The district coversSamba town and adjoining tehsils: Bari Brahmana, Vijay Pur and Ghagwal. The district is separated at some point from the Jammu district by "Purmandal Bridge". Samba is situated on the bank of Basantar River. At one side samba has its boundary withPakistan.
Samba district consists of Eight blocks:Samba,Vijay Pur, Purmandal, Bari Brahmana, Nud, Rajpura, Sumb and Ghagwal.[4] Each block consists of GREFpanchayats. The biggest village is Rajpura.[citation needed]
Samba was reportedly established in 1400 AD.[5] It came under the suzerainty of Jammu in 1816 A.D., while it was annexed by Raja Gulab Singh in 1846 A.D. Historically Samba consisted of 22 towns (also known as Mandi), each headed by a separate family. Prior to 1947, Samba was atehsil.[6] Samba became a district in 2006.
Samba District has three assembly constituencies: Samba , Vijaypur and Ramgarh(newly created constituency by delimitation commission).[7] All three are part ofJammu (Lok Sabha constituency).[8] All of the seats were won by theBJP in the recent assembly election.
An eight day fair is organised in Narsingh and Annapurna Temple in Ghagwal of Samba district ofJammu division. This fair involves taking out procession of deity on achariot. Hence namedRath Kharda Mela. Thousands of devotees are drawn from neighbouring states ofPunjab andHimachal Pradesh and also other parts ofJammu region. People from hilly areas of Jammu like:Basohli,Doda,Kishtwar,Bani,Dudu Basantgarh put stalls in this fair and sell the handicrafts and woolen items likePattus, blankets & shawls.[15]
During this fair, the temple is decorated with flowers and lights. Devotees visit the temple and pay obeisance to the main deity, Bhagwan Narsimha. ABhandara is also organised for the devotees. Local farmers sow their fields in the name ofBhagwan Narsimha and while harvesting their crops offer a part of it to the temple during this fair.[16]
Besides Ghagwal,Rath Kharda Mela is also held at other places of Jammu division like:Ramgarh tehsil ofUdhampur district, Parnala village inBillawar tehsil and Hatli village inKathua.[17]
Alla Rakha Indian Classical Musician and tabla player
Raja Suchet Singh to whom the District also owes the famous Samba fort. In 1846 A.D it was annexed to J&K by Maharaja Gulab Singh making it an integral part of the state.
^ab The application of the term "administered" to the various regions ofKashmir and a mention of the Kashmir dispute is supported by thetertiary sources (a) through (d), reflectingdue weight in the coverage. Although "controlled" and "held" are also applied neutrally to the names of the disputants or to the regions administered by them, as evidenced in sources (f) through (h) below, "held" is also considered politicized usage, as is the term "occupied," (see (i) below). (a)Kashmir, region Indian subcontinent, Encyclopaedia Britannica, retrieved15 August 2019 (subscription required) Quote: "Kashmir, region of the northwestern Indian subcontinent ... has been the subject of dispute between India and Pakistan since the partition of the Indian subcontinent in 1947. The northern and western portions are administered by Pakistan and comprise three areas: Azad Kashmir, Gilgit, and Baltistan, the last two being part of a territory called the Northern Areas. Administered by India are the southern and southeastern portions, which constitute the state of Jammu and Kashmir but are slated to be split into two union territories."; (b)Pletcher, Kenneth,Aksai Chin, Plateau Region, Asia, Encyclopaedia Britannica, retrieved16 August 2019 (subscription required) Quote: "Aksai Chin, Chinese (Pinyin) Aksayqin, portion of the Kashmir region, at the northernmost extent of the Indian subcontinent in south-central Asia. It constitutes nearly all the territory of the Chinese-administered sector of Kashmir that is claimed by India to be part of the Ladakh area of Jammu and Kashmir state."; (c)"Kashmir",Encyclopedia Americana, Scholastic Library Publishing, 2006, p. 328,ISBN978-0-7172-0139-6 C. E Bosworth, University of Manchester Quote: "KASHMIR, kash'mer, the northernmost region of the Indian subcontinent, administered partlv by India, partly by Pakistan, and partly by China. The region has been the subject of a bitter dispute between India and Pakistan since they became independent in 1947"; (d)Osmańczyk, Edmund Jan (2003),Encyclopedia of the United Nations and International Agreements: G to M, Taylor & Francis, pp. 1191–,ISBN978-0-415-93922-5 Quote: "Jammu and Kashmir: Territory in northwestern India, subject to a dispute betw een India and Pakistan. It has borders with Pakistan and China." (e)Talbot, Ian (2016),A History of Modern South Asia: Politics, States, Diasporas, Yale University Press, pp. 28–29,ISBN978-0-300-19694-8 Quote: "We move from a disputed international border to a dotted line on the map that represents a military border not recognized in international law. The line of control separates the Indian and Pakistani administered areas of the former Princely State of Jammu and Kashmir."; (f)Kashmir, region Indian subcontinent, Encyclopaedia Britannica, retrieved15 August 2019 (subscription required) Quote: "... China became active in the eastern area of Kashmir in the 1950s and has controlled the northeastern part of Ladakh (the easternmost portion of the region) since 1962."; (g)Bose, Sumantra (2009),Kashmir: Roots of Conflict, Paths to Peace, Harvard University Press, pp. 294, 291, 293,ISBN978-0-674-02855-5 Quote: "J&K: Jammu and Kashmir. The former princely state that is the subject of the Kashmir dispute. Besides IJK (Indian-controlled Jammu and Kashmir. The larger and more populous part of the former princely state. It has a population of slightly over 10 million, and comprises three regions: Kashmir Valley, Jammu, and Ladakh.) and AJK ('Azad" (Free) Jammu and Kashmir. The more populous part of Pakistani-controlled J&K, with a population of approximately 2.5 million. AJK has six districts: Muzaffarabad, Mirpur, Bagh, Kodi, Rawalakot, and Poonch. Its capital is the town of Muzaffarabad. AJK has its own institutions, but its political life is heavily controlled by Pakistani authorities, especially the military), it includes the sparsely populated "Northern Areas" of Gilgit and Baltistan, remote mountainous regions which are directly administered, unlike AJK, by the Pakistani central authorities, and some high-altitude uninhabitable tracts under Chinese control." (h)Fisher, Michael H. (2018),An Environmental History of India: From Earliest Times to the Twenty-First Century, Cambridge University Press, p. 166,ISBN978-1-107-11162-2 Quote: "Kashmir’s identity remains hotly disputed with a UN-supervised “Line of Control” still separating Pakistani-held Azad (“Free”) Kashmir from Indian-held Kashmir."; (i)Snedden, Christopher (2015),Understanding Kashmir and Kashmiris, Oxford University Press, p. 10,ISBN978-1-84904-621-3 Quote:"Some politicised terms also are used to describe parts of J&K. These terms include the words 'occupied' and 'held'."
![Samba district is in the Jammu division (shown with neon blue boundary) of Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir (shaded in tan in the disputed Kashmir region[1]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aKashmir_region._LOC_2003626427_-_showing_Jammu_division_administered_by_India_in_neon_blue.jpg)
