Jasrota
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Jasrota kingdom in the Himalayan foothills of India was founded in 1064 A.D at south-eastern
Jammu Jammu () is a city in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir (union territory), Jammu and Kashmir in the disputed Kashmir region.The application of the term "administered" to the various regions of Kashmir and a mention of the Kashmir dispute ...
between the Ravi and the Ujh rivers which ended in 1815. The remainants of Jasrota kingdom exists as ruined forts, restored temples, water bodies and canals in Hiranagar tehsil, Narowal tehsil, Nagri tehsil, Kathua tehsil, Marheen tehsil, Dinga Amb tehsil, Ramkot tehsil, Mahanpur tehsil, Billawar tehsil.


History

Jasrota was one of ten states founded by members of the Jammu ruling family. They were all
tributaries A tributary, or an ''affluent'', is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream ('' main stem'' or ''"parent"''), river, or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries, and the main stem river into which the ...
to the
Raja Raja (; from , IAST ') is a noble or royal Sanskrit title historically used by some Indian subcontinent, Indian rulers and monarchs and highest-ranking nobles. The title was historically used in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. T ...
of
Jammu Jammu () is a city in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir (union territory), Jammu and Kashmir in the disputed Kashmir region.The application of the term "administered" to the various regions of Kashmir and a mention of the Kashmir dispute ...
. It was probably the first of those to be established, although its origin is disputed. Jasrota is a upland township in Kathua district and it is just 16 km from Kathua city. Some sources say that Raja Jas Dev of Jammu ( 1020–1053) give to his brother, Karan Dev. Others say that Karan Dev was a son of Bhujdev, a ruler of Jammu, and that the state came into existence in either the 12th or early 13th century, when Karan Dev's military prowess enabled him to win over the jagirdars and landlords of the area; in this latter interpretation, Karan Dev was Jas Dev's nephew. There is agreement that Karan Dev was the founder of the ruling Jasrotia family. The first written record of Jasrota is probably that found in the '' Ma'asir-ul-Umara''. The state was bifurcated following a dispute between the twin sons of Kailesh Dev, who had been ruling in 1320. Pratap Dev and Sangram Dev both sought to succeed their father but it was impossible to prove which brother was the older. Eventually, the rulers of neighbouring hill states negotiated a settlement, leading the lands being divided and Sangram becoming the first ruler of the new state of Lakhanpur in 1350 and his descendants were called lakhanpuria rajputs. In 1594–94, the then ruler of Jasrota, Bhivu Dev, used his army to ally in a rebellion involving some other hill states against the
Mughal Emperor The emperors of the Mughal Empire, who were all members of the Timurid dynasty (House of Babur), ruled the empire from its inception on 21 April 1526 to its dissolution on 21 September 1857. They were supreme monarchs of the Mughal Empire in ...
Akbar the Great Akbar (Jalal-ud-din Muhammad Akbar, – ), popularly known as Akbar the Great, was the third Mughal emperor, who reigned from 1556 to 1605. Akbar succeeded his father, Humayun, under a regent, Bairam Khan, who helped the young emperor exp ...
. The revolt is referred to in the ''Ma'asir-ul-Umara'' and '' Akbarnama'' but the history of Jasrota in the following years, up until the arrival of
Sikh Sikhs (singular Sikh: or ; , ) are an ethnoreligious group who adhere to Sikhism, a religion that originated in the late 15th century in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, based on the revelation of Guru Nanak. The term ''Si ...
forces in the region, is obscure. It appears to have taken little part in the various regional upheavals of the 17th and 18th centuries and the recorded genealogy of the ruling family is incomplete. Ajab or Ajib Dev was ruler of Jasrota between 1790 and 1800. He arranged the construction of Jasmergarh Fort (near to the present-day town of Hiranagar, then on the border of his territories) in order better to protect Jasrota from Sikh incursions.


Sikh empire

The last member of the Dev dynasty to rule Jasrota independently was Randhir Singh, who reigned from 1805 to 1820 and had to acknowledge
Ranjit Singh Ranjit Singh (13 November 1780 – 27 June 1839) was the founder and first maharaja of the Sikh Empire, in the northwest Indian subcontinent, ruling from 1801 until his death in 1839. Born to Maha Singh, the leader of the Sukerchakia M ...
, the founder of the
Sikh Empire The Sikh Empire was a regional power based in the Punjab, Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent. It existed from 1799, when Maharaja Ranjit Singh captured Lahore, to 1849, when it was defeated and conquered by the East India Company, Br ...
, as his superior. Although Randhir Singh's brother, Bhuri Singh, was nominally recognised as his successor, Ranjit Singh annexed the territory in 1815 and both Nurpur kingdom and Jasrota were governed by Sikh Governor. In 1834 Jasrota was converted into a jagir that was gifted to Hira Singh, a son of
Dhian Singh Raja Dhian Singh (22 August 1796 – 15 September 1843) was the longest serving wazir of the Sikh Empire, during the reign of Maharajah Ranjit Singh, and the brief rule of four of his successors over four years. He held the office for twenty fiv ...
, the Dogra Prime Minister of
Lahore Lahore ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, Pakistani province of Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab. It is the List of cities in Pakistan by population, second-largest city in Pakistan, after Karachi, and ...
, who was also a nephew of Gulab Singh. It was Hira Singh who built the present fort at Jasrota, although its foundations date from around the 12th or 13th century and had been developed as a fortified town by Dev rulers thereafter with "palatial buildings, Baradaris, shrines, water tanks etc." Hira Singh was mostly an absent ruler but he aspired to develop Jasrota in the image of Jammu, with which it shared a similar topography. He went some way towards achieving this, and named many of its places and structures after those of Jammu, but the fort was razed by the Sikh Khalsa Army in 1845 and abandoned thereafter. The descendants of the Jasrotia family migrated to Khanpur, near to Nagrota.


Jammu and Kashmir

Following the
First Anglo-Sikh War The First Anglo-Sikh War was fought between the Sikh Empire and the British East India Company in 1845 and 1846 around the Firozpur district of Punjab. It resulted in the defeat and partial subjugation of the Sikh empire and cession of Jammu ...
(1845–1846) and the Treaty of Amritsar (1846), Gulab Singh was proclaimed the
Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir The Dogra dynasty of Dogras, Dogra Rajput, Rajputs from the Shivalik hills created Jammu and Kashmir (princely state), Jammu and Kashmir through the treaties with the East India Company following the First Anglo-Sikh war. Events led the Sikh E ...
, acquiring all the lands between the
Ravi River The Ravi River is a transboundary river in South Asia, flowing through northwestern India and eastern Pakistan, and is one of five major rivers of the Punjab region. Under the Indus Waters Treaty of 1960, the waters of the Ravi and two oth ...
and the
Indus The Indus ( ) is a transboundary river of Asia and a trans- Himalayan river of South and Central Asia. The river rises in mountain springs northeast of Mount Kailash in the Western Tibet region of China, flows northwest through the dis ...
. Jasrota became part of his empire and got established as one of the five districts of the Jammu province. Between 1921 and 1931, the headquarters of the district was shifted to Kathua, and the district came to be called the Kathua district.


Art

Hira Singh resurrected a connection with art for which Jasrota had previously had some renown. In building palaces of architectural splendour within the fort walls, he brought in painters to ornately decorate them. Jasrota had been particularly associated with the Dogra school of painting during the reigns of Bhupal Dev, Sukh Dev and Dhruv Dev, which began in the late 17th century and ended in 1735. Charak and Billawari say that "The great miniature tradition in the hills owes much to Jasrota", noting in particular the patronage of the family of the painter Nainsukh by Raja Balwant Singh and also the ongoing attendance at the royal court at Jammu, where Jasrota rulers sometimes served as diwans and would have been influence by its culture.


Today

The palace of the Jasrotias still exists, although the fortified town is derelict and only an eponymous village exists on its outskirts. It is situated on the banks of the Ujh River, around from Jammu, in Jammu and Kashmir. It now forms a part of the Jasrota Wildlife Sanctuary. Jasrotia Rajputs meet there annually to commemorate their history and organise a
yajna In Hinduism, ''Yajna'' or ''Yagna'' (, Help:IPA/Sanskrit, ɐd͡ʒɲə ) also known as Hawan, is a ritual done in front of a sacred fire, often with mantras. Yajna has been a Vedas, Vedic tradition, described in a layer of Vedic literature ...
for a temple that exists inside the palace. Two temples stood within the walls. One of these has now been decorated in the
Lingam A lingam ( , lit. "sign, symbol or mark"), sometimes referred to as linga or Shiva linga, is an abstract or Aniconism, aniconic representation of the Hinduism, Hindu Hindu deities, god Shiva in Shaivism. The word ''lingam'' is found in the Up ...
style and is dedicated to
Shiva Shiva (; , ), also known as Mahadeva (; , , Help:IPA/Sanskrit, ɐɦaːd̪eːʋɐh and Hara, is one of the Hindu deities, principal deities of Hinduism. He is the God in Hinduism, Supreme Being in Shaivism, one of the major traditions w ...
.


See also

* Jasrota district * Jasrotia


References

Notes Citations Bibliography * * * {{Kathua district Villages in Kathua tehsil Princely states of India Rajput history Former capital cities in India 11th-century establishments in India 1054 establishments in Asia 1820 disestablishments in India