Situated in the north-eastern part of the state, Hoshiarpur is one of the five districts in the Jalandhar division and falls in the Doab region of Punjab. To its north is the neighboring state of Himachal Pradesh whereas the districts of Jalandhar, Kapurthala and Gurdaspur bound it in the south. For administrative purposes the district is divided into four tehesils (divisions): Hoshiarpur, Dasuya, Mukerian and Garshankar. The district has an area of 3198 square kilometers.
Etymology and History
The district gets its name from its administrative headquarters, the city of Hoshiarpur. How the city received its name is still disputed and there are two theories; according to the first theory, the city is named after the vezeers, Hargobind and Ram Chand, of the ruler Muhammad Bin Tughlaq (1325 – 1351) while according to the protagonists of the alternate theory, the city is named after a resident, Hoshiar Khan, of village Bajwara who was a contemporary of Muhammed Bin Tughlaq.
Archeological excavations in the district have found a number of Stone Age artifacts which confirms the notion that the area was inhabited a long time ago. Hoshiarpur is also believed to be the place where the Pandvas of Mahabharata spent their exile. The invading armies of Alexander the Great never reached Hoshiarpur and during Mauryan times it was a part of the Magadhan Empire. The district remained under the Indian rulers until the 10th century when the Persian and Afghan invaders took control of the area. Hoshiarpur later became a part of the Mughal Empire and remained under the Mughals until Maharaja Ranjit Singh formed the first Sikh Empire. The East India Company colonized the area after the first Anglo-Sikh War. When India got its independence in 1947 Hoshiapur was assimilated into the newly formed state of PEPSU. The state continued when the States’ Reorganization Committee redrew the boundaries and Hoshiarpur was declared a district in 1966.
Geography and Climate
Hoshiarpur is located in the north-eastern part of Punjab and it falls between the coordinates 30 (degrees) 9’ – 32 (degrees) 5’ North and 75 (degrees) 32’ – 76 (degrees) 12’ East. It is bounded to the north and the east by Himachal Pradesh and Jalandhar and Kapurthala make its southern and western boundaries. The district has an area of approximately 3200 square kilometers. The surface of the district shows quite remarkable variations in its geographical features. Broadly speaking, based upon its geographical features, the district can be divided into three parts:
(1)The hilly tract: This tract is marred by the Katar Dhar Range of Shiwalik Hills; it is 128 kilometers in length whereas its width varies from 3 to 8 kilometers. The highest point in the tract in 652 meters from the sea level.
(2)The football plain: It is the widest plain district with average width of 24 kilometers. The plain is adjacent to the Shiwalik Hills and its height ranges from 275 – 428 meters.
(3)The floodplains of the Beas and the Satluj: These plains form the most fertile land in the district and comprise of wide strips of alluvial land.
The climate of the district is mild relative to the rest of the state. It is because of the presence of hilly terrain and sizable forest cover. The summers are as hot as they are in the other districts. The district has three seasons:
Winters: October – March
Summers: March – June
Monsoon: July – September (three quarters of the annual rainfall is during the monsoons)
