GUJRANWALA, a town and district of British India, in the Punjab. The town is situated 4o m. N. of Lahore by rail. It is of modern growth, and owes its importance to the father and grandfather of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, whose capital it formed during the early period of the Sikh power. Pop. (1931), 58,716. There are manufactures of brassware, jewellery and silk and cotton scarves.
The DISTRICT comprises an area of 2,309 sq.m. In 1921 the population was 736,136. It seems likely that the district once contained the capital of the Punjab, at an epoch when Lahore had not begun to exist. We learn from the Chinese Buddhist pil grim, Hivan Tsang, that about the year 63o he visited a town known as Tse-kia (or Taki), the metropolis of the whole country of the five rivers. A mound near the modern village of Asarur has been identified by some as the site of the ancient capital. Under Mohammedan rule the district flourished for a time ; but a mysterious depopulation fell upon the tract, and the whole region seems to have been almost entirely abandoned. On the rise of Sikh power, Charat Singh took possession of the village of Gujranwala, and here his grandson the great Maharaja Ranjit Singh was born. In 1847 the district came under British influ ence in connection with the regency at Lahore; and in 1849 it was included in the territory annexed after the second Sikh war. The district was the scene of serious riots during the unrest of 1919. A large export trade is carried on in cotton, wheat and other grains. The district is served by the main line and branches of the North-Western railway. The entire aspect of the district has been altered by recent extensions of irrigation, from the Lower Chenab canal in 1892 and from the Upper Chenab canal in 1912.