KOTEGARH, Kot Guru, or Guru Kot derives its name from a local saint, whose burial-place in the midst of the village is decorated with coloured flags. Kotegarh is 54 miles N.E. of Simla, on the left bank of the Sutlej, and is on the high road leading from the plains of India to Tibet. It is 6700 feet above the level of the sea, and is built on the spur of a mountain about 11,000 feet high, which may be considered as the beginning of the Snowy Range towards the north-east. The district contains 41 villages, with a population of nearly 2400 souls. The fields are laid out in terraces above one another. From nearly the crest of the mountain chain, they reach down to the bed of the Sutlej. Wheat, barley, and various sorts of grain grow freely. The Kulus form a consider able branch of the population, and are supposed to be the aborigines of the country. The chieftains are Rajputs, who emigrated from the plains of India during the first Muhammadan invasion. Besides these there are the Kunait or Khumah, also Brahmans, who employ themselves mostly in husbandry.
In former times human sacrifices were offered up in the temples, but since the establishment of British rule these have ceased. In most villages large flocks of goats are kept for sacrificial pur poses. The sale of females for the worst purposes of slavery is still continued in various parts of the hill territory. For ages past the rich natives of the plains had been supplied with females from the hill regions, which, together with the custom of female infanticide, caused a great numerical disproportion between the two sexes, and gave rise to no less than four cases, in which the fathers bad buried their children alive, being brought to light in 1840. No man can obtain a wife without
paying a sum of money to her father. The price of one to a peasant is from seven to twenty rupees. Half a century ago, three or four or more brothers married one woman. Unable to raise the required amount individually, they clubbed together and bought one common spouse. Polyandry has now disappeared. But British territory once passed, especially towards the east, polyandry will be still found in Upper Kanawar. The cause assigned is, however, not poverty, but a desire to keep the common patrimony from being distributed among a number of brothers. A little beyond Kotegarh caste distinctions cease, and the physiognomy of the people points to Tartar extraction. The most important class which falls under missionary influence are the Pahari. With them every remarkable peak, cave, forest, fountain, and rock has its presiding demon or spirit, to which frequent sacrifices are offered, and religious cere monies are continually performed in small temples erected on the spot. One deota is called Shaitan ; wooden chairs dressed up with rokNof masks fixed to them, and carried on shoulders when a procession takes place. A peculiar dance is kept up before these, people waving branches of trees or punkahs or swords in their harms. The deotas, which have no temples of their own, rest in the houses of zamindars.