KARNAL

This article appears in Volume V15, Page 681 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: JUN-KHA

KARNAL , a town and

district

DISTRICT

of British India, in the Delhi division of the Punjab. The town is 7 M. from the right bank of the Jumna, with a railway station 76 m. N. of Delhi. Pop.
(1901), 23,559. There are manufactures of

cotton

cloth and
boots, besides considerable local trade and an annual horse

fair

FAIR

.
The

DISTRICT

DISTRICT

OF KARNAL stretches along the right bank of the Jumna, north of Delhi. It is entirely an alluvial plain, but is crossed by the low uplift of the watershed between the Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal. Area, 3153 sq. m.; pop. (1901), 883,225, showing an increase of nearly 3 % in the decade. The principal crops are millets, wheat,

pulse

PULSE

, rice,

cotton

and sugar-cane. There are several factories for ginning and pressing cotton. The district is traversed by the Delhi-

Umballa

UMBALLA

-Kalka railway, and also by the Western Jumna canal. It suffered from

famine

FAMINE (Lat. fames, hunger)

in 1896-1897, and again to some extent in 1899-1900.
No district of India can boast of a more ancient history than Karnal, as almost every town or stream is connected with the legends of the Mahabharata. The town of Karnal itself is said to owe its foundation to Raja Karna, the mythical champion of the Kauravas in the great war which forms the theme of the national epic. Panipat, in the south of the district, is said to have been one of the pledges demanded from Duryodhana by Yudisthira as the price of peace in that famous conflict. In historical times the plains of Panipat have three times proved the theatre of battles which decided the fate of Upper India. It was here that Ibrahim Lodi and his vast host were defeated in 1526 by the veteran army of Baber; in 1556 Akbar reasserted the claims of his family on the same battlefield against the Hindu general of the

house

HOUSE
HOUSE (O. Eng. hiss, a word common to Teutonic languages, cf. Dut. huis, Ger. Haus; in
Gothic
- GOTHIC
it is only found in gudhiss, a temple; it may be ultimately connected with the root of " hide," conceal)

of Adil Shah, which had driven the heirs of Baber from the throne for a brief interval; and at Panipat too, on the 7th of January 1761, the Ibfahratta confederation was defeated by Ahmad Shah Durani. During the troublous period which then ensued the Sikhs managed to introduce them-selves, and in 1767 one of their chieftains, Desu Singh, appropriated the fort of Kaithal, which had been built during the reign of Akbar. His descendants, the bhais of Kaithal, were reckoned amongst the most important Cis-Sutlej princes. Different portions of this district have lapsed from time to time into the hands of the British.

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