KANGRA, a town in the Panjab, in lat. 32° 5 14" N., and long. 76° 17' 46" E. It is the chic town of a district of the same name, lying betweer lat. 20' and 33° N., and between long. 75° 39 and 78° 35' E. ; area (1878), 8988 square miles It consists almost entirely of immense mountair ranges, whose three parallel lines, with a trans. verse ridge, form the four main basins, in each o which a great river takes its rise,—the Beas, the Spiti, the Chenab, and the Ravi. The Beas ha: its origin in the Rotang mountains, north of Kullu, and, after flowing southward for about 5( miles, traverses the state of Mandl, and thee drains the whole valley of Kangra proper. The Spiti, rising in the Tibetan valley of the same name, runs due south to join the Sutlej in the native state of Bashahir. The Chenab spring: from the slopes of Lahoul, and runs north of the' Central Himalayas into the state of Chamba ; while the Ravi, draining the Banganal keeps to the south of the same chain, and flows north - westward also into Chamba. The prin cipal castes in it are Brahmans, Rajputs, Girath, and Kanets, almost entirely confined to Kullu. In Spiti and Lahoul, the majority of the popula tion consists of Tibetan; ruled over by Rajput landlords. Their religion is Buddhist, with a Ilindnizing tendency. Throughout the rest of the hills, the substratum consists of aborigines.
The fort is in lat. 32° 5' N., long. 76° 18' B., situated on the top of a rock, 150 feet above the Ilunganga, near its confluence with the Beas, and 2424 feet above the sea. This eminence is nearly 3 miles in circumference, and is bounded for the most part by precipices nearly perpendicular. The Gaddi are a hill shepherd race about Kangra and elsewhere. The Kangra people are sturdy, honest, and independent. Most of the traders of the snow valleys have some members of their families residing at Daba or Gyani on the Nuna khar lake. The great body of the hilhnen are Rajpiits ; there are a few villages of Brahmans, their residences are respectable, and occupy the more elevated portion of the village site, the huts of the Dom or Hall being on a low range. The Dom are hereditary bondsmen to the Rajputs. l3asgi also dwell there, and are, both men and women, singers at the temples. The men of all castes in the hills are short and of poor physique ; they look worn and get deep lined on the face at a comparatively early age. The young women are often extremely pretty, those living in the higher and colder villages having, at fifteen or sixteen, a complexion as fair as many Spaniards or Italians, and with very regular features. But they grow darker as they advance in years, and become very plain.
Kangra has been famed for centuries for the skill of its people in restoring noses by the rhino-plastic operation, instituted by Budyn, a physician of the emperor Akbar, to whom Akbar granted a jaghir at Kangra.
Dharmsala is divided into two stations, the lower and the upper, the one the residence of the civilians and visitors from all parts of the Panjab, and the other occupied by the officers' houses and lines of a regiment.
Dharmsala stands in the bosom of those mighty hills, circular in its outline, and commanding a view, unequalled in the world perhaps, of the placid and beautiful valleys of Kangra and the noble hills behind. The houses are built pro gressing up the hill, so that they are at very different elevations, the lowest being at an eleva tion of 4000 feet, the highest 7000 feet. Lord Elgin died here. The sanatorium is on one of the spurs running south from the great range of Dhaoli Dhar. This range runs east and west, at a height of from 13,000 feet to 19,000 feet, and forms a great wall on the north ; it is due to this range that the climate of Dharmsala is so mild and has such a heavy rainfall. Kangra is the most beautiful district in India, excepting Kashmir. It is a most lovely fertile valley, surrounded by lofty mountains, interspersed with undulating hills, and situated between the rivers Ravi and Sutlej. On one side it has the territories of Kashmir and Chamba, on the other the wild but romantic hunting fields of Kullu, Spiti, and Ladakh.
The district produces iron ore in the 'Avil Futtefipur mines ; antimony in Lahonl, galena at Rupi Kullu, copper pyrites at l'elang, gold from the Beas river, rock-salt, talc, iron pyrites, silver ore? sandstone, and kaolin ; also mineral waters of Beshislit, Kullu, Munikurn, Jowallee, Amte, Bassa, Bolnin, and Kohalla. Sulphur, borax, from Lahoul. Spiti produces sulphuret of antimony, gold, gypsum, alabaster, nutrble, garnet, oxide of copper, belemnites, fossil mol luscs and fishes.
Tho Kangra district yields wheat, barley, gram, lentil, rape - seed, safflower, mustard, and flax among the spring crops; and rice, maize, millets, buckwheat, cotton, sugar - cane, opium, and tobacco are in the produce of the autumn harvest. Wool, tea, sugar, salt, ;hi, honey, beeswax, soap, timber, iron, and slates for roofing are among the staples of the district. The Kangra district has a great export trade in rice, of which tho most esteemed kind is the basmati.—Sch/.; f. et Thom. ; Journal, Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1840; Ann. Ind. Adm. xii, 1870; Dr. W. P. Dickson, 1870; Imp. Gaz.