Katoch

The Katoch were a Rajput clan whose name meant those within the fort, from the kot or fortress of Nagarkot, also called Kangra. Their main branch ruled Kangra and claimed lunar-dynasty descent, suffixing Chand to their names; branches founded hill states.

In 1333 Raja Prithvi Chand withstood Muhammad bin Tughlaq's invasion, and Akbar's forces besieged Kangra for ten years without taking it, until Jahangir captured the fort in 1610 and reduced the rajas to Mughal vassals. Ghamand Chand recovered the fort after 1751, and his grandson Sansar Chand (r. 1775-1823) made Kangra supreme among the hill states and a patron of the arts.

Hard pressed by a Gurkha-backed revolt in 1805, he called in Ranjit Singh; the Sikh maharaja expelled the Gurkhas but kept the fort and the valley's best lands, leaving the Katoch rajas only the villages around it.