Amritsar

Amritsar (often Umritsir), a well-built city of the Punjab, 32 miles E. of Lahore by rail. It is the religious metropolis of the Sikhs, a distinction which, along with its name (literally, 'pool of immortality'), it owes to its sacred tank, in the midst of which stands the marble temple of the Sikh faith. Founded in 1574, but all of it more recent than 1762, it is, next to Delhi, the richest and most prosperous city in Northern India, with manufactures of cashmere shawls, cotton, silks, &c. Pop. (1891) 136,766. Pop. of district, 992,697.