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SONS OF NADOWN RAJAH.

Rajah sprang to life in full proportions, like Minerva from the brain of Jove, created from the perspiration of the brow of the goddess enshrined at Kangra." The Kutoch Rajpoots also claim as their forefather the king of the "Trigurta," mentioned in the "Mahabharat;" and, although this claim is questioned, there is no doubt that the family is of extreme antiquity. From incidental notices in history it would appear that 1,900 years ago there was in existence a Rajah of Kangra, or Nagurkot, as he is more frequently called; and the students of Indian history will remember that in the year A.D. 1008 Sooltan Mahmood of Ghuznee undertook a plundering expedition against the fort and temple of Nagurkot, from which he is said to have carried away "700 manns of gold and silver plate, 200 manns of pure gold in ingots, and 200 manns of jewels." During the long period of Mahomedan ascendancy in Hindoostan, the Rajahs of Kangra and other Rajpoot chiefs mentioned above, although shorn of some of their most valuable possessions, seem to have maintained themselves in a state of semi-independence. A story is still current in the country, that when the great financier, Rajah Todur Mull, after the settlement of these hills, was asked by his master, the Emperor Akbur, what he had done, he replied "that where he had found meat he had put it into his master's treasury, but where he had found bones he had cast them to the dogs." In other words, the rich valleys in the Kangra district were annexed to the imperial domain, while the less fertile tracts were left in possession of the Hill Rajahs. 

Thus, for many centuries, the fort of Kangra, and the rich valleys of which it is the centre, passed out of the hands of the Rajahs of Kangra; and it was not until A.D. 1786, after the decline of the Mahomedan power in India, that Rajah Sunsor Chund, one of the most famous of the Rajahs of Kangra, succeeded in recovering his ancestral possessions. The recovery of the fort of Kangra proved, however, of doubtful gain to him; for its great natural strength made it an object of desire both to the Goorkhas and the Sikhs; and to prevent the fort falling into the hands of the Goorkhas, Rajah Sunsor Chund found himself obliged, in 1809, to surrender it to Maharajah Runjeet Sing. It is said that he who holds the fort of Kangra, holds the Kangra hills; and, in the instance of Maharajah Runjeet Sing, this proved to be the case; for, dating from the time he occupied the fort of Kangra, his authority gradually extended, and finally became paramount throughout there hills. Rajah Sunsor Chund died in A.D. 1824. His son and heir, Unrodh Chund, succeeded him; but on being pressed by Maharajah Runjeet Sing, to give his sister in marriage to a son of the Maharajah's prime minister (a Rajpoot of good family, but not a Rajah in his own right by hereditary descent). Rajah Unrodh Chund determined to sacrifice his kingdom, and to live in exile from his native hills, rather than compromise the honour of his ancient house by an inferior alliance, and he accordingly took refuge in British territory. Rajah Sunsor Chund