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GUJRANWALA
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GUJRANWALA , a See also:town and See also:district of See also:British See also:India, in the See also:Lahore See also:division of the See also:Punjab. The town is situated 40 M. N. of Lahore by See also:rail. It is of See also:modern growth, and owes its importance to the See also:father and grandfather of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, whose See also:capital it formed during the See also:early See also:period of the See also:Sikh See also:power. Pop. (1901) 29,224. There are manufactures of See also:brass-See also:ware, jewellery, and See also:silk and See also:cotton scarves. The DISTRICT comprises an See also:area of 3198 sq. m. In 1901 the See also:population was 756,797, showing an increase of 29% in the See also:decade. The district is divided between a See also:low alluvial See also:tract along the See also:rivers See also:Chenab and Degh and the upland between them, which forms the central portion of the Rechna See also:Doab, inter-mediate between the fertile submontane plains of See also:Sialkot and the See also:desert expanses of See also:Jhang. See also:Part of the upland tract has been brought under cultivation by the Chenab See also:canal. The See also:country is very See also:bare of trees, and the scenery throughout is tame and in the central See also:plateau becomes monotonous. It seems likely that the district once contained the capital of the Punjab, at an See also:epoch when Lahore had not begun to exist. We learn from the See also:Chinese Buddhist See also:pilgrim, Hsuan Tsang, that about the See also:year 63o he visited a town known as Tse-kia (or Taki), the See also:metropolis of the whole country of the five rivers.' A See also:mound near the modern See also:village of Asarur has been identified as the site of the See also:ancient capital. Until the See also:Mahommedan invasions little is known of Gujranwala, except that Taki had fallen into oblivion and Lahore had become the See also:chief See also:city. 'Under Mahommedan See also:rule the district flourished for a See also:time; but a mysterious depopulation See also:fell upon the tract, and the whole region seems to have been almost entirely abandoned. On the rise of Sikh power, the See also:waste plains of Gujranwala were seized by various military adventurers. Charat Singh took. See also:possession of the village of Gujranwala, and here his See also:grandson the See also:great Maharaja Ranjit Singh was See also:born. The Sikh rule, which was elsewhere so disastrous, appears to have been an unmitigated benefit to this district. Ranjit Singh settled large colonies in the various villages, and encouraged cultivation throughout the depopulated See also:plain. In 1847 the district came under British See also:influence in connexion with the regency at Lahore; and in 1849 it was included in the territory annexed after the second Sikh See also:war. A large export See also:trade is carried on in cotton, See also:wheat and other grains. The district is served by the See also:main See also:line and branches of the See also:North-Western railway. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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