Ahluwalia (misl)


Ahluwalia was a misl, that is, a sovereign state in the Sikh confederacy of Punjab region in present-day India and Pakistan. The misl's name is derived from Ahlu, the ancestral village of the misl leaders. The Ahluwalia misl was one of the 12 major Sikh misls, and held land to the north of Sutlej river.

History

Different scholars variously name the misl's founder as Sadho Singh, his descendant Bagh Singh, or Bagh Singh's nephew Jassa Singh Ahluwalia.
The misl rose to prominence under Jassa Singh, who was the first person to use the name "Ahluwalia". Originally known as Jassa Singh Kalal, he styled himself as Ahluwalia after his ancestral village of Ahlu.
Even after other misls lost their territories to Ranjit Singh's Sikh Empire, the emperor permitted the descendants of Jassa Singh to retain their estates. After the British took over the Sikh territories in 1846, Jassa Singh's descendants became the ruling family of the Kapurthala State.