Phillaur is a city and a

municipal council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, rural counci ...

as well as a

tehsil A tehsil (, also known as tahsil, taluka, or taluk) is a local unit of administrative division in some countries of South Asia. It is a subdistrict of the area within a district including the designated populated place that serves as its administr ...

Jalandhar district Jalandhar district is a district in Doaba region of the state of Punjab, India. District headquarters is Jalandhar city. Before the Partition of India, Jalandhar was also the headquarters of the Jalandhar Division, with constituent districts J ...

in the

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

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 ...

Overview

Phillaur is the railway junction on the border line of

Ludhiana Main Ludhiana ( ) is the most populous and the largest city in the Indian state of Punjab. The city has an estimated population of 1,618,879 2011 census and distributed over , making Ludhiana the most densely populated urban centre in the state. I ...

and

Ludhiana Ludhiana ( ) is the most populous and the largest Cities in India, city in the Indian state of Punjab, India, Punjab. The city has an estimated population of 1,618,879 2011 Indian census, 2011 census and distributed over , making Ludhiana the ...

Cantonment (older spelling: Ludhiana). It was a junction for

Lohian Khas Lohian Khas is a town and a nagar panchayat in Jalandhar district in the Indian States and territories of India, state of Punjab (India), Punjab. There was 11 wards in this town recently two more wards are constituted now currently 13 wards repre ...

and

Ferozepur Firozpur, also known as Ferozepur, is a city on the banks of the Sutlej River in Firozpur District, Punjab, India. After the partition of India in 1947, it became a border town on the India–Pakistan border with memorials to soldiers who d ...

. In pre-

partition Partition may refer to: Computing Hardware * Disk partitioning, the division of a hard disk drive * Memory partition, a subdivision of a computer's memory, usually for use by a single job Software * Partition (database), the division of a ...

days, it was the main

timber Lumber is wood that has been processed into dimensional lumber, including beams and planks or boards, a stage in the process of wood production. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, wi ...

market of Punjab Region. It is situated on the banks of River

Satluj 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 In ...

, the southernmost of the five rivers of the Punjab region. The timber cut in higher regions of Shivalik range was thrown into the River Satluj and then collected at Phillaur for further transportation. The dedicated railway line survives to this day but it is not functional. The town stands on the highway of traditional Grant Trunk Road (G. T. Road or Sher Suri Marg, now National Highway 1 - NH. 1). The actual G. T. Road passes through Phillaur. The older path of actual G. T. Road still survives along the railway bridge which Ludhiana. This town was named by a Sanghera Jatt called ''Phul'' who named it earlier is Phulnagar. However the Naru

Rajputs Rajput (from Sanskrit ''raja-putra'' 'son of a king') is a large multi-component cluster of castes, kin bodies, and local groups, sharing social status and ideology of genealogical descent originating from the Indian subcontinent. The term Ra ...

, sent by Rai Shahr, occupied this town when Shahr's son Ratan Pal left Mau and settled in Phillaur. During

Sher Shah Suri Sher Shah Suri ( ps, شیرشاه سوری) (1472, or 1486 – 22 May 1545), born Farīd Khān ( ps, فرید خان) , was the founder of the Sur Empire in India, with its capital in Sasaram in modern-day Bihar. He standardized the silver coin ...

times (1540-1545 A. D.), a Sarai (for trading and military purpose) was raised at Phillaur. The Sarai was again revived by Mughal Emperor

Shahjahan Shihab-ud-Din Muhammad Khurram (5 January 1592 – 22 January 1666), better known by his regnal name Shah Jahan I (; ), was the fifth emperor of the Mughal Empire, reigning from January 1628 until July 1658. Under his emperorship, the Mugha ...

(1627-1657 A. D.) and used as Postal Center (Dak ghar) and Military camp. After the

Treaty of Amritsar A treaty is a formal, legally binding written agreement between actors in international law. It is usually made by and between sovereign states, but can include international organizations, individuals, business entities, and other legal pers ...

of 1809 between

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 ...

and the

British East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Southea ...

, it became the border post of the

Sikh Empire The Sikh Empire was a state originating in the Indian subcontinent, formed under the leadership of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, who established an empire based in the Punjab. The empire existed from 1799, when Maharaja Ranjit Singh captured Lahor ...

. It was kept under Raja Dhanpat Rai who also acted as his

munshi Munshi is a Persian word, originally used for a contractor, writer, or secretary, and later used in the Mughal Empire and India for native language teachers, teachers of various subjects, especially administrative principles, religious texts, ...

for the lands across the River Sutluj which fell in Ludhiana (made military cantonment by British in 1842). The Sarai was converted into a fort as an outpost. Presently, the fort is called Ranjit Singh Fort. It is now being used as Police Training Academy (PTA). The Finger Print Bureau (1892) in police academy is one of the oldest institution in the region. It is also the birthplace of the famous Pakistani poet Sher Muhammad Khan, better known by his pen name, Ibn-e-Insha.

Geography

Phillaur is located at . It has an average elevation of 234 metres (767 feet).

Demographics

India

census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses incl ...

, Phillaur had a population of 178,198. Males constitute 54% of the population and females 46%. Phillaur has an average literacy rate of 83.16%, higher than state average of 75.84 %. male literacy is 87.07%, and female literacy is 78.88%. In Phillaur, 11% of the population is under 6 years of age.

Composition of ''Jai Jagdish Hare''

The popular Hindu hymn, ''Jai Jagdish Hare'' was composed by a local scholar

Shardha Ram Phillauri Shardha Ram Phillauri ( ; September 1837 Singh Bedi, Harmohinder. ''Shardha Ram Granthawali''. Nirmal Publisher. (A three-volume work by the dean and head of the Guru Nanak Dev University Hindi Department.) – 24 June 1881) was an Indian ...

from Phillaur some time in the 1870s. The exact date is not known. Shardha Ram Phillauri also wrote what is generally considered to the first novel in Hindi. There is a memorial commemorating him.

Overview

Geography

Demographics

Composition of ''Jai Jagdish Hare''

Villages in Phillaur Tehsil

References

External links