Kangra, Himachal Pradesh

Kangra is a city and a municipal council in Kangra district now in Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. Historically it was known as Nagarkot.

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April 10, 2026

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April 10, 2026

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"The Mountaineers invariably reserved the beard, and, instead of bowing the head in salutation, as in Lower India, they embrace the party addressed, and, incline the head over his left shoulder. The growth of the beard is encouraged, perhaps, from a certain ferocity of disposition incident to their situation, and generally predominant in the disposition of Mountaineers, which prompts them, in different modes, to shew a disdain and contempt for the softer manners of the natives of the low country. The women have the olive complexion, are delicately shaped, and evince a freedom in their manner, which, without a tendency to immodesty, or connected with the habits of licentiousness, seems the result of the common confidence reposed in them by the men: I have seen a woman stop, though carrying a pot of water, and converse unreservedly with passengers, giving them an information of the road, or any other ordinary intelligence. Their dress consists of a petticoat, with a border, usually of different colours; a close jacket, covering half of the waist; and a loose stomacher to the fore part of it, which reaches to the girdle. Their hair, which they hold in as high an estimation as that beautiful appendage can be regarded by the gayest females of Europe, is plaited with black silk, or cotton strings, and falls down the back; over which they throw, in a graceful fashion, a veil which seldom touches, and never wholly conceals, the face."

- Kangra, Himachal Pradesh

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"The idol, Jwalamukhi, much worshipped by the infidels, was situated on the road to Nagarkot Some of the infidels have reported that Sultan Firoz went specially to see this idol and held a golden umbrella over it. But the author was informed by his respected father, who was in the Sultans retinue, that the infidels slandered the Sultan, who was a religious, God-fearing man, who, during the whole forty years of his reign, paid strict obedience to the law, and that such an action was impossible. The fact is, that when he went to see the idol, all the rais, ranas and zamindars who accompanied him were summoned into his presence, when he addressed them, saying, O fools and weak-minded, how can ye pray to and worship this stone, for our holy law tells us that those who oppose the decrees of our religion, will go to hell? The Sultan held the idol in the deepest detestation, but the infidels, in the blindness of their delusion, have made this false statement against him. Other infidels have said that Sultan Muhammad Shah bin Tughlik Shah held an umbrella over the same idol, but this is also a lie; and good Muhammadans should pay no heed to such statements. These two Sultans were sovereigns especially chosen by the Almighty from among the faithful, and in the whole course of their reigns, wherever they took an idol temple they broke and destroyed it; how, then, can such assertions be true? The infidels must certainly have lied!"

- Kangra, Himachal Pradesh

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"'On the 24th of the same month I went to see the fort of Kangra, and gave an order that the Qazi, the Chief Justice (Mir'Adl), and other learned men of Islam should accompany me and carry out in the fort whatever was customary, according to the religion of Muhammad. Briefly, having traversed about one koss, I went up to the top of the fort, and by the grace of God, the call to prayer and the reading of the Khutba and the slaughter of a bullock which had not taken place from the commencement of the building of the fort till now, were carried out in my presence. I prostrated myself in thanksgiving for this great gift, which no king had hoped to receive, and ordered a lofty mosque to be built inside the fort' ....'After going round the fort I went to see the temple of Durga, which is known as Bhawan. A world has here wandered in the desert of error. Setting aside the infidels whose custom is the worship of idols, crowds of the people of Islam, traversing long distances, bring their offerings and pray to the black stone (image)' Some maintain that this stone, which is now a place of worship for the vile infidels, is not the stone which was there originally, but that a body of the people of Islam came and carried off the original stone, and threw it into the bottom of the river, with the intent that no one could get at it. For a long time the tumult of the infidels and idol-worshippers had died away in the world, till a lying brahman hid a stone for his own ends, and going to the Raja of the time said: 'I saw Durga in a dream, and she said to me: They have thrown me into a certain place: quickly go and take me up.' The Raja, in the simplicity of his heart, and greedy for the offerings of gold that would come to him, accepted the tale of the brahman and sent a number of people with him, and brought that stone, and kept it in this place with honour, and started again the shop of error and misleading"

- Kangra, Himachal Pradesh

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"The Sultan himself joined in the pursuit, and went after them as far as the fort called Bhimnagar [Nagarkot, modern Kangra], which is very strong, situated on the promontory of a lofty hill, in the midst of impassable waters. The kings of Hind, the chiefs of that country, and rich devotees, used to amass their treasures and precious jewels, and send them time after time to be presented to the large idol that they might receive a reward for their good deeds and draw near to their God. So the Sultan advanced near to this crow's fruit,^ and this accumulation of years, which had attained such an amount that the backs of camels would not carry it, nor vessels contain it, nor writers hands record it, nor the imagination of an arithmetician conceive it. The Sultan brought his forces under the fort and surrounded it, and prepared to attack the garrison vigorously, boldly, and wisely. When the defenders saw the hills covered with the armies of plunderers, and the arrows ascending towards them like flaming sparks of fire, great fear came upon them, and, calling out for mercy, they opened the gates, and fell on the earth, like sparrows before a hawk, or rain before lightning. Thus did God grant an easy conquest of this fort to the Sultan, and bestowed on him as plunder the products of mines and seas, the ornaments of heads and breasts, to his heart's content. ... After this he returned to Ghazna in triumph ; and, on his arrival there, he ordered the court-yard of his palace to be covered with a carpet, on which he displayed jewels and unbored pearls and rubies, shining like sparks, or like wine congealed with ice, and emeralds like fresh sprigs of myrtle, and diamonds in size and weight like pomegranates. Then ambassadors from foreign countries, including the envoy from Tagh^n Khan, king of Turkistin, assembled to see the wealth which they had never yet even read of in books of the ancients, and which had never been accumulated by kings of Persia or of Rum, or even by Karun, who had only to express a wish and Grod granted it."

- Kangra, Himachal Pradesh

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"When Yaminu-d daula Aminu-l millat Mahmud Ghaznavi had rested for some time from his toil, he again, in order to strengthen the religion of the Prophet, evinced a desire to make war on the infidels of Hind, and accordingly marched in that direction. When his standards, the symbols of victory, cast the shadow of their arrival over capacious Hind, Pal bin Andpal,1 who, for his excessive wealth and numerous warriors, was more distinguished than the other princes of Hind, opposed Mahmud, and a terrible battle took place. The standards of the faithful became exalted, and those of the infidels were depressed. [p. 146] The Sultan himself having pursued the pagans, killed multitudes of them with the sword, and having arrived at the fort of Bhimnagar,2 he encamped his victorious army in its vicinity. That fort was built on the top of a hill; the people of Hind believed it to be the repository of one of their great idols, and for ages had transported thither provisions and treasures; they had filled it with money and jewels, and fancied that by this conduct they approached near to the house of God. When Mahmud besieged that lofty fort, fear seized upon the hearts of the residents. Their cries for quarter reached up to the hall of the planet Saturn, and having opened the gate of the fort, they threw themselves on the ground before the horse of the Sultan. Yaminu-d daula, with the governor of Juzjan, entered into that fort, and gave orders for taking possession of the spoil. The wealth which he obtained consisted of 70,700 mans of gold and silver utensils; and the jewels and gold and robes and movable effects were incalculable. Sultan Mahmud, having delivered over the fort to a confidential person, hoisted the standard of his return to Ghaznin. ... In the year 400 H. he again exalted his victorious standards, and hastened to the cities of Hind, and after punishing the infidels and scattering abroad the impious, he again turned his steps towards the royal residence of Ghaznin.4 In the same year, the king of the kings of Hind, having sent a petition of humiliation to the Sultan, [p. 147] sued for a pacification, and consented to send him fifty elephants, and to pay every year a large sum of money into the royal treasury. By way of subsidy, he appointed 2000 cavalry to serve in the army, which wore the mantle of victory, and swore that his own posterity should observe the same conduct towards the descendants of the Sultan. The Sultan was satisfied with this reconciliation, and merchants began to come and go between the two countries."

- Kangra, Himachal Pradesh

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