Gazetteer Ludhiana District 1888

· 1888 · Public domain (published pre-1930) · archive.org ↗

1Chapter J, A.

2Descriptive.

3General description.

4Natural divisions:

5Bét and Dhaia,

6The river Sutlej.

7The Budha Nala.

8[Punjab Gazetteer,

92 CHAP. I—THE DISTRICT.

10miles from head-quarters, and access to almost every part bting easy

11by rail, or by the good roads which run in all directions. The

12outlying villages number 39, and have an area of 125 square miles.

13The latitude, longitude and height in feet above the sea of the

14principal places in the district are shown below :—

15Town. N. Latitude.| E. Longitude, Fest above sea level.

16Ludhiana. |_ 80° 58’ 75° bY 806

17Jagraon we. | 380° 47’ 78° 31’ 764

18Samrala ao. | 30° 48’ 76 8’ 870*

19The district has no very striking natural features. The main

20physical divisions are the same as those of most Punjab plain

21districts, z.e.. a low-lying alluvial tract along the river (here called

22Bé), and the uplands (called Dida).

23The river Sutlej forms, as stated before, the northern boundary

24of the district. Debouching from the Siwaliks just above Rupar,

25some 25 miles east of the boundary of the Samrd4la tahsil, it flows

26due west along the top of the district for a distance of about 60

27miles, and turns, as it leaves the Jagraon tahsil, slightly to the north

28towards its junction with the Beas. Even when at its lowest, in the

29middle of the cold weather, the river has a considerable volume of

30water, the main stream being generally 100 to 200 yards in width,

31and seven or eight feet in depth. Some of the people living on the

32banks are able to ford it when very low, but even to them this is at-

33tended with danger. When in flood it spreads over the country to a

34width generally of two or three miles; and, even where confined by

35the Phillour Bridge Works to its narrowest, it measures nearly a

36mile of running stream. The bridges and ferries are noticed in

37Chapter IV (page 163).

38Like all Punjab rivers the Sutlej is constantly shifting its

39course in the floods of the hot weather, as there is nothing to keep

40it to one bed. Within the last 30 years we know that it has

41moved about four or five miles northwards in the first few miles

42of its course in this district ; and there can be no doubt that within

43a not very distant period (local accounts say 100 years) it flowed

44just_under the mdge which separates the Dhaia or highlands from

45the Bét, the older towns and villages like Bahlolpur, Machiwara,

46Kum, &c., having been built on its banks. The division between

47uplands and lowlands is everywhere marked distinctly by this

48ridge or high bank (Dia); and between it and the present course

49of the river lies the Bét tract. To the east of the district the river

50and the high bank are five or six miles from each other; and this

51distance is maintained for the first 30 miles; but below the town of

52Ludhiana they gradually approach until in the Jagraon tahsil the

53Bét is only one or two miles in width, and finally disappears.

54Immediately under the high bank along what was once the

55course of the Sutlej now runs a perennial stream called the Budha

56Nala, which takes its rise in some springs near Chamkor in the

57* Approximate,

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