| In ancient
time, the district or Kingdom of Jalandhar comprised
the whole of the Upper Doabas from the Ravi to
the Satluj. According to the Padama Purana, as
quoted by General Conningham the country takes
its name from the great Daitya King Danava Jalandhara
the son of the Ganga by Ocean. The earliest historical
mention of Jalandhar occur in the region of Kanishka,
the Kushan King of northern India in whose time
a council of Buddhists theologians was held near
Jalandhar about 100 AD to collect and arrange
the sacred writings of Buddhism and to bring about
reconciliation between its various sects. This
makes Jalandhar along with Multan the oldest surviving
city of the Punjab region. In the 7th Century,
when the famous Chinese traveller and pilgrim
Hiuen Tsang visited India during the reign of
Harsha Vardhana, the Kingdom of Jalandhar or Trigartta
under Raja Utito. It was said to have extended
167 miles (269 km) from east to west and 133 miles
(214 km) from north to south, thus including the
hill states of Chamba, Mandi and Suket (Himachal
Pardesh) and Satadru or Sirhind in the plains.
Raja Utito was a tributary of Harsh Vardhana.
The Rajput Rajas appear to have continued to rule
over the country right upto the 12th century,
interrupted some time or the other, but their
capital was Jalandhar and Kangra formed and important
stronghold. According to Chinese pilgrim Fahien,
who traveled India in the seventh century AD,
there were so many Vihars of Buddhism in India.
In the Jalandhar District, there were as many
as 50 Vihars of Buddhism. The Buddhism religion
was adopted by a large number of people. From
the later half of the tenth century up to AD 1019,
the district was included in the Shahi Kingdom
of the Punjab and Jalandhar was an important city
in the region. |