimed descendants of the Chavda dynasty until independence of India in 1947.