Gazetteers Organisation Revenue Department Haryana Chandigarh (India) 1998
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HARYANA DISTRICT GAZETTEEERS ------------------------ REPRINT OF AMBALA DISTRICT GAZETTEER, 1923-24 GAZETTEERS ORGANISATION REVENUE DEPARTMENT HARYANA CHANDIGARH (INDIA) 1998 The Gazetteer was published in 1925 during British regime. 1st Reprint: December, 1998 © GOVERNMENT OF HARYANA Price Rs. Available from: The Controller, Printing and Stationery, Haryana, Chandigarh (India). Printed By : Controller of Printing and Stationery, Government of Haryana, Chandigarh. PREFACE TO REPRINTED EDITION The District Gazetteer is a miniature encyclopaedia and a good guide. It describes all important aspects and features of the district; historical, physical, social, economic and cultural. Officials and other persons desirous of acquainting themselves with the salient features of the district would find a study of the Gazetteer rewarding. It is of immense use for research scholars. The old gazetteers of the State published in the British regime contained very valuable information, which was not wholly reproduced in the revised volume. These gazetteers have gone out of stock and are not easily available. There is a demand for these volumes by research scholars and educationists. As such, the scheme of reprinting of old gazetteers was taken on the initiative of the Hon'ble Chief Minister of Haryana. The Ambala District Gazetteer of 1923-24 was compiled and published under the authority of Punjab Govt. The author mainly based its drafting on the assessment and final reports of the Settlement Officers. The Volume is the reprinted edition of the Ambala District Gazetteer of 1923-24. This is the ninth in the series of reprinted gazetteers of Haryana. Every care has been taken in maintaining the complete originality of the old gazetteer while reprinting. I extend my appreciation to Sh. A.K. Jain, Editor, Gazetteers and Sh. J.S. Nayyar, Assistant, who have handled the work with efficiency and care in the reprinting of this volume. I am very thankful to the Controller, Printing and Stationery, Haryana and his staff in the press for expeditiously completing the work of reprinting. December, 1998 Jeet Ram Ranga Joint State Editor (Gazetteers) PUNJAB DISTRICT GAZETTEERS VOLUME VII PART A AMBALA DISTRICT 1923-24 WITH MAPS COMPILED AND PUBLISHED UNDER THE AUTHORITY OF THE PUNJAB GOVERNMENT Lahore Printed by the Superintendent Government Printing, Punjab 1925 Revised list of Agents for the sale of Punjab Government Publications. IN THE UNITED KINGDOM ON THE CONTINENT RENEST LEROUX, 28 Rue Bonaparte Paris, France. CONSTABLE & CO. 10, Orange Street, Leicester Square, London, W.C. MARTINUS NIJHOFF, The Hague, Holland KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER & CO., Limited 68- OTTO HARRASSOWITE, LEIPAIG. 74, Carter lane, E. C., and 39, New Oxford Street, London, W.C. FRIEDLANDER & SOHAN, BERLIN. BENARD QUARITCH, 11 Grafton Street, New Bond IN INDIA Street, London, W. MANAGER, Civil and Military Gazette Press, Lahore. T. FISHER UNWIS, Limited, no. 1, Adelphi Terrace, London, W.C. RAI SAHIB M. GULAB SINGH & SONS Mufid-i-Am Press, Lahore P.S. KING & SON, 2 & 4 Great Smith Street, Westminster, RAMA KRISHNA & SONS, Booksellers and News Agents, Anarkali London, S.W. Street, Lahore. H.S KING & Co., 65 Corahill, and 9, Pal Mall, London. MANAGER, Punjab Religious Book Society, Anarkali Street, Lahore. GEINDLAY & CO., 54, Parliamentary Street, London, S.W. SECRETARY, Punjab Religious Book Society, Anarkali Street Lahore. W. THACKER & CO., 2 Creed Lane, London, E.C. MANAGER, Rose Bazar Steam Press, Amritsar. LUSAG & CO., Great Russell Street, London, W.C. THE MANAGER, Imperial Book Depot Delhi B.H. BLACKWELL, 50 and 51, Broad Street, Oxford. THACKER SPINK & Co. SPINK & Co. Simla DRIGHTON, BELL & CO., Limited, Cambridge. THACKER, SPINK & Co. Calcutta. OLIVER & BOID, Tweeddale Court, Edinburgh. W. NEWMAN & Co. Ltd., Calcutta. Messers, AHELDON & WHESLEY, Limited, 2,3 & 4 D.B. TARAPOREVALA, SONS & Co., Bombay Arthur Street, New Oxford Street, London, W.C.2. HIGHGINBOTHAMS, Limited, Madras Messers EAST AND WEST, Limited, 3, Victoria Street, London, S. W. 1 PREFACE. THE first edition of the Ambala District Gazetteer, published in 1885, was prepared mainly from a draft Gazetteer compiled between 1870 and 1874 by Mr.,F.Cunningham, Barrister-at-Law, which again was largely based upon the Settlement Reports of the district by Messrs. Wynyard and Melvill, written about 1855. A revised settlement of the district was begun in 1882 and 1883 and finished in 1889. The Assessment and Final Reports of the Settlement Officers, Messrs. Kensington and Douie, supplied the chief material from which a revised edition of the Gazetteer was prepared in 1892-93, Information on the subjects noticed in Chapter III, Section B (Social and Religious Life), Section C (Tribes and Castes), and Chapter IV, Section A (Agriculture),was very incomplete. The 1892-93 Gazetteer was supplemented by the 1912 volume of Statistical Tables which con- tained the results of the 1911 census. Territorial changes that have taken place since 1893 have been the transfer of Pipli Tahsil to the Karnal District (incorporated with Tahsil Thanesar in October 1897), and the addition from Simla of Kalka-cum-Kurari (1899), Kasauli (1899) and Sanawar (in July 1916). The railway from Ambala to Kalka was opened in 1891 (now East Indian main line) and the Kalka- Simla Line in 1903. The Editor. TABLE OF CONTENTS. PAGE . CHAPTER I.—THE DISTRICT ... ... 1 SECTION A.—Descriptive ... ... ib. SECTION B.—History ... ... 19 SECTION C—- The People ... ... 33 CHAPTER II.—ECONOMIC ... ... 78 SECTION A.—Agriculture, Arboriculture and … ib. Live Stock. SECTION B.—Rents, Tenants and Wages ... 94 SECHON C.-Commerce, Manufacture and 97 Industries, SECTION D.—Communications ... ... 100 CHAPTER 111.—ADMINISTRATION ... 103 SECTION A.—Administration and Divisions ... ib. SECTION B.—Criminal and Civil Justice ... ib. SECTION C.—Revenue Administration ... 104 SECTION D.—Miscellaneous Revenue ... 112 SECTION E.—Local and Municipal Government ib. SECTION F.—Public Works ... ... 115 SE CTIO N G.—Police and Jails ... ... 116 SE CTION H.—Army ... ... ... 118 SE CTION I.—Education ... ... 119 SUCTION J.—Medical ... ... ... 125 SE CTION K.—Miscellaneous ... … 127 CHAPTER IV.—PLACES OF INTEREST ... 130 CHAPTER I. THE DISTRICT. SECTION A. —DESCRIPTIVE . CCHAPTER I, A. The Ambala district is the most northerly of the five District in the plains which, with the small district of descriptive Simla BBoundaries and Descriptive. in the hills, make up the Ambala division. Ambala was till dimensions 1886 the headquarters of a separate division containing the Ludhiana, Ambala and Simla districts. In 1886 the Ambala Division was abolished, and the district was then incorporated With the Delhi division. By the Royal Proclamation at the 1911 Coronation Darbar, Delhi was made the capital of India, And Ambala once more became the headquarters of a division. The present Ambala district has an area of 1,867 square miles and extends along the Siwalik range from the River Jamna to the River Sutlej, with the Ambala tahsil farther away from the hills. There are two divisions almost entirely separated from each other, large block east of the Ghaggar River which possesses affinities with Hindustan and a smaller block west of the Ghaggar which is more akin to the Punjab proper. The first tract is composed of the Ambala, Naraingarh and Jagadhri tahsils and the second of the Rupar and Kharar tahsils forming the Rupar sub-division of Ambala district. The district boundary on the east is the Jamna, separating the Jagadhri tahsil from the Saharanpur district of the united Provinces. On the south the Ambala and Jagadhri tahsils adjoin the Thanesar tahsil of Karnal. On the west the border is throughout Native State territory, principally belonging to Patiala, except in the extreme north-west where the district touches Ludhiana. Erom that point the Sutlej divides the Rupar tahsil along a frontage of 26 miles from the Garh-shankar and Una tahsils of Hoshiarpur, and the remaining north-eastern border line of 80 miles from the Sutlej to the Jamna is again all native state territory owned by Nalagarh, Patiala, kalsia, and Nahan. In addition there are small scattered blocks of Patiala or Kalsia villages within the limits of the 'Ambala and Jagadhri tahsils, while in many places Native territory cuts in between sections of the district in a very inconvenient way. For a Punjab district it is not well arranged for administrative purposes, having taken its present form more from the force of circumstances than from any attempt to construct a district suitable in itself. Its greatest length from north-west to south-east is eighty miles, and its B [PUNJAB GAZETTEER , 2 CHAP . I. —THE DISTRICT . CHAPTER,1 A. breadth at the widest part forty-eight miles, and being intersected or bounded by Native States in all directions it can never be an easily administered charge. Descriptive As originally constituted in 1847 Ambala contained five tahsils. A sixth. (Pipli) was added in 1862 on the breaking up of the old Boundaries and dimensions Thanesar district, but was retransferred to the present Karnal district in October 1897. The tahsils are subdivided into parganas as follows: — Ambala, into Ambala and Mulana; Jagadhri, into Jagadhri, Mustafabad, and Khiz-rabad; Rupar, into Rupar and Morinda; Kharar, into Kharar and Mubarikpur; Naraingarh, into Naraingarh, Sadhaura and Kotaha. Leading statistics regarding the district and the several tahsil into which it is divided are given in the separate statistical volume. The district contains three towns of more than 10,000 souls as follows: —Ambala City, 25,908; Ambala Cantonment, 54,223; Jagadhri, 12,045. The administrative headquarters are situated at Ambala City on the North-Western and East Indian Railways, and at about the centre of the district as regards accessibility. Tahsil. Total area Area culti Number Remarks. In square vated in Of Miles square miles. Villages. Rupar ... ... 288 187 386 Kharar ... … 371 237 396 Ambala ... ... 369 262 306 Naraingarh ... 435 210 326 Jagadhri ... 404 253 386 *Including Kalesar Total 1,867 1,149 1,801 Forest.