LUDHIANA, a town and district of British India, in the Pun jab. The town is 8mi. from the present left bank of the Sutlej, 228mi. by rail N.W. of Delhi. Pop. (1931) 68,586. It is an im portant centre of trade in grain, and has manufactures of shawls, etc., by Kashmiri weavers, and of scarves, turbans, furniture and carriages. There is tn American Presbyterian mission and a med ical school for women, founded in 1894.
The DISTRICT OF LUDHIANA lies south of the river Sutlej, and north of the native states of Patiala, Jind, Nabha and Maler Kotla. Area 1,452 sq.mi. The district consists for the most part of a broad plain, without hills or rivers, stretching northward from the state borders to the ancient bed of the Sutlej. A branch of the Sir hind canal irrigates a large part of the south-western area. The population in 1931 was 672,494. The principal crops are wheat, millets, pulse, maize and sugar-cane. The district is crossed by the main line of the North-Western railway from Delhi to Lahore, with two branches.
During the Mussulman epoch, the history of the district is bound up with that of the Rais of Rajkot, a family of converted Rajputs, who received the country as a fief under the Sayyid dy nasty about 1445. The town of Ludhiana was founded in 1480 by two of the Lodi race (then ruling at Delhi), from whom it derives its name. The Lodis continued in possession until 1620, when it again fell into the hands of the Rais of Rajkot. Throughout the palmy days of the Mogul empire the Rajkot family held sway, but the Sikhs took advantage of the troubled period which accom panied the Mogul decadence to establish their supremacy south of the Sutlej. In 1806 Ranjit Singh crossed the Sutlej and reduced the obstinate Mohammedan family, and distributed their terri tory amongst his co-religionists. Since the British occupation of the Punjab, Ludhiana has grown in wealth and population.