KULLU, a valley and revenue subdivision of the Kangra district of the Panjab, lying between lat. 31° 20' and 32° 26' N., and between long. 76° 58' 30" and 77° 49' 45" E.
Kullu or Kuhn, in the N. W. Himalaya, con sists of the mountain basin of the Bess and the west bank of the Sutlej. Sultanpur, its capital, is elevated 4584 feet. The chain bounding the Sutlej on the west is considerably higher than that on its east bank, and is crossed into Stiket by the Jalauri pass, elevated 12,000 feet. The province of Chamba bounds it on the west, and the physical features of Kuln and Chamba are similar. The poorer Kulu people wear only a blanket wound around the waist, and one end flung across the shoulders and pinned across the chest ; men and women often dress alike, but the long hair of the women is plaited in one tress. The natives of Bashahir, Sukeit-Miindi, and Kulu in the Kohistan of Jalandhar, have all sallow complexions, and seem all of the same race. In the hills of Kulu. and Kangra are the Gnjari and Cuddi races, who cultivate little, and keep herds of buffaloes, and flocks of sheep and goats. They claim certain beats of the forests as their warisi, or ancestral property, subject to the payment of pasturage tolls. The forests of the lower hills are apportioned out among the Guddi or shep herds of the Snowy Range, who in the winter season bring down their flocks to graze. In the same manner the Gujar with their buffaloes take up divisions on a hill-side, and carefully respect their mutual boundaries. A kingdom of Kuhr, too, is placed by Iliwen Thsang at 700 li, or 117 miles, to the N.E. of Jalandhar. Gold is found in Kulu. Native gold-washers earn two or three annas a day by extracting from the river sand a very fine dust. The chief castes are Kanet and Dagi. Polyandry still prevails in Seoraj, but has almost died out elsewhere. It consists of a com munity amongst brothers of wives and all their goods, and they regard their women as farm labourers.
About Subathu one sometimes sees infants wrapped up like little mummies, and laid in such a position that a small rill of water falls on their heads. These infants are usually watched by some elderly female whilst their mothers are employed in the fields. The natives believe that this ordeal strengthens the children and renders them hardy, and that it cures dysentery and various other diseases. But the common object is to keep them asleep, and this is found to be a most effectual means of so doing. The Kulu people dread the evil eye, and have recourse to witch-finders, who feign the power of discovering evil spirits, which wander over the mountains in the tangible form of witches. If a cow or other living creature die, its death is attributed to some evil eye, and a witch-finder is employed to dis cover it. This impostor having selected some old woman who had no means of propitiating him by gifts, placed his victim in the centre of a group, whilst all interested in the case sat around her in a circle. He then danced round the poor crea ture, and ultimately nodded his head towards her, whereupon all the lookers-on did the same, which coincidence was deemed a sufficient proof of guilt. Formerly she was subsequently condemned to be burnt to death. But since that district became a British province, and these inhuman proceedings have not been allowed to take place, they declare the victim of their superstitious credulity an outcaste, and refuse her the com monest necessaries of life ; thus she is abandoned to her fate, and would probably starve to death, but for the timely gift of a goat or a sheep by some one of her relatives to the witch-finder, who forthwith fastens the guilt on some other person, in the hope of extorting in a similar manner from the relatives of the last accused. — Ckghorn's Panjab Report, p. 89 ; IL f. et T. p. 203. See Ladakh.