History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v3.c33.s3.26

v3.c33.s3.26

Kangra is a most fertile plateau in the Himalayas with a snow-clad range at its back and with perennial streams running through it into three or four khuds or rivers. It must have come under Aryan civilization in most ancient times and we have seen that lunar race Rajput kings now called Katoch ruled there from the days of the Mahābhārata. The fort of Kangra which had usually been their strong place for retirement is also an ancient fort and was indeed impregnable in those days when cannon was not known. The fort stands on an eminence at the confluence of two deep khuds or rivers named the Bāṇagaṅgā and the Manūnī, only a narrow strip of land dividing the two deep basins. The steep sides of the fort along the rivers are almost perpendicular rising about 300 feet. In the neck of the narrow strip between the rivers a deep moat has been dug and the entrance to the fort is beyond this artificial chasm. The fort can easily be defended on this narrow neck by a small garrison. There was a famous temple in this fort according to Mahomedan historians which was destroyed by Mahmud. What temple it was we will now try to determine from local information as well as from the Arch. S. R. for 1905 wherein we find much information about Kangra temples which existed before the earthquake of 1905.