Chamba

Chamba, one of the Punjab Hill States, immediately SE. of Cashmere, with an estimated area of 3180 sq. m. Population, 120,000, nearly all Hindus. It is shut in on nearly all sides by lofty hills, and traversed by two ranges of snowy peaks and glaciers, with fertile valleys to the south and west. The banks of the Ravi and Chenab, two of the five great Punjab rivers, are clothed with mighty forests, leased to the British government, which takes £10,000 to £20,000 worth of timber from them every year. Agriculture and grazing are the leading industries; iron, copper, and slate are plentiful; and the mountains teem with game. The principal came into the hands of the British in 1846, who in 1847 assigned it to the present line of rajahs; an annual tribute is paid, reduced, since the establishment of a British sanatorium and two cantonments among the hills, to £500.