Kishtwar

The rajas of Kishtwar ruled the upper Chenab valley in the Punjab Hills. The twelfth-century chronicler Kalhana knew their fortress-town as Kashthavata in the Rajatarangini; its ruler Uttamaraja visited the court of the Kashmir raja Kalsa (r. 1063-1089).

Around 1664 the Iraqi Sufi Farid-ud-Din Baghdadi settled in Kishtwar and propagated Islam. Under his influence Raja Kirat Singh accepted the faith and took the name Tegh Muhammad Singh, opening the Muslim phase of the Hindu dynasty. In 1821 Gulab Singh of Jammu annexed Kishtwar for the Sikh Empire and carried its raja to Lahore, where he died in prison.