Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi[21] was born on 2 October 1869[22] into a Gujarati Hindu Modh Bania family[23][24] in Porbandar (also known as Sudamapuri), a coastal town on the Kathiawar Peninsula and then part of the small princely state of Porbandar in the Kathiawar Agency of the Indian Empire. His father, Karamchand Uttamchand Gandhi (1822–1885), served as the dewan (chief minister) of Porbandar state.[25][26]