PUNJAB 



64O5 



PUNT 



Jhclum, Bari Doab, Chenab, Sir- 

 hind, and Western Jumna. 



The arid plains of the S.W. and 

 the highland native states of the 

 N.E. are scantily peopled ; between 

 these two the density of population 

 decreases with distance from the 

 Himalayas, except in Rohtak and 

 Gurgaon in the S.E. Nearly 60 p.c. 

 of the people depend on tillage and 

 20 p.c. on the primitive handicrafts 

 of the weaver, potter, leather- 

 worker, carpenter, and blacksmith. 

 The people include agricultural 

 Jats (20 p.c.), efficient and hard- 

 working cultivators and excellent 

 soldiers, agricultural Rajputs (7 

 p.c.), generally poor cultivators, 

 Brahmans, Arains, and Kambohs. 

 The chief vernaculars are Lahndi 

 on the W., Panjabi in the centre, 

 and W. Hindi in the S.E. Less 

 than four p.c. are able to read and 

 write, but the government has 

 established high schools for boys, 

 anglo-vernacular and vernacular 

 middle schools, and primary schools. 



The first rly. was opened in 1862 ; 

 the trunk line connects Lahore 

 with Delhi and Karachi and runs 

 N.W. to Peshawar beyond the 

 Indus ; most of the connecting lines 

 cross the plains S.W. or S.E. of the 

 trunk line. 



Wheat and barley are the chief 

 crops, wheat covering a quarter of 

 the tilled area. They are winter 

 rain crops, reaped in the spring, 

 in March and April. Millets, 

 pulses, sugar-cane, cotton, and 

 rice are also grown. Much of the 

 wheat is exported, via Karachi. 



The history of the Punjab and 

 adjacent areas is of considerable 

 interest, in view of the fact that 

 the mountainous ramparts of the 

 Himalayas, Hindu Kush, and 

 Suleiman Mts. tend to restrict 

 human migrations. Alexander the 

 Great invaded the Punjab from 

 the W., and reached the Beas (Hy- 

 phasis) before he turned back, in 

 326 B.C. Greek rule ceased when 

 he died, three years later. Asoka, 

 273-231 B.C., had a long and peace- 

 ful reign ; for the next twelve cen- 

 turies the country was dominated 

 by foreign invaders, or split up into 

 numerous petty states. The raids 

 of Turkish soldiers of fortune from 

 the W., notably Mahmud of 

 Ghazni (d. 1030), during the tenth 

 and eleventh centuries, resulted in 

 the overthrow of Buddhism. From 

 1206, for three centuries, Turkish 

 and Afghan sultans ruled from 

 Delhi a kingdom of varying di- 

 mensions ; during this period the 

 Mongols came, first in 1221, under 

 Jenghiz Khan, and later from 1240 

 to 1303, at irregular intervals, to 

 ravage the land. Tamerlane, in 

 1398-99, led his massacring Turks 

 to Delhi, and sacked the royal city. 



From 1556 until 1707 the 

 Punjab was strongly ruled by 

 Mogul emperors, beginning with 

 Akbar and ending with Aurung- 

 zebe ; Lahore became their great 

 city. Between 1738 and 1762 

 Nadir Shah eight times, and 

 Ahmad Shah six times, invaded the 

 Punjab from Persia ; the Sikhs 

 rose then to power, and Ran jit - 

 Singh, 1799-1839, suppressed all 

 rivals. In 1809 Ran jit Singh 

 pledged himself by treaty with the 

 British to make no conquests S. 

 and E. of the Sutlej. The successors 

 of the great maharaja failed to 

 uphold the pledge, and were de- 

 feated in the first and second Sikh 

 Wars, and the Punjab was an- 

 nexed by Britain in 1849. Much 

 unrest was manifest in 1919-20, 

 serious rioting taking place at 

 Amritsar (q.v.) and other places. 

 See India ; Indus ; Nautch Girl ; 

 consult also The Punjab, North- 

 West Frontier Province, and 

 Kashmir, J. Me. C. Douie, 1916. 



Punjab, UNIVERSITY OF THE. 

 Indian university. Founded in 

 1882 at Lahore, it was at first an 

 examining body, controlling two 

 colleges, the Oriental college and 

 the Law college at Lahore. Later 

 it undertook the maintenance of 

 professors and teaching work 

 generally. It gives degrees in 

 Oriental knowledge, law, arts, 

 medicine, science, agriculture, and 

 commerce, and has a library and 

 an observatory. 



Punkah (Hindustani). Name 

 for a large fan used in India. It is 

 fixed to the ceiling, and worked by 



Morley Punshon, 

 Methodist preacher 



Punkah, the Indian fan suspended from the ceiling 

 and worked from outside the house 



a coolie. The word originally 

 meant a small fan, made from the 

 leaf of the palmyra. 



Puno. City and dept. of S.E. 

 Peru, on the borders of Bolivia. 

 The dept. has an area of 41,198 

 sq. m., and contains most of Lake 

 Titicaca. Largely mountainous, 

 its- climate is cool, and it was 

 formerly celebrated for the wealth 

 of its silver mines. Mining and 



stock-raising are the chief occu- 

 pations. Pop. 537,300. Puno, the 

 capital, stands on the W. shore of 

 Lake Titicaca, at an alt. of 12,560 

 ft., 110 m. direct N.E. of Arequipa, 

 with which it is connected by rly. 

 Alpaca wool is exported. In the 

 vicinity are gold, silver, and copper 

 mines. Pop. 11,000. 



Punshon, WILLIAM MORLEY 

 (1824-81). British Methodist 

 preacher. Born at Doncaster, May 

 29, 1824, he 

 entered his 

 grandfather's 

 timber business 

 at Hull, but 

 became a local 

 preacher in 

 1840, and Wes- 

 leyan minister 

 at White- 

 haven, 1845. 

 He was a 

 stirring preacher, and successfully 

 held charges at Carlisle, Sheffield, 

 Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and else- 

 where, before proceeding to under- 

 take duties in Canada, from 1868- 

 73. He was made LL.D. at Coburg, 

 Ontario, 1872. President of the 

 Wesleyan Conference, 1874, he 

 preached and lectured widely, and 

 died at Brixton Hill, April 14, 

 1881. He published many of his 

 sermons and addresses, a selection 

 of which appeared in 1882. 



Punt. Flat-bottomed boat, pro- 

 pelled by means of a pole. In the 

 rules and regulations governing 

 punt races it is defined as a flat- 

 bottomed craft without stem, 

 keel, or sternpost, and the width at 

 each end must be 

 at least one-half 

 of the width at 

 the widest part. 

 Subject to these 

 conditions a punt 

 may be any width 

 or length. 



The original 

 int was a heavily 

 lilt contrivance, 

 ied by Thames 

 fishermen, and 

 ad a well for 

 olding water to- 

 wards the stern, 

 in which the small 

 fish used for bait 

 were k ep t a ij ve _ 



From this has 

 been evolved the pleasure punt, 

 and the long racing machine, often 

 only 16 ins. wide. 



The art of punting requires con- 

 siderable practice and caution on 

 the part of the novice. There are 

 two styles of using the pole : the 

 running method, and the more 

 general one of pricking. In the 

 former a few steps forward are 

 taken each time the pole is pushed 



