Sangla
This article has been extracted from THE IMPERIAL GAZETTEER OF INDIA , 1908. OXFORD, AT THE CLARENDON PRESS. |
Note: National, provincial and district boundaries have changed considerably since 1908. Typically, old states, ‘divisions’ and districts have been broken into smaller units, and many tahsils upgraded to districts. Some units have since been renamed. Therefore, this article is being posted mainly for its historical value.
Sangla
Village in the Khangah Dogran tahsil of Gujranwala Dis- trict, Punjab, situated in 31 43' N. and 73 27' E. Population (1901), 982. With the colonization of the Sandal Bar (see CHENAB COLONY), it has rapidly developed into a place of some importance. It is administered as a 'notified area,' and now contains three cotton- ginning factories, which in 1904 gave employment to 192 persons. Trade will probably increase largely when the railway to Shahdara has been opened.
Apart from its recent commercial development, Sangla is chiefly of interest in connexion with the theories woven round the ruins crowning the rocky hill known as Sanglawala Tibba, which General Cunningham identified with the Sakala of the Brahmans, the Sagal of Buddhism, and the Sangala of Alexander's historians. Modern authorities, however, have declined to accept the identification as correct; and the Sangala of Alexander is now located in Gurdaspur, while it is possible that Shahkot, a village in Gujranwala District, ii miles south-east of Sangla, represents the Sakala which was the capital of Mihirakula, the White Hun, in the early part of the sixth century A.D., and the ruins of which were visited by Hiuen Tsiang. If this identification be correct, we probably have in Shahkot the site of the Sakala of the Mahabharata and the Sagal of Buddhist legend. But the task of identification is beset with difficulties ; and it is by no means certain that Chiniot in Jhang is not the modem representative of Sakala, which has also recently been identified with Sialkot.
The hill of Sanglawala Tibba rises to a height of 215 feet above the surrounding plain on its north side, and slopes southward till it ends in an abrupt bank only 32 feet in height, crowned in early times by a brick wall, traces of which still exist. The whole inter- vening area is strewn with large antique bricks, great quantities of which have been removed during recent years. An extensive swamp covers the approach on the south and east, the least defensible quarters, with a general depth of 3 feet in the rains, but dry during the summer. This must have once been a large lake, which has since silted up by detritus from the hill above. On the north-east side of the hill, General Cunningham found the remains of two con- siderable buildings, with bricks of enormous size. Close by stands an old well, lately cleared out by wandering tribes.
[C. J. Rodgers, Report on Sangla Tibia (1896).]
