Ancient period The Punjab region is noted as the site of one of the earliest urban societies, the
Indus Valley Civilization which flourished from about and declined rapidly 1,000 years later, following the
Indo-Aryan migrations that overran the region in waves between and . Frequent intertribal wars stimulated the growth of larger groupings ruled by chieftains and kings, who ruled local kingdoms known as
Mahajanapadas. According to Fauja Singh and L.M. Joshi: "There is no doubt that the Kambojas, Daradas, Kaikayas, Andhra, Pauravas, Yaudheyas, Malavas, Saindhavas, and Kurus had jointly contributed to the heroic tradition and composite culture of ancient Punjab."
Invasion of Alexander the Great depicting the battle of
King Porus against Alexander the Great. In the 4th century BCE Punjab was invaded by
Alexander the Great.
Omphis, the king of
Taxila accepted his suzerainty while
Porus refused it. His kingdom spanned between rivers
Hydaspes (
Jhelum) and
Acesines (
Chenab);
Strabo had held the territory to contain almost 300 cities. He (alongside
Abisares) had a hostile relationship with the kingdom of Taxila which was ruled by his extended family. Porus refused to surrender and wandered about atop an elephant, until he was wounded and his force routed. Despite the apparently one-sided results, Alexander was impressed by Porus and chose to not depose him. Not only was his territory reinstated but also expanded with Alexander's forces annexing the territories of Glausaes, who ruled to the northeast of Porus' kingdom. According to
Diodorus, Antipater recognized Porus's authority over the territories along the
Indus River. However,
Eudemus, who had served as Alexander's
satrap in the Punjab region, treacherously killed Porus.
Mauryan Empire in Pakistan is a
World Heritage Site.
Chandragupta Maurya had established his empire around . The early life of Chandragupta Maurya is not clear. Per legendary accounts
Kautilya, the purported author of the
Arthashastra, enrolled the young Chandragupta in the
university at Taxila to educate him in the arts, sciences, logic, mathematics, warfare, and administration.
Megasthenes' account, as it has survived in Greek texts that quote him, states that Alexander the Great and Chandragupta met, which if true would mean his rule started earlier than . As Alexander never crossed the
Beas River, so his territory probably lay in the Punjab region. With the help of the small Janapadas of Punjab, he had gone on to conquer much of the Indian subcontinent. He then defeated the Nanda rulers in
Pataliputra to capture the throne. Chandragupta Maurya fought Alexander's successor in the east,
Seleucus when the latter invaded. In a peace treaty, Seleucus ceded all territories west of the Indus and offered a marriage, including a portion of
Bactria, while Chandragupta gifted Seleucus 500 elephants. The chief of the Mauryan military was also always a
Yaudheyan warrior according to the Bijaygadh Pillar inscription, which states that the Yaudheyas elected their own chief who also served as the general for the Mauryans. The Mauryan military was also made up vastly of men from the Punjab Janapadas. Chandragupta's rule was very well organised. The Mauryans had an autocratic and centralised administration system, aided by a council of ministers, and also a well-established espionage system. Much of the Mauryan rule had a strong bureaucracy that had regulated tax collection, trade and commerce, industrial activities, mining, statistics and data, maintenance of public places, and upkeep of temples.
Medieval period Hindu Shahis (c. 820–1022 CE) , constructed by Odi Shahi dynasty in
Gandhara-Nagara style in the 10th century CE In the 9th century, the
Odi Shahi dynasty originating from Gandhara replaced the
Takka kingdom, ruling western Punjab along with Kabulistan. Following the death of Muhammad of Ghor in 1206 by
Khokhar or
Isma'ili assassins near the Jhelum river, the Ghurid state fragmented and was replaced in northern India by the
Delhi Sultanate.
Delhi Sultanate The Tughlaq dynasty was formally founded in 1320 in
Delhi when Ghazi Malik assumed the throne under the title of
Ghiyath al-Din Tughluq after defeating
Khusrau Khan at the
Battle of Lahrawat. During Ghazi Malik's reign, in 1321 Jauna Khan, later known as
Muhammad bin Tughlaq, expanded control over Deccan and Bengal. After his father's death in 1325 CE, Muhammad bin Tughlaq assumed power and his rule saw the empire expand to most of the Indian subcontinent, its peak in terms of geographical reach. He attacked and plundered
Malwa,
Gujarat,
Lakhnauti,
Chittagong,
Mithila and many other regions in India. His distant campaigns were expensive, although each raid and attack on non-Muslim kingdoms brought new looted wealth and ransom payments from captured people. The extended empire was difficult to retain, and rebellions became commonplace all over the Indian subcontinent. Muhammad bin Tughlaq died in March 1351 while trying to chase and punish people for rebellion and their refusal to pay taxes in
Sindh and Gujarat. After Muhammad bin Tughlaq's death, the Tughlaq empire was in a state of disarray with many regions assuming independence; it was at this point that
Firuz Shah Tughlaq, Ghazi Malik's nephew, took reign. His father's name was Rajab (the younger brother of Ghazi Malik) who had the title
Sipahsalar. His mother Naila was a Punjabi Bhatti princess (daughter of Rana Mal) from
Dipalpur and
Abohar according to the historian
William Crooke. He laid siege to the
Kangra Fort and forced Nagarkot to pay tribute. During this time, Tatar Khan of
Greater Khorasan attacked Punjab, but he was defeated and his face slashed by the sword given by
Feroz Shah Tughlaq to Raja
Kailas Pal who ruled the Nagarkot region in Punjab.
Khizr Khan established the
Sayyid dynasty, the fourth dynasty of the
Delhi Sultanate after the fall of the Tughlaqs. Following
Timur's 1398
sack of Delhi, he appointed Khizr Khan as deputy of Multan. He held Lahore, Dipalpur, Multan and upper Sindh. Khizr Khan captured Delhi on 28 May 1414 thereby establishing the Sayyid dynasty. Khizr Khan did not take up the title of
sultan, but continued the fiction of his allegiance to Timur as
Rayat-i-Ala(vassal) of the Timurids initially that of Timur, and later his son
Shah Rukh. After the accession of Khizr Khan, the Punjab,
Uttar Pradesh and Sindh were reunited under the Delhi Sultanate, where he spent his time subduing rebellions. Punjab was the powerbase of Khizr Khan and his successors as the bulk of the Delhi army during their reigns came from Multan and Dipalpur. Khizr Khan was succeeded by his son
Mubarak Shah after his death on 20 May 1421. Mubarak Shah referred to himself as
Muizz-ud-Din Mubarak Shah on his coins, removing the Timurid name with the name of the Caliph, and declared himself a Shah. He defeated the advancing
Hoshang Shah Ghori, ruler of
Malwa Sultanate and forced him to pay heavy tribute early in his reign. Mubarak Shah also put down the rebellion of
Jasrath Khokhar and managed to fend off multiple invasions by the Timurids of Kabul. The last ruler of the Sayyids,
Ala-ud-Din, voluntarily abdicated the throne of the Delhi Sultanate in favour of
Bahlul Khan Lodi on 19 April 1451, and left for Badaun, where he died in 1478.
Langah Sultanate In 1445,
Rai Sahra Langah, chief of
Langah (a
Jat Zamindar tribe), established the
Langah Sultanate in Multan after the fall of the Sayyid dynasty.
Husseyn Langah I (reigned 1456–1502) was the second ruler of Langah Sultanate. He undertook military campaigns in Punjab and captured
Chiniot and
Shorkot from the Lodis. Shah Husayn successfully repulsed attempted invasion by the Lodis led by Tatar Khan and Barbak Shah, as well as his daughter Zeerak Rumman.
Early modern period Mughal Empire The
Mughals came to power in the early 16th century and gradually expanded to control all of the Punjab from their capital at Lahore. One of
Akbar's generals,
Shahbaz Khan Kamboh was a Punjabi as were
Prime Ministers of
Shah Jahan,
Saadullah Khan and
Wazir Khan. The Mughal Empire ruled the region until it was severely weakened in the eighteenth century. Mughal authority was extinct in Punjab after the death of
Adina Arain. In 1757,
Dīwān 'Abd as-Subḥān gathered an army of his
Jat murīds, attacked the Raja of
Bikaner, and thereby expanded the shrine's territorial holdings for the first time east of the Sutlej. He gradually gained control of the lower
Rachna doab, including the cities of
Chiniot,
Pindi Bhattian,
Jhang and
Mankera. Next chief,
Inayatullah Khan (r. 1747– 1787) was a successful general who won 22 battles against
Bhangi Misl and the Multan chiefs.
Modern period Sikh Empire , founder of the
Sikh Empire Contested by the Sikhs and Afghans, the region was the center of the growing influence of the
misls, who expanded and established the Sikh Confederacy as the Mughals and Afghans weakened, ultimately ruling the Punjab, Peshawar, and territories north into the
Himalayas.In the 19th century, Maharajah
Ranjit Singh established the
Sikh Empire based in the Punjab. The empire existed from 1799, when Ranjit Singh captured Lahore, to 1849, when it was defeated and conquered in the
Second Anglo-Sikh War. It was forged on the foundations of the
Khalsa from a collection of autonomous Sikh
misls. At its peak in the 19th century, the Empire extended from the
Khyber Pass in the west to western
Tibet in the east, and from
Mithankot in the south to
Kashmir in the north. It was divided into four provinces: Lahore, in Punjab, which became the Sikh capital; Multan, also in Punjab; Peshawar; and Kashmir from 1799 to 1849. Religiously diverse, with an estimated population of 3.5 million in 1831 (making it the
19th most populous country at the time), it was the last major region of the Indian subcontinent to
be annexed by the
British Empire.
British Punjab The Sikh Empire ruled the Punjab until the British annexed it in 1849 following the
First and
Second Anglo-Sikh Wars. Most of the Punjabi homeland formed a province of British India, though a number of small
princely states retained local rulers who recognized British authority. The Punjab bore the brunt of the
civil unrest following
partition, with casualties estimated to be in the millions. The struggle for Indian independence witnessed competing and conflicting interests in the Punjab. The landed elites of the Muslim, Hindu and Sikh communities had loyally collaborated with the British since annexation, supported the Unionist Party and were hostile to the Congress party–led independence movement. Amongst the peasantry and urban middle classes, the Hindus were the most active
National Congress supporters, the Sikhs flocked to the
Akali movement whilst the Muslims eventually supported the
Muslim League. Another major consequence of partition was the sudden shift towards religious homogeneity occurred in all districts across Punjab owing to the new international border that cut through the province. This rapid demographic shift was primarily due to wide scale migration but also caused by large-scale
religious cleansing riots which were witnessed across the region at the time. According to historical demographer
Tim Dyson, in the eastern regions of Punjab that ultimately became
Indian Punjab following independence, districts that were 66% Hindu in 1941 became 80% Hindu in 1951; those that were 20% Sikh became 50% Sikh in 1951. Conversely, in the western regions of Punjab that ultimately became
Pakistani Punjab, all districts became almost exclusively Muslim by 1951. == Geography ==