PUNJAB, the most northern province of British India. Geographically the region called by this name is the triangular tract of country of which the Indus and the Sutlej (Satlaj) to their confluence form two of the sides, the third being the lower Himalaya hills between these two rivers. The British province now includes a large extent of country outside these boundaries, on all three sides—beyond the Indus to the range of hills running parallel to it on the west; beyond the Sutlej eastward to the Jumna (Jamna) and southward to a distance of 60 miles below Delhi; within the hills, a large highland tract on the east and another on the west, with the Kashmir and Chamba terri-tories between. The British province stretches north and south from 35° 10' N. lat. at the head of the hill district of Hazara to 27° 40' at the south end of the Gurgaon dis-trict, and east and west from 69° 36' E. long, on the Dera Ghazi Khan and Sind frontier to 78° 55' on the Jumna. The length of the central line of communication across the province from Delhi to Peshawar by rail is 645 miles.
The name Punjab signifies " [country of] five rivers," Rivers.
Doabs.
the five rivers being the great tributaries of the INDUS (q.v.), namely, the Jhelum, Chinab, Ravi, Bias, and Sutlej. These are all rivers of large volume, but, on account of the great width of sandy channel in their passage through the plains, their changing courses, and shifting shoals, they are of very moderate value for steam navigation, though they all support a considerable boat-traffic. The Indus has a course of about 550 miles through the Punjab. The Jhelum enters the plains a little above the town of Jhelum. Thence it flows south-west about 200 miles to join the Chinab. The Chinab (called Chandrabhaga in the hills, being formed by the union of the Chandra and the Bhaga, both from the Bara Lacha ~ Hills) enters the Punjab about 15 miles north of Sialk6t. About 200 miles lower down it receives the Jhelum on the right, and about 60 miles farther the Ravi on the left. After a further course of about 120 miles it joins the Sut-lej. The Ravi, after reach-ing the plains, follows a very winding course to its junction with the Chinab. A deserted channel runs generally parallel to the present river through part of the district of Montgomery. The Bias enters the Punjab in the Gur-daspur district, and has a course in the plains of nearly 100 miles to its junction with the Sutlej near Hari-ki-Patan. The Sutlej flows nearly 500 miles through the plains before it unites with the Chinab, which is the junction of the five tributaries. Thence the united rivers (sometimes called Panj-nad or " the five streams ") flow in one channel about 50 miles to the Indus.
Whilst the general name Punjab is applied to the whole country of the five rivers, there are distinct names for each of the "doabs" (do, two ; db, water) or tracts between two adjoining rivers. The country between the Sutlej and the Bias is called the Jalandar Doab; it includes the districts Jalandar and Hushiarpur. The long strip between the Bias-Sutlej and the Ravi, containing the greater part of the Gurdaspur, Amritsar, Lahore, Montgomery, and Miiltan districts, is called the Barf Doab. And Rechna Doab is the tract between the Ravi and the Chinab, embracing the Sialk6t and Gujranwala districts with the trans-Ravi portions of the districts of the Bari Doab. Chaj or Jach is the doab between the Chinab and the Jhelum (Gujrat and Shahpur districts and part of Jhang), and Sind Sagar (Indus Sea) is the name of the large doab between the
Map of Punjab.
Jhelum and the Indus, including the Rawal Pindi, Jhelum, and Muzaffargarh districts, with parts of Shahpur, Bannii, Dera Ismail Khan. The higher and drier parts of the doabs are called "bar." They are waste but not barren, scantily covered with low shrubs, capable, when watered, of being well cultivated. The bar is the great camel-grazing land. Large areas of the Muzaffargarh and Miiltan districts are " thai," barren tracts of shifting sand. The middle part of the Bar! Doab, in the Amritsar district, bears the distinctive name of Manjha (middle) as the centre and headquarters of the Sikh nation, containing their two sacred tanks of Amritsar and Taran Taran, and a dense and fine population of Jats, Rajputs, and Gujars. The Malwa Sikhs, again, are those of the cis-Sutlej country.
Besides the great rivers, the distinguishing feature of Minor the Punjab, there are some others deserving of notice, rivers. The Cabul river joins the Indus above Attock after receiving, about 12 miles north-east of Peshawar, the Swat river, which enters British territory at Abazai. The Kunhar, from the Kashmir hills, flows down the Kaghan valley (the upper part of the Hazara district) and joins the Jhelum at Muzaffarabad. The Siran and the D6r in Hazara unite and near Torbela run into the Indus, which
below Attock also receives the Harro from Hazára. The Kurram, rising in Afghanistan and flowing through the Bannú district, falls into the Indus near Isa Khíl, and the Sohán, from the lower hills of Kashmir, joins it above Kálábágh. The Bimbar, from the Kashmir Hills, below the Pír Panjál Pass, runs into the Chináb near Wazírábád. The Dég, from the Jammu Hills, joins the Rávi near Gugaira. South of the Sutlej the Markanda, the Saras-wati, the Gaggar, and the Chitang, from the lower hills of Sirmur, which are violent torrents during the rainy season but nearly dry at other times, flow towards the Indus, but never reach it, being lost in the sands of the Bikanir and Baháwalpur desert. Area The area of the Punjab proper, the triangular tract of country between the Indus and the Sutlej, is about 62,000 square miles; the whole area of the British province is 106,632, and of the feudatory states 35,817, making a total of 142,449 square miles. This area is for the most Physical part a great alluvial plain. The north-east side of the features, province is a belt of hill-country, the outer margin of the Himalayas, on which are the valuable hill-stations of Murree, Dalhousie, Dharmsala, Kassauli, Sabáthú, Dagshai, and Simla. In the Delhi and Gurgáon districts is the north end of the Aravali range. A part of the extremity of these hills became well known at the time of the siege of Delhi in 1857 under the name of the "Ridge," which was held by the British troops. Between the Jhelum and the Indus is the hilly region known by the general name of the Salt Range, containing the inexhaustible stores of rock-salt which have been worked for many centuries. The salt is dug from enormous caverns entered by narrow tunnels. The salt-hills are continued west of the Indus, where the salt is dug from open quarries. A double range of low hills runs south-westward from the Indus near the mouth of the Kurram. The part near the south end called Sheikh Budín (Sheikh Shaháb-uddín) is a useful sana-torium, though of no great height or great extent. The western boundary of the province is the fine range of the Sulimán Mountains, dividing the Punjab from Afghan-istan. The British possessions do not extend beyond the base of the hills, which are occupied by very independent tribes. It is only within a short time past that any exact knowledge has been obtained of the interior of these hills, beyond the parts visited in the course of the numerous frontier expeditions for the punishment of inroads into British territory. A survey was made for the first time in 1883 of the fine mountain mass containing the snowy peak Takht-i-Sulimán (Solomon's throne) and its sur-roundings.
Mineral Besides the rock-salt the mineral products of the Punjab products. are no^ many. Limestone, good for building, is obtained at Chaniót on the Chináb and at a few other places. There are extensive alum-beds at Kálábágh on the Indus. A small quantity of coal is found in the Salt Range in disconnected beds, mostly at a considerable height above the plain, and not very accessible, the beds thinning out westwards from the Jhelum to the Indus. Petroleum is found in small quantities at a number of places in the Ráwal Pindí, Kohát, and Bannú districts, being gathered from the surface of pools or collected in shallow pits. It is used for making gas for the station of Ráwal Pindí. In almost all parts of the Punjab there is "kankar," rough nodular limestone, commonly found in thick beds, a few feet below the surface of the ground, used for road metalling and burned for lime. Crops, As in other parts of India, there are commonly two har-ía, vests in the year. The spring crops are wheat, barley, gram„ various vegetables, oil-seeds, tobacco, and a little opium; the autumn crops, rice, millets, maize, pulses, cotton, indigo, and sugar-cane. Tea is now extensively
JAB
cultivated in the Kangra district. Flax has been pro-duced successfully, but the cultivation has not been exr tended. Hops have been grown experimentally, for the Murree brewery, on neighbouring hills ; the cultivation in Kashmir has been more encouraging. Potatoes are grown extensively on cleared areas on the hills. The Punjab produces freely many of the Indian fruits, but none of special excellence except the peaches of Peshawar. Grapes are grown in many of the Himalayan valleys, where the rain is not excessive, also at Peshawar; but they are in-ferior to those brought from Cabul.
The forest area of the Punjab consists of 4694 square Forests, miles reserved, under the management of the forest depart-ment, and 13,000 square miles under the district officers. The demarcation of protected and reserved forests is being extended. The wasteful destruction of trees is checked in the hill forests rented from native states by the British Government. The principal reserved forests are the deodar (Cedrus Deodara) and chil (Pinus longifolia) tracts in the hills, the plantations of shisham (Dalbergia Sissu) and sal (Shorea robusta) in the plains, and the fuel rakhs or pre-serves (Acacia, Prosopis, &c). The average nett surplus of forest income for the ten years 1875-85 was Rs. 161,800.
The rainfall in the Punjab varies greatly in different Climate,, parts and from year to year. The maximum (126-55 inches in the year) is at Dharmsala, on the face of the high north wall of the Kangra valley; the minimum (5"96) is in the Muzaffargarh district. In a country so open and so far from the sea there are extremes of heat and cold. A temperature of 128° Fahr. in the shade has been recorded, and a winter temperature of 25° at sunrise is not in-frequent. At Lahore, on the grass, the thermometer has been known to fall to 17°.
Of the whole area of British Punjab (106,632 square Cultiva* miles) 36,755 square miles are cultivated and 64,263 un-ticm-cultivated, the remaining 5614 being reckoned uncultivable. An area of 75,434 square miles (48,377,760 acres) is held by 33,020 village communities, formed of small proprietors having joint interests and joint responsibility for the land revenue, but cultivating each his own land. Among the Pathans of the trans-Indus districts the tribe and not the village community is in some cases the jointly responsible body. There are 3406 estates of larger proprietors, with a total area of 4,531,415 acres; and there are 10,216,872 acres of waste land, the property of the Government, of which less than one-half is capable of cultivation. The total area under wheat is seven millions of acres. There is an increasing export of wheat, gram, rice, and oilseeds.
Irrigation for large areas is from canals and from reser- Irriga-voirs, and for smaller areas from wells. The canals are of tiou-two kinds, those carrying a permanent stream throughout the year, and those which fill only on the periodical rising of the rivers, the latter commonly known as "inundation canals." There are only a few parts of the country pre-senting facilities for forming reservoirs, by closing the narrow outlets of small valleys and storing the accumulated rainfall. The old canals made by the Mohammedan rulers, of which the principal are Fir6z's Canal from the Jumna and the Hasli Canal from the Ravi, have been improved or reconstructed by the British Government. The principal new canals are the Sirhind, drawn from the Sutlej near Riipar, and irrigating parts of the native states of Pati&la and Nabha as well as British territory; the BariDoab Canal from the Ravi; the Swat Canal, drawn from the Swat river at Abazai; and inundation canals in the districts of Fir6z-pur, Shahpur, Miiltan, and the Derajat, from the Sutlej, the Jhelum, the Chinab, and the Indus. Water was admitted into the Sirhind Canal on 1st July 1882 Its branches are still under construction.
Popula- Tlie population of the British province in 1881 numbered tion. 18,850,437, of the feudatory states 3,861,683 ; total, 22,712,120. This total number consists of:—
== TABLE ==
The Punjab has one-fourth of the Mohammedan inhabitants of India, one-twentieth of the Hindus, and eleven-twelfths of the Sikhs. Of the Hindus the classes most largely represented are Jats (4,432,720) and Rajputs (1,677,569). There are in the Punjab certain criminal tribes, always under surveillance, of which the population is at present 13,957.
Atlrainis trative
The tribes of the western hill frontier are Mohammedans and Pathans in the north and Baluohis in the south (with one Pathan tribe among them). There are sixteen principal Pathan tribes, of which the most important are the Momand, Afrfdi, and Orakzai on the Peshawar border, and the Waziri adjoining Banmi and the Derajat; and seven Baluch tribes on the Dera Ghazi Khan border, the chief of which are the Bozdar, Marri, and Bugti.
The British province is divided for administrative purposes into thirty-one districts, each under a deputy commissioner, grouped in six divisions, each under a commissioner.
== TABLE ==
The native states in feudal subordination to the British Govern-ment and in connexion with the Punjab are thirty-six in number, thirty-one Hindu and five Mohammedan. Of these many are very insignificant, the rulers being petty Rajput chiefs of old family and small means. The highest chief in rank and importance is the mahárájá of Kashmir and Jammú, a Dógra Rájput (see vol. xiv. p. 12). The next is the mahárájá of PATIÁLA (q.v.).- The Moham-medan state of Baháwalpur on the Sutlej is next, with a popula-tion under half a million and a revenue of about 20 lakhs. Next in order are the rájás of Jind and NÁBHA (q.v.), cis-Sutlej states. They are Játs, like the mahárájá of Patiála, of the Phúlkian clan _ (named from Phúl, the founder of these three houses, in the middle of last century). Next comes the rájá of KAPUIVTHALA (q.v.) in! the fertile Jalandar Doáb, of the Ahlúwália family. Of the rest the most important in point of revenue are the states of Mandi in the hill country west of the Sutlej, and Sarmúr in the hills east of that river, under Rájput rulers, and Farídkót and Malér Kotla in the plains, cis-Sutlej, the former Hindu, the latter Mohammedan.
Languages.
1 The figures for the Hissar and Fir6zpiir districts are only approximate, t>ut the sum of the two together is correct. In the redistribution which is now (1885) being earned out the former district of Sirsa lias been abolished ; 'the eastern part is added to Hissar and the western to Firozpur. In'the above o statement-half of the area and population has'been assigned to each.,
Of the 22,700,000 people in the Punjab, in British'territory and "the native states, about 14,000,000 speak the provincial language, Panjábi, which varies in character in different parts of the pro-vince. About 4,250,000 speak HINDUSTANI (q.v.), this number including those whose ordinary vernacular is Hindi, but who understand and are gradually adopting the more comprehensive Hindustani. These two languages are the most .generally used throughout the province, but not equally in all parts. The other languages in use are more or less local. Jatki, spoken by about 1,500,000, belongs chiefly to the south-east districts. The language of the eastern hill country is a form of Hindi, spoken by about 1,500,000. Dogri is the language of the northern hills, and Kashmiri of a few large bodies of Kashmir workpeople at Ludiana, Nurpur, Amritsar, and some other places. The language of the Pathans of the northern part of the trans-Indus frontier is Pushtu (see vol. i p. 238). Baluchi is spoken on the same frontier, farther south, ad-jacent to Baluchistan, Sindi at the extreme south, next to Sind, and Bagri, a variety of Hindi, in the cis-Sutlej district bordering on Bikanir. There are also some minor local dialects, and a few people speaking languages not of the Punjab,—Persian, Bengali, Mahrathi, Turki, Tibetan, Nipalese. Hindustani is the language of the law courts and of all ordinary official and other communica-tions with chiefs and people.
Many books, periodicals, and newspapers are published in some of these spoken languages, the greatest number in Hindustani, others in Hindi, Panjabi, Pushtu, and Persian, also some in Sanskrit and classical Arabic, which are not spoken. During the last quarter of which the details are published 360 books were registered, 161 Hindustani, 135 Hindi, 36 English, 16 Arabic, the rest bilingual. There are 7 English and 23 vernacular periodicals, monthly and fortnightly, and 28 vernacular newspapers are published in the British province and 3 in native states.
The number of children under instruction in schools in the Pun- Educa-
jab is 184,000 (9000 girls). There are 1559 primary schools for tion.
boys, 206 middle schools, 25 high schools, and 3 industrial schools,
also a training college and 4 normal schools. For girls there are
321 primary schools, 4 middle, 1 high, 1 industrial, and 4 normal
schools. The higher and special educational institutions arc the
Lahore Government College, the Cambridge University Mission . i
College at Delhi, the Oriental College of the Punjab University, the Medical School, and the Mayo School of Art, the last three at Lahore. A ward's school, for the orphans of Sikh chiefs, estab-lished at Ambala in 1867, is about to be extended to receive other upper-class students. The Government department of public in-struction was established in 1856. In 1868 the first proposal of a university for the Punjab was made, chiefly at the instance of the literary society called the Anjuman-i-Punjab, with the support of the native chiefs. The institution took the form in 1870 of the Punjab University College, and it was raised in November 1882 to the status of a university. There are several other literary societies in the Punjab besides the Anjuman at Lahore.
The police force numbers 19,827 men, with 580 officers, 68 of whom are Europeans. There is in addition a special frontier police.
The military force in occupation of the Punjab consists of (1) Arm. British troops (of which it has a larger proportion than any other province); (2) native troops of the regular Indian army ; (3) the Punjab frontier force, a local body of cavalry, infantry, and artillery, ordinarily employed only on the military duties of the western frontier ; and (4) the frontier militia, composed of men of the border tribes, both within and without British territory, employed as auxiliary to the regular troops, to garrison certain of the smaller fortified posts along the frontier. There is also a volunteer rifle corps of Europeans at the large stations and on the lines of railway. The total military force, including police, of the native states in connexion with the Punjab is 21,500.
Most of the native manufactures of the Punjab are those common Manu-to other parts of India, such as the ordinary cotton fabrics, plain factures. woollen blankets, unglazed pottery, ropes and cord, grass matting, paper, leather-work, brass vessels, simple agricultural implements, and the tools used in trades. Other manufactures, not so general, yet not peculiar to the Punjab, are woollen fabrics, carpets and shawls, silk cloths and embroidery, jewellery and ornamental metal-work, wood and ivory carving, turned and lacquered wood-work, glazed pottery, arms and armour, and musical instruments. But some of these classes of manufacture are represented by work of special kinds or special excellence in particular parts of the Punjab, notably the silk fabrics of Multan and of Bahawalpur, the capital of the native state; the carpets of Lahore, Peshawar, &c.; the "kashi" (see KASHI) or glazed tile-work (an ancient art still practised in a few places) ; "koft-kari," inlaid metal-work (gold wire on steel), chiefly made at Gujrat and Sialkot; shawls and other fine woollen fabrics, made by Kashmiri workpeople at Ludiana and Nxirpiir, as well as in Kashmir ; "lungis," waist and turban scarfs, made at Peshawar, Banni, &e. ; silk embroidery for shawls, scarfs, and turbans, at Delhi, Lahore, and Multan ; embroidery on cloth for elephant-trappings, bed and table covers, &c., at Lahore and Multan ; enamelled ornaments, in Kangra and Multan ; quill embroidery on leather, in Kangra and Simla,; lacquered wood-
Footnotes
The name first given by the Aryans after their immigration was Sapta Sindhu, "[land of] seven rivers," these being the five rivers of the modern Punjab with the addition of the Indus on the one side and of the Sarasvvati on the other. In the Vedie poems they are severally addressed as Sindhu, the Indus (the river); Vitasta, the Jhelum ; Asikni, Chinab ; Airavati and Marudwidha, Ravi; Vipdsa, Bias ; Suhtdri, Sutlej ; and Saraswati, Sarsuti. It may be remarked that Sindhu itself means "river," and Saraswati, "having running water," and that each is applied as an epithet to other great rivers. The Saraswati, alone of the seven, is not now great. It is represented by a channel or channels, occupying the position assigned to the ancient much-praised stream, but now nearly dry for a great part of the year; for, unlike the others, it comes only from the lower hills, not from perpetual snows. The large body of water which it carries for a time in the rainy season never reaches the Indus, towards which it directs its course, but is lost in the desert lands of northern Rajputana and Bahawalpur. In writings of the 6th or 7th century B.C. the Saraswati is said to disappear and pass underground to join the Ganges and Jumna at Prag (Allahabad), which triple confluence received therefore the name Tribeni. The Saraswati dropped out of the enumeration of the rivers of the early Aryan settlement; and, when in later days the Indus, which receives all the others, ceased to be reckoned along with them, the country took its name Panchanada, and afterwards, in Persian form, Panjab.
work, Pak Pattan. At Kohat there is a special manufactory of
gun-barrels made of twisted iron straps. There is much excellent
carved wood-work on houses and on boats. Among the Punjab
arts should be mentioned the artificial nose-making practised by a
special class of surgeons at Kangra. Injury has been done to some
of the native arts of the Punjab, as of other parts of India, by
unwise copying of European patterns. The Lahore School of Art
is expected to correct this and promote the study and execution of
native forms and designs. The Lahore Museum contains illustra-
tions of the arts and manufactures, as well as raw products, of the
Punjab, and a large collection of the sculptures, mostly Buddhist,
and many of Greek workmanship, found in the north-west of the
province, chiefly trans-Indus. Upwards of 200 Graco - Buddhist
sculptures were excavated in Yusufzai in 1883 and 1884. The
number of visitors to the Lahore Museum during the year 1884
was upwards of 251,000. The value of the imports into the Punjab
during the same year was £981,167, and of the exports £1,083,919.
The chief lines of export and import traffic, apart from the trade
with the immediately adjoining countries, are on the one side the
railway to Delhi and the North-West Provinces, and on the other
the Indus River and Indus Valley Railway to Sind and the sea.
The Punjab exports wheat, tea, rock-salt, sugar, and other pro-
ducts, and articles of local manufacture. English piece-goods,
cutlery and other metal-work, fruits (especially from Afghanistan
and Kashmir), rice, drugs, and spices are among the chief imports.
The most important trade-centres are Delhi, Peshawar, Multan,
and Amritsar. There is a large amount of both export and import
trade with the countries on the north-west frontier. Efforts were
made for some time by the Government to promote trade between
the Punjab and Kashgar, but without much result. The endeavour
is now being carried on by private enterprise. There are great
difficulties in the hill country between, where the goods have to be
carried on mules and ponies.
Finance. The revenue of the British province is £3,232,349. Of this sum
£1,605,243 (consisting of land revenue £1,220,880, and minor
items £384,363) goes to the imperial treasury; £1,410,379 is
provincial, raised and expended in the province in addition to an
imperial grant; and £216,727 is derived from local rates and mis-
cellaneous income, and is locally expended.
Com- The total length of railways in the province now (1885) open for
munica- traffic is 1205 miles. The main central line from Delhi to Pesha-tion. war is 645 miles in length, of which 125 are east of the Jumna in the North-West Provinces, and 520 in the Punjab. Other lines now open are—Lahore to Multan 208 miles, and 10 to Shir-Shah, the port of Multan on the Chinab, Multan to Bahawalpur 63, Delhi to Riwari 52, Riwari to Hissar 89, Hissar to Firozpur 130, Amritsar to Pathankot 67, Wazirabad to Sialkot 27, Lala Miisa (near Gujrat) to Pind Dadan Khan and the Salt Mines 62, Rawal Pindi to Khushhalgarh 77. Other lines are under construction. There are 1467 miles of metalled road, 23,156 unmetalled, and 2676 miles of navigable river. In this country of great rivers, crossing lines of road, the value of boat-bridges is very great. During the five years following the construction of the bridge of boats over the Indus at Dera Ismail Khan the annual camel traffic between Afghanistan and the Punjab by the Gumal Pass, through the hills on the west, increased from 50,000 to 80,000, with corresponding increase of the " tirni" or grazing-tax paid by the Povinda camel-drivers. This trade-route and this class of carriers are of some im-portance. For a long time to come they are not likely to make way for other means of transport by road or railroad, though the trade will grow. The Povinda are a travelling tribe belonging to the Ghilzai country in Afghanistan. They make annual trade journeys into India by this route, which is an easy and good one, capable of being turned to more account. The Sikhs imposed heavy duties on the goods they brought. The remission of these duties by the British Government greatly encouraged the trade, which is now further helped by the boat-bridge across the Indus. There are many passes through the hills between British India and Afghanistan, of which the principal are—the Khyber in the north, close to Peshawar, the nearest way to Cabul; the Bolan in the south, approached from Shikarpur and Jacobabad in Sind, the way to Quetta and Candahar; and between them three others looking towards Ghazni, namely, Gumal Pass, the valley of the united Gumal and Zhob rivers opposite Dera Ismail Khan, and the Kurram and'Dawar routes opposite Banmi.
While the amount of railway and other traffic has been steadily increasing with the facilities afforded, the demands on the post-office and telegraph have likewise been growing rapidly. The annual number of letters and post-cards, now about twenty millions, has nearly doubled in ten years. The telegraph has had a fluctuating increase in the number of messages, which during the year 1884 was upwards of 142,000. History History.—For the early history of the Punjab from the Aryan immigration to the rise of the Mogul dynasty the reader may consult the article INDIA (vol. xii. p. 779 sq.). It deserves, how-ever, to be specially noted here with reference to that period that from the time of Alexander onwards Greek settlers remained in the Punjab, and that Greek artists gave their services for Buddhist work and introduced features of their own architecture in Indian as well as Grecian buildings. Besides the bases and capitals of large Greek columns at Sháh-deri (Taxila) and elsewhere, numerous sculptures of Greek workmanship have been found at various places. These are single statues (probably portraits), also figures of Buddha, and representations of scenes in his legendary history, and other subjects. They are obtained from ruins of monasteries and other buildings, from mounds, and the remains of villages or monumental topes. Of Buddhist buildings now remaining the most conspicuous as well as distinctive in character are the topes (sthupa), in shape a plain hemisphere, raised on a platform of two or more stages. One of the largest of these is at Manikyála, 14 miles east of Ráwal Pindi. These Buddhist buildings and sculptures are all probably the work of the two centuries before and the three or four after the beginning of the Christian era. The character of the sculptures is now well known from the specimens in the India Museum, South Kensington, and both originals and casts of others in the Lahore Museum. Unfortunately they have no names or inscriptions, which give so much value to the sculptures of the Bharhut tope.
The several bodies of settlers in the Punjab from the earliest Tribes times have formed groups of families or clans (not identical with and Indian castes, but in many cases joining them), which have gener- clans, ally preserved distinct characteristics and followed certain classes of occupation in particular parts of the country. Some of the existing tribes in the Punjab are believed to be traceable to the early Aryan settlers, as the Bhatti tribe, whose special region is Bhattiana south of the Sutlej, and who have also in the village of Pindi Bhattián a record of their early occupation of a tract of country on the left bank of the Chináb, west of Lahore. The Dógra, another Aryan clan, belong to a tract of the lower hills between the Chináb and the Rávi. Others similarly have their special ancient localities. To the earlier settlers—the dark race (Dasyú) whom the Aryans found in the country, and who are commonly spoken of as aborigines—belonged, as is supposed, the old tribe called Takka, whose name is found in Taksha-sila or Taxila. And from the later foreigners again, the Indo-Scythians, are probably descended the great Ját tribe of cultivators, also the Gújars, a pastoral people and traders, and others. Some of the tribes or sections of them, having received the Hindu faith and the system of caste, have afterwards given large bodies of converts to Mohammedanism, so that there are now Hindus and Moham-medans of the same tribe continuing to bear the same name. There are Mohammedan Rajputs, and there are both Hindu and Mohammedan Játs, and so with others.
It was during the events which brought Bábar, the first of the Sikh Mogul dynasty, to the throne that the sect of the Sikhs arose, sect. Nának, the founder, derived his .first ideas of the movement he was to lead from Kabir of Bañaras, a Mohammedan by birth (it is believed), who joined himself to a sect of Hindus and strove to give to their religion a new form and spirit free from idolatry. And the Sikh religion of the Punjab, founded on this model, was a reformed and monotheistic Hinduism. Nának was born in 1469 at Talwandi on the Rávi, and lived to the age of seventy, leaving . a large number of followers at his death. The name Sikh means " disciple," and the strength of the movement lay in the relation of i the disciple to the "gurú" or spiritual guide. In the time of Bábar's ! successor, Humáyún (who was only in the Punjab during the tem-porary success of his rival, Shir Khan Sur), the Sikhs were under the direction of the second of their gurús, Angad (1539-1552), and of the third, Amar Das (1552-1574). During the long reign of Akbar (1556-1605) the Sikhs increased in number and power under the mild and liberal rule of a Mohammedan emperor who was more than tolerant in all matters of religion. He himself sought diligently for knowledge of other faiths, and Amar Das, the Sikh gurú, was one of those who had conferences with him. Ram Das, son-in-law of Amar Das, succeeded him in 1574. He received from Akbar a gift of a piece of land, on which he dug the large square tank afterwards called Amritsar (" the pool of immortality "). In the last year of this guru's life the Punjab was visited, on Akbar's invitation, by several Jesuit fathers from Goa, who were received with great favour. To them the emperor gave a site for a church in the city of Lahore, and the church was built at Iris expense. In 1581 Ram Das was succeeded by his son Arjun Mai, a man of note. In the middle of his father's tank at Amritsar he built the temple, which was called at first Hari Mandar, and afterwards Darbár Sáhib, the name by which it is now known. The town which began to rise round the tank and temple was made the headquarters of the Sikhs. Arjun gave further coherence to the body of his followers by levying a regular tax in place of the free and varied offerings they used to give ; and he was the compiler of the sacred book called the Adi Gfranth, the materials for which he had received unarranged from his father. Akbar lived much in the Punjab. In 1586 he directed a campaign against the Afghans of the Peshawar valley, which was attended with no important results except the death of his able minister Bír Bal. In the next year he conquered Kashmir. On his visit to this new acquisition he was
accompanied by one of the Portuguese Jesuits, Jerome Xavier (nephew of the celebrated Francis), who was a special friend of the emperor and was with him at the time of his death at Agra in 1605. Arjun's power and prosperity lasted only during Akbar's lifetime. Jahangir was equally favourable to the Christian mis-sionaries ; but the Sikh guru incurred his displeasure. Believed to be a partisan of the emperor's rebellious son Khusrii, Arjun was Har imprisoned in 1606 and died soon after. His successor, Har GoTind. Govind, was only twelve years of age at the time of Arjun's death, and as he grew up his relation to the Sikhs became that of commander more than guru. The promulgation of the Granth for instruction of the people had made a way for this change in the character of the leadership. The work of the teacher was now in great measure transferred to the guardians of the sacred volume, who read it in the ears of the people. The guni thenceforth was the organizing head more than the religious guide. As a young man Har Govind accompanied the emperor to Kashmir. Jahangir, on his way back from this favourite summer resort, died at Rajaori in 1627, and was buried at Shah-dera on the Ravi, opposite Lahore. His widow, Niir Jahan, erected a beautiful monument over him, and was herself buried at the same place.
The reign of Shah Jahan (1627-1658) added much to the pros-perity of the Punjab. The emperor's large views found a fitting agent in Ali Mardan Khan, his minister and director of works. Under his orders the canal from the Ravi near the foot of the hills to Lahore was made, and the Jumna Canal, which had been con-structed in the 14th century by Firoz Shah, was restored and im-proved. Ali Mardan Khan also built the magnificent " sarais " or rest-houses for travellers on the high road to Kashmir, and other works of utility in the Punjab. In the contests between the two sons of Shah Jahan the Punjab favoured the elder, Dara Shiko, whose intelligent interest in the welfare of the country, joined to literary tastes and liberal views, commended him to all classes of the people. His name is preserved in the town of Shiko-piira, 18 miles west of Lahore, Dara-nagar, and other places. The present military station of Lahore bears the name of Dara's religious in-structor, Mian Mir, near whose tomb, erected by his royal pupil, the British cantonment is built.
Har Govind, the sixth Sikh guru, died in 1645. Har Rai, who succeeded him, gave his support to Dara Shiko. Dara was not successful in maintaining his rights against his younger brother Alamgir (called Aurangzib), who succeeded his father in 1658. Bernier, who was visiting India at this time, was a companion of the elder brother when in misfortune and of the younger when in power. Like his three predecessors, Aurangzib was fond of visiting Kashmir, and his journey through the Punjab on one of these occasions (1663-64) furnishes one of the most lively pictures of Bernier's Indian experiences. Har Rai died in 1661, and his successor, Har Kishan, a boy, held the nominal leadership of the Sikhs only three years, being followed in 1664 by Tegh Bahadur, a son of Har Govind. When, on his return to the Punjab from a visit to Bengal, he was thought to be exercising authority inconsistent with loyalty to the emperor, he was put to death by Aurangzib in 1675. This roused the Sikhs to greater zeal in the Govind adoption of a military constitution. The next guru, Govind Rai, Rai. son of Tegh Bahadur, after passing some years in retirement and study, came forth a vigorous and enthusiastic leader, with high aims. He set himself to the task of organizing the Sikhs of the Punjab, now becoming formidable from their number, their phy-sique, and their warlike propensities. The first adherents of Nanak, the founder of the sect, had been mostly Jats and Khattris. Many were men of great stature and powerful frame. As Sikhs they acquired a distinctive appearance by giving up the Hindu prac-tice of shaving the head and face. They were forbidden the use of tobacco ; and their discipline in other things prepared them for being indeed the soldiers they looked. Govind Rai adopted the designation "Singh" (lion), and this became the distinctive addition to the names of all Sikhs. He called the whole body the "khalsa" or free, and he devised a rite of initiation called the "pahal." He compiled a supplement to the Granth, containing instruction suited to the altered condition of the Sikh people. After the death of Aurangzib in 1707 he accepted the invitation of Bahadur Shah to join him in a campaign against the Mahrattas. At Nader, on the Godavari, he was murdered in 1708. His prin-cipal associate, Banda, led the Sikhs back to the Punjab and turned his arms against the Government. After a long series of fights with the Mogul's troops, during the reigns of Bahadur Shah and Farrukh Siyar, Banda was at length taken in 1716 and put to death. Persian Mohammed Shah was on the throne of Delhi, much occupied in tnd contests with the Mahrattas, when Nadir Shah invaded India. Afghan Nadir's march through the Punjab in the beginning of 1739 met avasiou. with no great opposition ; but the Sikhs kept up a system of desultory plunder both of the invaders and of the people fleeing from them. Lahore submitted and was spared; and it escaped again, on Nadir's return, after the defeat of Mohammed Shah at Karnal and the massacre at Delhi, by having a large sum of money ready to meet the expected demand. The Punjab offered no more
JAB 111
effective resistance to the invasion in 1747 of Ahmad Shah, Abdali, who kept possession of Afghanistan after Nadir's death. He began by claiming the revenues of the parts of the Punjab and Sind which had been ceded to Nadir. On his third invasion (1752) he obtained possession of Lahore and Mvdtan. The king of Delhi was now also an Ahmad Shah, and the invader was, foi distinction, called in India Ahmad Khan Afghan. His son Timur, whom he made governor of Lahore, was driven out by the Mahrattas. Ahmad found frequent visits to the Punjab necessary, and only after the total defeat of the Mahrattas at Panipat in 1761 did he retire finally to Cabul.
For a time the Sikhs seemed to have the prospect of holding the Period Punjab for themselves. Their number and power had greatly of inde-increased. They had grouped themselves in associations of kindred pendence. and neighbourhood called " misls," with distinctive names. Power-ful members of certain of these clans, representing the aristocracy of the Sikh families, acquired the chiefship of large tracts of country on both sides of the Sutlej, some of which became nearly independent states. Then there were certain members of the Sikh con-federation, not enrolling themselves in any clan nor owning any master, who assumed the role of religious enthusiasts and warriors, and the name " Akali" or immortal. They were the ghazis of Sikhism. They dressed in blue and wore a high-pointed turban on which they carried several chakras of different sizes, their own special weapon. The chakr or chakra is a thin knife-edged ring of flat steel, a severe missile in skilled hands, but not much used. The Sikhs south of the Sutlej enlarged their possessions and made marauding excursions across the Jumna and. the Ganges even as far as to Rohilkand. The capital was held by three leading Sikh chiefs, when, in 1797 and the following year, Zaman Shah, grand-son of Ahmad, brought an army with the view of recovering the Punjab, but was recalled both times by troubles at home. He secured Lahore without opposition, and on leaving in 1798 he made it over to a young Sikh who had attracted his attention and done him good service. This was Ranjit Singh, son of Maha Singh, Ranjit a Jat Sikh wdio had risen to considerable power, and who died Singh, in 1792. The young ruler of Lahore was soon to make himself master of the whole Punjab, wdiile heavy misfortune was awaiting Zaman Shah himself, who was to find shelter in the Punjab. The dethroned and blinded king was met in 1808 at Rawal Pindi by Mountstuart Elphinstone when returning from his mission to Shah Shuja. at Peshawar. When Ranjit Singh was beginning his career at Lahore the English adventurer George Thomas was trying, with the army he had raised, to carve out a little principality for himself in the Sikh states south of the Sutlej. Ranjit was a man of strong will and immense energy, of no education but of great acuteness in acquiring the knowledge that would be of use to him. He soon began to bring all the separate bodies of Sikhs under his control, and to acquire authority over others besides the Sikhs. When he endeavoured to include the Sikh states south of the Sutlej within his jurisdiction, the heads of these states—chiefs of Sirhind and Malwa, as they were called—sought and obtained in 1808 the protection of the British, wdiose territories had now extended to their neighbourhood. The Engluh were at this time desirous of alliance with Lahore as well as with Cabul, for protec-tion against supposed French designs on India. A British envoy, Mr Charles Metcalfe, was received by Ranjit at Kasur in 1809 and the alliance was formed. Ranjit steadily strengthened himself and extended his dominions. In 1809 he obtained possession of Kangra, which the Nepalese were besieging. In 1813 he acquired the fort of Attock on the other side of the Punjab ; and the same year he obtained from Shah Shuja, now in his turn a refugee in Lahore, what he coveted as much as territory, the celebrated Koh-i-mir diamond, which had been carried off by Nadir Shah from Delhi. In 1818, after some failures in previous years, he captured Miiltan. Kashmir, which had successfully opposed him several times, was annexed the following year, and likewise the southern part of the country between the Indus and the hills. The Peshawar valley he succeeded in adding four years later, but he found it best to leave an Afghan governor in charge of that troublesome district. These trans-Indus and other outlying tracts were left very much to themselves, and only received a military visit when revenue was wanted. Peshawar was never really ruled till General Avitabile was sent there in later years. When he was gradually raising his large and powerful army Ranjit received into his service certain French and other officers, who drilled his troops and greatly improved his artillery. He valued these European officers highly, and exerted himself much to retain them. One of them, M. Allard, used to say that, if it was sometimes difficult to get into Ranjit's service, it was more difficult to get out of it. Whilst he relied on these foreigners for military and sometimes also for administrative services, he drew around him a body of native ministers of great ability, of whom the brothers Gulab Singh and Dhian Singh of Jammu were the most influential. (They had another brother, Suchet Singh, less prominent and less at court.) Ranjit maintained friendly relations with the English Government till his death. This was of much importance when, immediately
after his death in 1839, the British were putting Shàh Shujà back
on the throne of Cabul. Ranjit was succeeded by his eldest son
Kharrak Singh. He left two reputed sons, Shir Singh and Dhalip
Singh, and two adopted sons, Kashmira Singh and Peshaura Singh,
named from expeditions on which Ranjit was engaged at the time
jfears of they were taken into his family. When Kharrak Singh made Cheit
disorder. Singh his chief minister in place of the Jammù brothers, Dhiàn
Singh killed the new minister. And now for a time the history of
the Punjab became a history of intrigues and deeds of violence, anil of
contests for power which, when gained, could not be kept. Kharrak
Singh's successor, Nau Nihàl Singh, was killed by the fall of a
beam from the Roshnai gateway of the Huzuri Bagh at Lahore as
he was returning from the deceased king's funeral. Shir Singh
succeeded, a man addicted, like Ranjit, to intemperance, and he was
soon put out of the way by Ajit Singh Sindhanwala. His son
Partab Singh was murdered by Lena Singh Majithia. Ranjit's
adopted sons, Peshaura and Kashmara Singh, were aiso killed. Then
came the turn of the ex-minister Dhiàn Singh, who was slain by
the same hand that had put Shir Singh to death, and which now
placed the young Dhalip Singh on the throne. Other assassinations
accompanied these chief ones. The leading Sindhanwalas were
now all murdered, and with the accession of Dhalip Singh the
friends of his mother, the rani, came into power, some of the wise
old servants of Ranjit also continuing to hold important offices.
First Ranjit had left an army of 92,000 infantry, 31,800 cavalry, with
Sikh 171 garrison guns and 384 field-pieces. It was a force which could war. not be held in the feebler grasp of his successors. When one after another of those in nominal power had been assassinated and the treasury plundered, the army, unpaid and unmanageable, demanded to be led into British territory, and had their way. They crossed the Sutlej in December 1845. The battles of Mudkf, Firóz-shahr, Baddùwàl, and Aliwàl were followed by the rout of the Sikh army at Sobràon on 10th February 1846, when they were driven back into the Sutlej with heavy loss, and the British army advanced to Lahore. Of the Sikh guns 256 fell into the hands of the British in these actions on the Sutlej. A treaty was made at Lahore on 9th March with the Sikh darbàr, the chiefs and ministry who were to hold the government on behalf of the young maharaja, Dhalip Singh. By this treaty the Jalandar Doàb and the hill district of Kangra were ceded to the British, also the possessions of the maharaja on the left bank of the Sutlej. In addition the British demanded a money payment of £1,500,000. The services of Gulàb Singh, ràja of Jammu, to the Lahore state, in procuring the restora-tion of friendly relations with the British, were specially recognized. His independent sovereignty in such lands as might be made over to him was granted. The Sikh Government, unable to pay the whole of the money demand, further ceded, as equivalent for £1,000,000, the hill country between the Bids and the Indus, including Kashmir and Hazara. Gulàb Singh was prepared to give the amount in place of which Kashmir was to have become British, and by a separate treaty with him, 16th March 1846, this was arranged. The pay-ment was seventy-five lakhs of Nàuakshàhi rupees, and Kashmir was added to Gulàb Singh's territory. At the urgent request of the darbàr a Britis' force was left at Lahore for the protection of the maharaja and the preservation of peace. To restore order and introduce a settled administration a British resident was appointed, who was to guide and control the council of regency, and assistants to the resident were stationed in different parts of the country. Second Peace was not long preserved. The governor of Mùltàn, Diwàn Sikh Mulràj, desired to resign. Two English officers sent by the resident war. to take over charge of the fort were murdered, 19th April 1848, and their escort went over to the diwàn. Another of the assistants to the resident, Lieutenant Herbert Edwardes, then in the Dérajàt, west of the Indus, hearing of the attack on the two officers, hastened to their assistance. On hearing of their fate he collected a force vith which to attack the Mùltàn army while the insurrection was /et local. This he did with signal success. But Mùltàn could lot fall before such means as he possessed. The movement spread, ih e operations widened, and the Sikh and English forces were in the field again. Mùltàn was taken. The severe battle of Chilian-wala on 13th January 1849 left the Sikhs as persistent as after the two terrible days of Firóz-shahr in the previous campaign. And it needed the crushing defeat of Gujràt, 21st February 1849, like Sobràon in 1846, to bring the war to a conclusion, and this time to give the Punjab to England. It was annexed on 2d April 1849. Under For the government of the new province, including the Jalandar British Doàb, previously annexed, and the cis-Sutlej states, a board of rale. administration was appointed consisting of three members. In place of this board a chief commissioner was appointed in 1853, aided by a judicial commissioner and a financial commissioner. British troops, European and native, of the regular army were stationed at the chief cities and other places east of the Indus and at Peshawar. For the rest of the trans-Indus territory there was a special body of native troops called the Punjab frontier force, under the orders of the chief commissioner. During the Mutiny campaign of 1857 the Punjab, under Sir John Lawrence as chief commissioner, was able to send important aid to the force engaged in the siege of Delhi, while suppressing the disturbances which arose, and meeting the dangers which threatened, within the Punjab itself! In 1858 the Delhi territory, as it was called, west of the Jumna, was transferred from the North-West Provinces to the Punjab. The enlarged province was raised in rank, and on 1st January 1859 the chief commissioner became lieutenant-governor. In place of the judicial commissioner a chief court was constituted in 1866. The number of judges, at first two, was increased to three in 1869. The number is now (1885) three permanent and two temporary. The form and manner of government are for the most part like those of other British provinces in India, except that the employment, as in the earlier days, of military officers as well as civilians in the civil administration is continued to the present time.
Soon after the annexation of the Punjab Christian missions were begun in the new province by the Church Missionary Society and the American Presbyterian Board. In connexion with the English society there are twenty-four ordained English missionaries, four medical and two lay missionaries, and ten native clergy. At Delhi there is a mission of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel and the Cambridge University Mission. Also a large number of English ladies are engaged in teaching native ladies, who by the customs of the country are obliged to remain at home. The number of native Christians in the Punjab is nearly 4000. In 1879 a new diocese, that of Lahore, was constituted, embracing the provinces of Punjab and Sind.
Authorities.—D. Ibbetson, Report on the Punjab Census of 1SS1; L. H. Griffin,
Punjaub Chiefs and Hojas of the Punjaub ; B. H. Baden Powell, Punjab Products
and Punjab Manufactures ; A. Cunningham, Ancient Geography of N. India; J.
D. Cunningham, History of the Sikhs; H. Elliot, Historians of India (by Dowson);
Martin Honigberger, Thirty-Jive Years in the East; M. Elphinstone, Caubui;
Prinsep, History of the Punjab ; H. Lawrence, The Adventurer in the Punjab ;
Bosworth Smith, Life of Lord Lawrence ; H. Edwardes, A Year on the Punjab
Frontier; C. Hiigel, Travels in Kashmir and the Punjab ; Victor Jacquemont,
Journey in India ; George Foster, Journey from Bengal to England ; Stanislas
Julien, Histoire de la Vie de Hiouen Thsang and Hiouen Thsang, Mémoire sur
les Contrées Occidentales; F. Bernier, Voyages; G. St P. Lawrence, Reminiscences
of Forty-five Years in India; D'Anville, Antiquité Géographiquc de l'Inde; V.
de St Martin, Geographic du Veda; Lassen, Pentapotamia Indica; II. Clark,
Thirty Years of Missionary Work in the Punjab; Calcutta Review, vols. i.
and ii. ; Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal; Punjab Notes and Queries,
&c. . (P.. M'L*.)
Footnotes
The India Museum at South Kensington has an excellent series of repre-sentations of native artisans and their mode of working, from the pencil of the present director of the Lahore School of Art, Mr J. L. Kipling, formerly of the School of Art at Bombay. ..