Behrampur is a village/ small town in Gurdaspur district approximately 7 km from the Pakistan border and 35 km from Pathankot. It falls within the Bari doab in Punjab, the region between the two rivers Beas and Ravi.
Behrampur has had a settlement of Nanda Khatris since Mughal times. The settlement began when Akbar(?) sent Khatris to administer the area after he became dissatisfied by his governor there Bairam Khan. To quote Grewal, Banga, (original Ganesh Das Vadhera from mid 1849): "Bahrampur is a pargana**. Many Nanda Khatris reside in this town" The authentic history of Behrampur seems to have been forgotten, including by the present Nandas living there and there is confusion between the governor Bairam Khan and a famous general of Akbar with the same name, (whom some of the Nandas of Behrampur probably falsely believe, sent Nanda Khatris to Behrampur). The Nanda Khatri residents I met in Behrampur including a senior gentleman Mr. Inderpal Nanda were very cordial and hospitable and they seemed to be a close knit community.
The link for the Nanda Khatris genealogy will in the near future be entered in ravihistory.tribalpages.com Another important fact about Behrampur is that it is the place of origin or atleast was a base of Suthre Shah the pious saintly Nanda Khatri who founded a distinct religious sect. Follow the sublinks for photos from my visits to Behrampur in 2010 and 2013. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *Grewal, J.S. (Editor) and Banga, Indu (Editor) 1975 [Char Bagh] Early 19th Century Panjab, Amritsar: GNDU, Sri Amritsar Jio (Original Author: Ganesh Das Vadhera) The Chār Bāgh-i-Panjāb, written by Ganesh Das Wadera immediately after the annexation of the Lahore kingdom by the British in 1849, is a classic Persian text. Its long descriptive part is the only surviving account of the social, religious, and cultural life of the peoples of the Punjab, especially during the late-eighteenth and the early-nineteenth century. Ganesh Das writes about traditional learning, literature, folklore, urban centres, and women with a rare catholicity as an Indian, an orthodox Hindu, a Punjabi, and a Khatri. Himself a hereditary qanungo of Gujrat in the Sikh kingdom, he also provides valuable insights into the structure of revenue administration at lower rungs. This volume presents an authoritative English translation of this primary descriptive section of Chār Bāgh-i-Panjāb, with a detailed Introduction, critical commentary, glossary, map, and a classified index. **In the 16th century the Mughal emperor Akbar organised the empire into subahs (roughly equivalent of state or province), which were further subdivided into sarkars (roughly the equivalent of districts), which were themselves organised into parganas (roughly the equivalent of district subdivisions such as tehsil). In the Mughal system, parganas served as the local administrative units of a sarkar. Individual parganas observed common customs regarding land rights and responsibilities, which were known as the pargana dastur, and each pargana had its own customs regarding rent, fees, wages, and weights and measures, known as the pargana nirikh. In the 16th century the Mughal emperor Akbar organised the empire into subahs (roughly equivalent of state or province), which were further subdivided into sarkars (roughly the equivalent of districts), which were themselves organised into parganas (roughly the equivalent of district subdivisions such as tehsil). In the Mughal system, parganas served as the local administrative units of a sarkar. Individual parganas observed common customs regarding land rights and responsibilities, which were known as the pargana dastur, and each pargana had its own customs regarding rent, fees, wages, and weights and measures, known as the pargana nirikh.[2] Pargana consisted of several tarafs, which in their turn consisted of several villages plus some uninhabited mountain and forest land. Behrampur 2010 trip photos >>> |