---

Imperial Gazetteer of India, v. 15, p. 149.

KASUR TOWN 149 Kasur Subdivision.-Subdivision of Lahore District, Punjab, consisting of the KASUR and CxfJNIAN tahsils. Kasur Tahsil.-South-eastern tahsil of Lahore District, Punjab, lying between 30° 54′ and 31° 27′ N. and 74° 13′ and 74° 58′ E., on the north bank of the Sutlej, with an area of 816 square miles, of which two-thirds belong to the tract known as the MXNJHA and the remainder to the' lowlands beneath the old bank of the Beds. The Manjha portion is " irrigated by the Bari Dodb Canal, and the southern low lands by the Katora Inundation Canal. The population in rgoi was 3rit,69o, compared with 280,647 in 18gi. The head-quarters are at the town of KASUR (22;022); and it also contains the towns of KHEM K ARAN (6,083) and PATTI .(8,187), and 345 villages. The land revenue and cesses in 1903-4 amounted to Rs. 3,7r,ooo. The battle- field of SOBRAON lies in this tahsil. Kasur Town.-Head-quarters of the subdivision and tahsil of the same name in Lahore District, Punjab, situated in 31° 8′ N. and 74° 28′ E., upon the north bank of the old bed of the Beds, on the North-Western Railway and on the Ferozepore road, 34 miles south- east of Lahore city ; distant by rail from Calcutta r,2o9 miles, from Bombay 1,237, and from Karachi 778. Population (1901), 22,022, of whom 5,327 are Hindus and 16,257 Muhammadans. Tradition refers its origin to Kusa, son of Rama, and brother of Loh or Lava, the 'founder of Lahore. It is certainly a place of great antiquity, and General Cunningham identified it with one of the places visited by H uen Tsiang in the seventh century A. D. ' A Rajput city seems to have occupied the 'modern site before the earliest Muhammadan invasion; but Kasur does not appear in history until late in the Muhammadan period, when it was settled by a Pathan colony from the east of the Indus. These immigrants entered the town either in the reign of Babar or in that of his grandson Akbar, and founded -- a considerable principality, with territory on both sides of the Sutlej. When the Sikhs rose to power, they experienced great opposition from the Pathans of Kasur; and, though the chiefs of the Bhangt con- federacy stormed the town in 1763, and again in 1770, and succeeded for a while in holding the entire principality, the Pathan leaders re- established their independence in 1794, and resisted many subsequent attacks. In 1807, however, Kutb-ud-din Khan, the last chieftain, was forced to give way before Ranjit Singh, and retired to his property at MAMDOT, `beyond the Sutlej. The town of Kasur was then incor- porated in the kingdom of Lahore. It consists of an aggregation of fortified -hamlets, standing on the upland bank and overlooking the alluvial valleys of the Beds and the Sutlej. The Pathan element has now declined. The municipality was created in 1867. The income during the ten years ending 1902-3 averaged' Rs. 52,8oo, and the