Amritsar District lies between 30° 40' and 32° 10' N. lat., and between 74° 40' and 75° 40' E. long. It is bounded on the N.W. by the river Râvi, on the S.E. by the river Biâs, on the N.E. by the district of Gurdâs-pur, and on the S.W. by the district of Lahor. Amritsar district is a nearly level plain, with a very slight slope from east to west. The banks of the Biâs are high, and on this side of the district well-water is not found except at 50 feet below the surface; while towards the Râvi wells are less than 20 feet in depth. The only stream passing through the district is the Kirni or Saki, which takes its rise in a marsh in the Gurdâspur district, and after traversing part of the district empties itself into the Râvi. Numerous canals intersect the district, affording ample means of irrigation. The Sind, Panjâb, and Dehli Railway, and Grand Trunk Road, which runs parallel with it, afford the principal means of land communication and traδic. Total population of Amritsar district, 832,750, divided into the following classes:—Hindus, 138,027; Mahometans, 377,135; Sikhs, 223,219; others, 94,369. The males number 465,074, and the females 367,676; the proportion of males to the total population being 55 , 84 per cent. The principal tribes and castes in point of numbers are as follow:—(1.) Jâts, viz., Hindus and Sikhs, 189,065; Mahometans, 65,964: total, 255,029. (2.) Brâh-mans, 43,846. (3.) Kshattriyas, 39,892. (4.) Kâshmiris, 37,456. (5.) Arorâs, 29,103. The total agricultural population is returned at 417,747. Area of the district, 2036 , 23 square miles, or 1,303,188 acres, of which 927,730 acres are under cultivation, 178,939 acres are cultivable, but not actually under tillage, and 196,519 acres are uncultivable and waste. This result gives 1 ’ 56 acres (of which 1 ’ 11 acres are cultivated and ‘21 cultivable) per head of the population, or 3 ’ 12 acres (2 - 22 cultivated and - 42 cultivable) per head of the agricultural population.

The principal agricultural products of Amritsar are wheat, barley, and grain for the spring crop; and rice, joâr (spiked millet), Indian corn, moth {Phaseolus aconitifolius), and mash {Phaseolus radiatus) for the autumn crop. The current settlement of the district expires in 1875-76. Five towns are returned as containing a population of upwards of 5000 souls—namely, Amritsar, population 135,813; Jandrâlâ, 6975; Majithâ, 6600; Ram Bas, 5855; Bundalâ, 5287. Of the foregoing towns Amritsar has been constituted a first-class, and Jandrala, Majithâ, and Ram Das third-class municipalities. Besides the regularly-constituted municipalities, however, a municipal income is also realised at the following ten places :—Tarn Taran, Fathiâbâd, Govindwal, Naushahrâ Pannian, Verowal, Jalalâbâd, Attari, Chamiârf, Vanniki, and Bhallar. Municipal revenue is in all cases levied by means of octroi dutiee, supplemented in some instances by house rates and other direct taxation. The total revenue of Amritsar district in 1871-72 amounted to £113,785, of which £85,727, 18s., or 75 percent., was derived from the land. The other principal items of revenue were as follows :—Distilleries, £3677, 14s.; drugs and opium, £3548, 6s.; income tax, £1724, 8s; stamps, £13,621, 18s.; local rates levied under the provisions of Act 20 of 1871, £5208, 10s. The staple manufacture of Amritsar is woollen shawls, in imitation of those of Kashmir. The value of this manufacture in 1871-72 was estimated at £91,742.

Amritsar City, the divisional headquarters and capital of the district of the same name, is situated in 31° 40' N. lat. and 74° 45' E; long. It lies at an equal distance between the Biâs and Râvi rivers, is about 8 miles in circumference, and forms at once the great trading centre of the Panjâb, and a celebrated seat of the Sikh religion and learning. The following description of the town is extracted from Thornton’s Gazetteer (ed. 1862):—

“Amritsar owes its importance to a talâo or reservoir which Râm Dâs, the fourth guru or spiritual guide of the Sikhs, caused to be made here in 1581, and which he termed Amrita Saras, or the Fount of Immortality. It thenceforward became a place of pilgrimage. Nearly two centuries afterwards, Ahmad Shah, the founder of the Durânf empire, alarmed and enraged at the progress of the Sikhs, blew up the shrine with gunpowder, filled up the holy tank, and caused kine to be slaughtered upon the site, thus desecrating the spot. On his return to Kabul, the Sikhs repaired the shrine and reservoir, and commenced the overthrow of Mahometan sway in Hindustan. The sacred tank is a square of 150 paces, containing a great body of water, pure as crystal, notwithstanding the multitudes that bathe in it, and supplied apparently by natural springs. In the middle, on a small island, is a temple of Hari or Vishnu; and on the bank a diminutive structure, where the founder, Râm Dâs, is said to have spent his life in a sitting posture. The temple on the island is richly adorned with gold ana other costly embellishments, and in it sits the sovereign guru of the Sikhs to receive the presents and homage of his followers. There are five or six hundred akâlis or priests attached to the temple, who have erected for themselves good houses from the contributions of the visitors. Amritsar is a very populous and extensive place. The streets are narrow’, but the houses in general are tolerably lofty, and built of burnt brick. On the whole, Amritsar may claim some little architectural superiority over the towns of Hindustan. Besides considerable manufactures of shawls and silks in imitation of the Kashmir fabric, Amritsar carries on a veιy extensive transit trade, as well as considerable monetary transactions, with Hindustan and Central Asia. Provision is made for an ample supply of water to the town from the Bari Doâb canal. A striking object at Amritsar is the huge fortress of Govindgarh, built by Ranjit Sinh in 1809, ostensibly to protect the pilgrims visiting the place, but in reality to overawe their vast and dangerous assemblage.”

Amritsar was the first mission station of the Church of England in the Panjab. The census of 1868 gives a population within municipal limits of 43,931. The total population, however, of the city and suburbs is returned at 135,813, of whom 3477 are agriculturists, the rest being engaged in trade or other non-agricultural pursuits. The town has been constituted a first-class municipality, the affairs of which are conducted by a committee of twenty-eight members. The municipal income is derived from octroi duties, local taxes, house tax, <kc., and amounted in 1871-72 to £19,800, or 9s. per head of the population within municipal limits. Since the opening of the Panjàb railway Amritsar has rapidly become the great centre of trade in that province. Its position on the line and the enterprise of its merchants promise also to give it the command of the trade vid Leh to Central Asia, which is now (1874) being opened up. It is the chief entrepôt in the Panjàb for Manchester goods, in return for which it exports to other parts of India food-grains, the local manufactures in imitation of the Kashmir fabrics, and the costly shawls and stuffs which form the staple of the Kashmir trade.