Georgia's 1991-92 President Gamsakhurdia, a persecuted human rights advocate in Soviet times, died in mysterious circumstances in 1993, aged 54, two years after being ousted and replaced by Eduard Shevardnadze and following a civil war.
The coffin with the remains of Georgia's first post-Soviet president was put in front of the parliament building for a public mourning ceremony.
Several dozen thousand people have gathered in Rustaveli Avenue to pay last respects to Georgia's first president.
Georgia's President Mikheil Saakashvili, Parliament Speaker Nino Burdzhanadze and Prime Minister Zurab Nogaideli are attending the mourning ceremony.
After the mourning ceremony is over, Gamsakhurdia will be re-buried in Mtatsminda Pantheon, the country's cemetery for famous writers and public figures.
After Mikheil Saakashvili became Georgian president in 2003, he rehabilitated Gamsakhurdia and released his supporters, imprisoned during Shevardnadze's rule.
For more than a year after his death, Gamsakhurdia's body was missing. It was recovered in February 1994 and reburied in Grozny, the Chechen capital, at his widow's request.
The remains of Gamsakhurdia were exhumed in Russia's North Caucasus republic of Chechnya March 3 and were recently sent to his family home in the center of Tbilisi, Georgia's capital, for reburial.
It has still not been established whether Gamsakhurdia was assassinated or committed suicide.
A law enforcement official said earlier in March that an examination of the remains revealed two holes in the skull, which might have been caused by bullets.
