An Overview of Himachal Pradesh district Kangra Part I

 An Overview of Himachal Pradesh district Kangra Part -I

View of Nagarkot Fort 

District Kangra is a very beautiful district of Himachal Pradesh which shares it's boundaries with district Kullu and Mandi in the East , district Hamirpur and Una in South , district Chamba and district Lahaul & Spiti in the North and  Gurdaspur district of Punjab in the West. 

View of Shivalik and Dhauladhar mountain ranges of Kangra district.

In the Southern  escarpment of Himalayas the Shivalik range , Dhauladhar mountain range and Himalayas from South West to North East  which covers the entire Kangra district and has altitude varying between 500 metres to 5000 metres above mean sea level .

The district Kangra was the largest district of composite Punjab  before 1st November 1966 having six Tehsils Namely :-  1. Kangra  2. Nurpur 3. Palampur 4. Dehr Gopipur 5. Hamirpur and 6. Una .

On 1st November 1966 the hilly areas of Punjab were merged in Himachal Pradesh thus Vishal Himachal Pradesh was made  and Kangra was merged in Himachal Pradesh .

On 1st September 1972 the present Kangra district came into existence when re - organization of districts was executed by the Government of Himachal Pradesh along with  district Hamirpur and Una .

At one time Lahul and Spiti were  separate Waziries of Kullu sub divisions and was a part of Kangra district of Punjab . Kullu was a tehsil of Kangra till 1962 and Lahaul and Spiti which was created a district in 1960 was also a part of Kangra district .

Population wise , district Kangra is a largest district  in Himachal Pradesh having 15 Assembly constituencies and it's headquarter is at Dharmshala 25 Km from Kangra town . The geographical area of Kangra is 5739 square Kilometres having 3906 villages . The name of the district is on  the name of its Kangra town .

In the ancient times the name of Kangra was Nagarkot and was the part of Trigarta Empire, the geographical territory  of Trigarta was between Satluj  ,Beas and Ravi rivers .  Trigarta was a Northern Indian region of Indian subcontinent  with its capital at Prasthatla  [ Present Jalandhar ] , Multan and  Kangra.  The  founder of Trigarta was Vrishni Dynasty  and was ruled by this dynasty .

View of Kangra Fort 

Tehsils in district Kangra  :- 

To have a better administration and development in the district as population wise district is large at present the Tehsils in district Kangra are :-

1. Kangra 2. Dehra Gopipur , 3. Nurpur 4.Jawali, 5. Indora, 6.Shahpur ,7. Baroh, 8.Khundian , 9. Dadasiba ,10. Jaswan , 11.Rakkar ,12. Fatehpur ,13. Baijnath ,14. Jaisinghpur , 15. Thural , 16. Dharmshala , 17. Multhan ,18. Palampur ,19. Jawalamukhi and 20 . Nagrota Bagwan .

Sub Tehsils :-

Following are sub Tehsils in the district:-

1.Dheera ,2. Nagrota Surian , 3. Kotla  ,4. Gangath ,5. Haripur ,6. Panchrukhi ,7. Chadhiar ,8. Harchakian , 9. Almpur ,10. Darini ,11. Manjheen ,12 . Bhawarna , 13. Lagru , 14. Pragpur and 15 .Sullah .

View of Nagarkot [Kangra ]

Development Blocks :- 

To ensure proper development following development Blocks are functioning in the district .

1. Kangra ,2. Nagrota Bagwan ,3. Rait , 4. Baijnath,5. Dehra, 6. Bhawarna , 7. Fatehpur, 8. Indora ,9. Lamba Gaon , 10. Nurpur ,11. Panchrukhi ,12. Sullah , 13. Pragpur ,14. Nagrota Surian, 15. Dharmshala ,17. Baroh , 18. Palampur , 19 Khundian and 20. Dadasiba .

Kangra Fort 

Brief History :-

As per Mahabharata the Trigarta had been established  before the battle of Mahabharata and it was founded by King Bhumi Chand. The 234 th king Shusharma had taken part in the battle of Mahabharata from The side of Kauravas . King Shusharma was the king of Trigarta .

As mentioned in Rajtrangini  Raja of Kashmir in 470 Shrestha sen and  Raja Pravar sen in 520 AD  had attack on Trigarta and got succeeded . 

Heunsang a Chinese traveler scholar  visited India during the  regime of King Harshvardhan from 629 to 644  B. C. He wrote in his book about the  administrators of India . Heunsang had been the guest of king Utitas in Kangra hills in Trigarta (Kangra ) and  on his return journey he had been stayed at Jalandhar during 643 A. D . At that time the king of Trigarta and Kashmir were paying tribute to King Harshvardhan .  It means King Harshvardhan had established his suzerainty on these kingdoms.

Beautiful View of Kangra 

Kangra Fort was built by Rajas of Katoch dynasty and they had  proved themselves the descendants of King Shusharma who had favoured Kauravas in Mahabharata battle . Traditionally the Kangra fort is said to be founded by King Shusharma .

In 883 to 903 AD Raja Prithvi Chand I had fought against Shankar Verman the king of Kashmir .

Mehmud Gazanwi made three expedition to India but during fourth expedition 1009 he  succeeded  and captured the Kangra Fort and he looted the fort , Brajeshwari temple  the fort remained under him till 1043 A. D.

During this period Raja Jagdish Chand the 202th descendant of king Shusharma was the king of Nagarkot.   Mahipal Tomer king of Dehli defeated Mehmud Gazanwi and fort was liberated in 1043 A.D 

In 1051 - 52 A.D. the Nagarkot fort was again lost , A son of Mehmud Abdul Rashid appointed Hastagin Hajib as governor of Punjab .

In 1060 A .D . Raja Kangra again recaptured the Nagarkot fort . Thus Nagarkot fort had suffered many attacks .

In 1170 Trigarta  was being ruled by Raja Padam Chand when his younger brother got annoyed with him and established Jaswan as a new state with Rajpur as capital of Jaswan state .

In 1330A.D. Raja Prithvi Chand  was ruling the Nagarkot and during his reign, Mohammad Bin Tuglak  made an expedition to Nagarkot and captured in Kangra Fort in 1337 A.D .

Period of 1360 A.D.  -- 1375 A.D.  :- 

Raja Rup Chand was the king of Kangra in power  and he was taking part in revengeful expeditions against central authority and plundered the plains up to Dehli . When he was returning  suffered an encounter with  Sultan of Kashmir and lost all wealth to Shahab -Ud - din

Raja Rup Chand was against the central authority so Feroze Shah Tughlaq invaded the Kangra fort to teach a lesson to Raja Rup and besieged the fort with his army in 1365 A.D. as per " Tarikh - i -Feroze  -Farishta " and " Tarikh -i - Feroze - Shahi ."

 Raja Rup Chand and Feroze Shah came to an agreement and accepted the suzerainty of Feroze Shah Tuglaq later .

Later  Firoz Shah came to Jawalamukhi and took 1300 books  written in Sanskrit with him and got translated in Persian language through Ajjudin Khalid Khani . These books were treasure of Philosophy , Astrology and Divination . This translated book was named as " Dalai- i- Firozshahi ."

View of Railway Bridge 

Period Between 1375 to 1390 A.D. :-

During this period Raja Sangar Chand ruled the Nagarkot. After Raja Rup Chand his son Sangar Chand became Raja of Nagarkot and he ruled the state till 1390 A . D . During this period in 1389 AD ,Son of Mohammad Tuglaq Nasiruddin remained refugee in Kangra hills  and was called to Delhi in 1390 .

 Period Between 1390 to 1405 :- 

In 1390, after Raja Sangar Chand , Raja Magh Chand became Raja of Nagarkot and ruled the state till 1405 . During this period Taimurlung  looted  the Shivalik hills in 1398 A. D. and when he was returning in 1399 he also looted Dhameri  , the name of Dhameri was later kept Nurpur on the name of Begum Noorjahan. Raja Hindoor helped him  . Now the name of Hindoor is now Nalagarh which is in district Solan . At that time Raja Alam Chand was the king of Hindoor .In the 14 th. century Taimurlung was powerful ruler  whose Empire was spread over western Asia  , middle Asia up to India . He was born on 8th . April 1336 in Samarkand and died on 18 th. February 1405 . Though he was lame but this  never came in his way in his life .

Period Between 1405 to 1528 AD. : -

In 1405 AD , after  Raja Megh Chand , Hari Chand -I became Raja of Kangra . During this year when  he was on hunting in forests of Hadsar [Guler ]  he fell down in well and got missed  from his hunting troup, search was made but  they can't find the King  . So considering him dead ,his younger brother Karan Chand  II was made the King of Kangra .

After 21 days a marchant pedestrian passed by  that route and found king Hari Chand -I. When Raja Hari Chand -I came to know that his younger brother Karan Chand - II had been declared King , he didn't returned to Kangra and founded Guler as his new state in 1415 with Haripur its capital . The Guler state annexed by British in 1813 AD 

Raja Karan Chand ruled Kangra till 1430 and he was granted the title ," Bada Raja."  

Then Sansar Chand - I , the son of Karan Chand became Raja of Kangra in 1430 AD. 

Raja Sansar Chand - I  ruled the state till 1450 .

 Raja Sansar Chand I had two sons  , Devangga Chand and Narendra Chand .

In 1450 AD.  Devangga Chand became Raja of Kangra and ruled the state till 1465 AD .

In 1465 A D,  Narendra Chand became Raja of Kangra and ruled the state till 1480 A.D.

From 1480 to 1490  the son of Raja Narendra Chand   , Suvira Chand became Raja of Kangra and ruled the state till 1490 AD.

Period 1490 to 1510 AD.

During this period after Raja Suvira Chand his son  Raja Prayag Chand became Raja of Kangra and ruled the state from 1490 to 1510 AD.

Period 1510 to 1528 AD.

The son of Raja Prayag Chand , Raja Ram Chand became Raja of Kangra in 1510 and ruled the state till 1528 

Beautiful View Of Kangra 

The history of Nagarkot , the present Kangra  from 1528AD onwards will be covered in the next Post .