Kangra-Lambagraon was a historical princely estate (''jagir'') of

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

located in the present-day state of

Himachal Pradesh Himachal Pradesh (; ; "Snow-laden Mountain Province") is a state in the northern part of India. Situated in the Western Himalayas, it is one of the thirteen mountain states and is characterized by an extreme landscape featuring several peaks ...

. In 1947, the estate comprised 437 villages, encompassing an area of 324 km². It had with a Privy Purse of Rs 70,000/- and enjoyed a revenue of approx. Rs.1,76,000/-. The rulers of the estate belonged to the ancient

Katoch Katoch is a Chandravanshi Rajput clan. Their traditional area of residence was in the Trigarta Kingdom, based at Jalandhar and at Kangra Fort in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. They descent from the Trigarta dynasty mentioned in the Mahabha ...

dynasty which had ruled the former Kangra State. Kangra is credited with being the oldest and largest state in the Punjab Hills. In 1846 Kangra was annexed to British India as part of the

Treaty of Lahore The Treaty of Lahore of 9 March 1846 was a peace-treaty marking the end of the First Anglo-Sikh War. The treaty was concluded, for the British, by the Governor-General Sir Henry Hardinge and two officers of the East India Company and, for the ...

History

Early history of the Kangra State

The first modern recorded mention of the state, however, is from the 11th century AD. The Katoch dynasty are reputed to have ruled the town of Kangra and its vicinity since time immemorial. Several very extended interregnums are acknowledged.

Medieval invasions

At least three rulers sought to conquer the

Kangra fort The Kangra Fort is located 20 kilometers from the town of Dharamsala on the outskirts of the town of Kangra, India. History Raja Dharam Chand submitted to the Mughal Ruler Akbar in 1556 and agreed to pay tr ...

and plundered the treasures of its temples: Mahmud Ghazni in 1009, Firuz Shah Tughluq in 1360 and Sher Shah in 1540. Battle of Kangra Kangra State 1333 During Prithvi Chand II's reign, they defeated the army of

Muhammad bin Tughluq Muhammad bin Tughluq (1290 – 20 March 1351) was the eighteenth Sultan of Delhi. He reigned from February 1325 until his death in 1351. The sultan was the eldest son of Ghiyath al-Din Tughluq, founder of the Tughlaq dynasty. In 1321, the youn ...

which was not able to fight in the hills. Nearly all his 100,000 soldiers perished in 1333 AD and he was forced to retreat.

Conflicts with Mughals

The fort of Kangra resisted

Akbar Abu'l-Fath Jalal-ud-din Muhammad Akbar (25 October 1542 – 27 October 1605), popularly known as Akbar the Great ( fa, ), and also as Akbar I (), was the third Mughal emperor, who reigned from 1556 to 1605. Akbar succeeded his father, Hum ...

's siege. Akbar's son Jahangir successfully subdued the fort in 1620 annexing the surrounding area and reducing the Katoch rajas to the status of vassals. Kangra was at the time ruled by Raja Hari Chand Katoch of Kangra (also known as Raja Hari Chand II) Mughal Emperor

Jahangir Nur-ud-Din Muhammad Salim (30 August 1569 – 28 October 1627), known by his imperial name Jahangir (; ), was the fourth Mughal Emperor, who ruled from 1605 until he died in 1627. He was named after the Indian Sufi saint, Salim Chishti. Ear ...

with the help of Suraj Mal garrisoned with his troops. Under Jahangir, Murtaza Khan the governor of Punjab was directed to conquer Kangra, but he failed on account of the jealousy and opposition of the Rajput chiefs who were associated with him. Then Prince Khurram was put in charge of the command. The siege of Kangra was pushed on for weeks. Supplies were cut off. The garrison had to live on boiled dry grass. It was faced with death and starvation. After a siege of 14 months, the fort surrendered in November, 1620. In 1621, Jahangir visited it and ordered the slaughter of a bullock there. A mosque was also built within the fort of Kangra. The Katoch Kings repeatedly looted Mughal controlled regions, weakening the Mughal control, aiding in the decline of Mughal power,

Raja Sansar Chand Sansar Chand (c. 1765 – 1824) was a Rajput ruler of the erstwhile state of Kangra in what is now the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. Early life Sansar Chand was a scion of the Katoch dynasty which had ruled Kangra for centuries until they ...

II succeeded in recovering the ancient fort of his ancestors, in 1789.

State extinguished and annexed by Sikh empire

As the Mughal power waned, many former officers of the

Mughal empire The Mughal Empire was an early-modern empire that controlled much of South Asia between the 16th and 19th centuries. Quote: "Although the first two Timurid emperors and many of their noblemen were recent migrants to the subcontinent, the d ...

took autonomous charge of the areas under their power and this situation affected Kangra. Meanwhile, (in 1758), Ghamand Chand, a supposed scion of the dispossessed family, attained a position of power in the Punjab plains, being appointed governor of

Jalandhar Jalandhar is the third most-populous city in the Indian state of Punjab and the largest city in Doaba region. Jalandhar lies alongside the Grand Trunk Road and is a well-connected rail and road junction. Jalandhar is northwest of the state ...

Ahmed Shah Abdali Ahmad Shāh Durrānī ( ps, احمد شاه دراني; prs, احمد شاه درانی), also known as Ahmad Shāh Abdālī (), was the founder of the Durrani Empire and is regarded as the founder of the modern Afghanistan. In July 1747, Ahm ...

. Building upon this ascendency, Ghamand Chand's grandson Sansar Chand rallied an army, ousted the then ruler of Kangra, Saif Ali Khan, and gained possession of his patrimony. This happened in 1783, and Sansar Chand was aided by the Kanhaiya ''misl'', one of several Sikh principalities that ruled

the Punjab Punjab (; Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising a ...

in that era. During the campaign, Raja Sansar Chand and his mercenary force overran other nearby principalities and compelled the submission of their rulers. He reigned over a relatively large part of present-day

for perhaps two decades, but his ambitions brought him into conflict with the

Gorkha The Gurkhas or Gorkhas (), with endonym Gorkhali ), are soldiers native to the Indian Subcontinent, chiefly residing within Nepal and some parts of Northeast India. The Gurkha units are composed of Nepalis and Indian Gorkhas and are recruit ...

s ruling the then nascent state of

Nepal Nepal (; ne, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne, सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mai ...

. The Gorkhas and the recently humbled hill-states allied to invade Kangra in 1806. The Raja was defeated and left with no territory beyond the immediate vicinity of the fortress of Kangra, which he managed to retain with the help of a small Sikh force sent to his aid by

Ranjit Singh Ranjit Singh (13 November 1780 – 27 June 1839), popularly known as Sher-e-Punjab or "Lion of Punjab", was the first Maharaja of the Sikh Empire, which ruled the northwest Indian subcontinent in the early half of the 19th century. He s ...

. In this despair, the Raja treated with Ranjit Singh at Jawalamukhi in 1809. By that treaty, Raja Sansar Chand surrendered his (now largely notional) state to Ranjit Singh, in return for a substantial fief to be held under the suzerainty of the latter. This estate consisted, in 1947, of 20 villages yielding a revenue of Rs. 40,000/- and encompassing an area of 324 km². Ranjit Singh duly established his rule over the land; Sansar Chand received in addition the estate of Lambagraon.

British era

As a result of the

First Anglo-Sikh War The First Anglo-Sikh War was fought between the Sikh Empire and the British East India Company in 1845 and 1846 in and around the Ferozepur district of Punjab. It resulted in defeat and partial subjugation of the Sikh empire and cession of ...

(1846), the area between the

Sutlej The Sutlej or Satluj River () is the longest of the five rivers that flow through the historic crossroads region of Punjab in northern India and Pakistan. The Sutlej River is also known as ''Satadru''. It is the easternmost tributary of the Ind ...

and

Ravi Ravi may refer to: People * Ravi (name), including a list of people and characters with the name * Ravi (composer) (1926–2012), Indian music director * Ravi (Ivar Johansen) (born 1976), Norwegian musical artist * Ravi (music director) (1926–201 ...

rivers, including the hill states, were ceded by the Sikhs to the

HEIC High Efficiency Image File Format (HEIF) is a container format for storing individual digital images and image sequences. The standard covers multimedia files that can also include other media streams, such as timed text, audio and video. HEIF ...

. Thus, Lambagraon estate was annexed by the British and was one of the feudatory estates placed under the Simla Hill States' Superintendency. In deference with the ruling dynasty's association with Kangra town (and given the fact that the estate fell within

Kangra district Kangra is the most populous district of the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. Dharamshala is the administrative headquarters of the district. History Kangra is known for having the oldest serving Royal Dynasty in the world, the Katoch. In 1758 ...

) the estate was referred to as "Kangra-Lambagraon". The princely estate of Kangra-Lambagraon acceded unto the

Dominion of India The Dominion of India, officially the Union of India,* Quote: “The first collective use (of the word "dominion") occurred at the Colonial Conference (April to May 1907) when the title was conferred upon Canada and Australia. New Zealand and N ...

in 1947; the following year, it was merged with its sister states of the erstwhile Simla superintendency to create a province named "Himachal Pradesh", administered by a Chief Commissioner.

References

External links

History of Kangra
{{coord, 32, 06, N, 76, 16, E, region:IN_type:landmark_source:kolossus-svwiki, display=title States and territories established in the 5th millennium BC Princely states of Himachal Pradesh Quasi-princely estates of India Kangra, Himachal Pradesh 1947 disestablishments in India States and territories disestablished in 1947 Former monarchies of Asia