History
Lasara, about 19 km north of Jaijon, also has a stone temple stated to date back to the times of the Pandav’s.The scattered notices of Kalhanas “Raja Tarangini”, the hints gained from inscriptions and, above all, from the information left on record by the Chinese pilgrim Hieun Tsang, it is surmised that the area, now called Hoshiarpur, was dominated by a tribe of Chanderbansi Rajput who maintained an independent existence for centuries before the Muhammadans conquest with Jalandhar as its capital. According to the poet Lalman, Ibrahim of Ghorian dynasty, who ruled from AD 1059-1099, penetrated Jalandhar and plain probably came under the Muhammadan rule on the fall of Jalandhar in 1088 AD. The hills, however, remained under the Hindu chieftain. In 1192, whole of the Shivalik hills, along with the principalities of Ghuram, Hansi, Sarusti, Samana and other tracts were subjugated by sultan Muhammad Ghori, who further advanced to Delhi, but the city and its fort were saved by a relation of Khandey Rai, who submitted to the conqueror and paid a handsome tribute to him. The Sultan returned to Ghazni after entrusting the Government with Ghuram as its capital to his slave Qutb-Ud-Din Aibak.
The district was annexed by the British along with the rest of Jalandhar Doab at the close of the First Sikh War in 1846. Afterwards, major jurisdictional changes continued to affect Hoshiarpur district. Rupnagar was transferred to Ambala which used to be a part of Punjab till 1966. Similarly Una became a part of Himachal Pradesh after re-organization of the three states. Recently Balachaur Tahsil of Hoshiarpur District was transferred to newly created district named Nawanshahr.
Ancient Period
The area of present Hoshiarpur District was also part of Indus Valley Civilization. Recent excavations at various sites in the district have revealed that the entire area near the Shiwalik foothills was selected for habitation not only by the early palaeolithic man but also by those in the protohistoric and historic periods. In the explorations, seven early Stone Age sited a Atbarapur, Rehmanpur and Takhni, 30-40 km north of Hoshiarpur District in the foothills of Shiwalik, have been discovered where the stone artifacts have been found. Besides these excavations, among the archaeological remains in the Hoshiarpur District, the remains of temples at Dholbaha, 24 km north of Hoshiarpur, and especially the local legends throw valauble light on the ancient history of the district.
The legends associate several places in the district with pandavas. Dasua is mentioned in epic of Mahabharata as the seat of Raja Virata in whose services the Pandavas remained for thirteen years during their exile. Bham, about 11 km west of Mahalpur is said to be the place where the Pandavas passed their exile. Lasara, about 19 km north Jaijon, also contains a stone temple stated to date back to the time of Pandavas. According to the chinese pilgrim, Hieun Tsang, the area of Hoshiarpur was dominated by a tribe of Chandrabansi Rajputs, who maintained an independent existence for centuries before the Muhammadan conquest.
In the Hoshiarpur District, Shiwaliks from Talwara on the Beas to Rupnagar on the Satluj have revealed the presence of Acheolian and Soanian cultures. From the shiwalik frontal range in the Hoshiarpur District, sixteen sites have been reported to have yielded stone Age tools. Out of these, besides the Soanian tools, these sited in Hoshiarpur District have yielded Acheolian assemblage.
The Atbarapur group has yielded a large number of Stone Age tools. This group consisting of Atbarapur, Rehamanpur and Takhni close to the dry beds of the Ghos are located at the foothills of the Shiwaliks, about 8 km north-east from the town of Hariana, Atbarapur has yielded 80 tools consisting of 9 handaxes, 19 cleavers, 17 pebble-tools, 28 flakes and 7 cores/core choppers. All the tools in the collection are either on flakes or cores. The raw material is quartzite of varying colours, viz. Green, blue, brown, etc. The tools are fashioned mainly out of fine to medium grained quartzite. In the recent archaeological excavations, some fine pieces of sculptures of Gandhara dating back to 1000 AD and after have been discovered hare. A list of stone tools yielding sited explored by the Department of Archaeological, Punjab is given in Appendix-1 at the end of the chapter.
