Kotla Nihang Khan is a town located about 3 kilometers southeast of Ropar city in Punjab, India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

. It is famed as the erstwhile principality of the seventeenth-century Pathan

Pashtun people

Pashtuns or Pathans , also known as ethnic Afghans , are an Eastern Iranic ethnic group with populations primarily between the Hindu Kush mountains in Afghanistan and the Indus River in Pakistan...

 zamindar

Zamindar

A Zamindar or zemindar , was an aristocrat, typically hereditary, who held enormous tracts of land and ruled over and taxed the bhikaaris who lived on batavaslam. Over time, they took princely and royal titles such as Maharaja , Raja , Nawab , and Mirza , Chowdhury , among others...

ruler, Nihang Khan

Nihang Khan

Nihang Khan was the zamindar ruler of a small principality called Kotla Nihang Khan near Ropar in Punjab, India. He was a friend and follower of the tenth and final Sikh Guru, Guru Gobind Singh...

, who was an associate of the tenth and final Sikh Guru

Sikh Gurus

The Sikh Gurus established Sikhism from over the centuries beginning in the year 1469. Sikhism was founded by the first guru, Guru Nanak, and subsequently, all in order were referred to as "Nanak", and as "Lights", making their teachings in the holy scriptures, equivalent...

, Guru Gobind Singh

Guru Gobind Singh

Guru Gobind Singh is the tenth and last Sikh guru in a sacred lineage of ten Sikh gurus. Born in Patna, Bihar in India, he was also a warrior, poet and philosopher. He succeeded his father Guru Tegh Bahadur as the leader of Sikhs at a young age of nine...

.

Kotla Nihang Khan is also a major archeological site associated with the Bronze Age

Bronze Age

The Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze as the chief hard materials in the manufacture of some implements and weapons. Chronologically, it stands between the Stone Age and Iron Age...

 Indus Valley Civilization

Indus Valley Civilization

The Indus Valley Civilization was a Bronze Age civilization that was located in the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent, consisting of what is now mainly modern-day Pakistan and northwest India...

, dating to the 3300-1300 BCE period. Several underground structures, including a furnace dating to the Bronze Age, were unearthed here. Kotla Nihang Khan's initial settlement has been dated to 2200 BCE based on analysis of excavated artifacts. The excavated area here shows two distinct sectors: an eastern sector where pottery remains are indicative of Urban Harappan Culture, and a western sector where Urban Harappan artifacts are found mixed with Bara Ware. This is believed to indicate coexistence or a transition between the original Harappan inhabitants and the later Baran settlers

Bara culture

Bara culture was a culture that emerged in the eastern region of the Indus Valley Civilization around 2000 BCE. It developed in the doab between the Yamuna and Sutlej rivers, hemmed on its eastern periphery by the Shivalik ranges of the lower Himalayas. This territory corresponds to modern-day...

at the settlement.