AMRITSAR, a city and district of British India. The city, the wealthiest in the Punjab, had in 1931 a population of 264,840, mostly Muslim and Hindu. About 200 looms are engaged in the carpet-making industry; an entrepot trade in piece goods and a large business in skins and hides are carried on. It is a trade centre for the trans-Himalayan routes. The two yearly fairs are the most widely attended in the province. The town attained a certain notoriety in 1919 when riots occurred as a result of general unrest. On April 13 it was held necessary to disperse an unlawful gathering in the Jallianwala Bagh, and as a result nearly 400 Indians were killed by gunfire, and a considerable number wound ed. Amritsar city is chiefly notable as the centre of the Sikh re ligion and the site of the Golden Temple, the chief worshipping place of the Sikhs. Ram Das, the fourth guru, laid the foundations of the city upon a site granted by the emperor Akbar. He also excavated the holy tank from which the town derives its name of Amrita Saras, or Pool of Immortality. It is upon a small island in the middle of this tank that the Golden Temple is now situated. After many vicissitudes the city and surrounding district fell un der the sway of Ranjit Singh at Lahore, and passed with the rest of the Punjab into the possession of the British after the second Sikh war. The Golden Temple is thus called on account of its copper dome, covered with gold foil. A Sikh college for uni versity education was opened in the neighbourhood in 1897. Amritsar district is a nearly level plain, with a very slight slope from east to west. Numerous branches of the Upper Bari Doab canal intersect the district, affording ample means of irrigation. The North Western railway and Grand Trunk road, which runs parallel with it, afford the principal means of communication and traffic. The area of the district is 1,593sq.m. ; pop. (1931) 1,117,120. It is the headquarters of the Sikh religion, containing Sikhs as against Hindus and 524,676 Moham medans. The principal crops are wheat, pulse, maize, millet, with some cotton and sugar-cane. There are factories for ginning and pressing cotton.