Bajwaraਬਜਵਰਾ

A village with a town's past

Bajwara is a large village in Hoshiarpur tehsil of Hoshiarpur district, Punjab, in the Doaba region, about 5 kilometres from Hoshiarpur city. The census carries it as village code 031501, spread over 923 hectares in the Hoshiarpur-II block, with its own gram panchayat. Today it counts 9,929 people. In the record, though, Bajwara is something more than a village: it is an old town that shrank into one, leaving behind a ruined fort, a gazetteer full of stories and a name that tradition ties to one of India's most legendary singers.

Three men from Ghazni

The account preserved in the Hoshiarpur District Gazetteer says Bajwara was founded by three immigrants from Ghazni. One of them was a singer, Baju Baora, remembered in tradition as Baiju Bawra, the celebrated dhrupad performer, and the settlement took its name from him. Bajwara enters recorded history early and violently. In 1419 a rebellion here was put down by Malik Sultan Shah Lodi, an Afghan official serving the Delhi Sultanate, and in 1432 the Khokhar chief Jasrat defeated Allahdad Kaka, the Sultanate's governor of Lahore, in battle at Bajwara. Akbar's Ain-i-Akbari later listed Bajwara among the thirty-six mahals of the area, and the town stood on the trading road between Bukhara and Delhi, at the centre of a cluster remembered as its 22 Bassi villages.

The gazetteer also preserves a story of decline. Bajwara, it says, once ran to eighteen miles in circumference, until Todar Mal, Akbar's great revenue official, passed through on his way to Kangra Fort, felt the town had given him a cold welcome, and cut its territory down as a punishment. That is tradition rather than document, but it neatly explains how a mahal town on an imperial road became a village on the edge of Hoshiarpur.

Bajwara Fort

The town's memory stands in brick on 6 to 7 acres: Qila Bajwara, Bajwara Fort. Nobody knows who built it. Theories credit Sher Shah Suri, Afghans from Ghazni, or Pashtun settlers from the Suleiman mountains in the late fifteenth century. What remains shows a design mixing Mughal forms with local styles, two multi-tiered bastions with towering arched portals joined by strong walls. Maharaja Ranjit Singh captured the fort in 1825. The British later used it to hold prisoners from the 1857 rebellion, then dismantled it as a prison and left it to the weather. The roofs have since fallen in, peepal roots split the brickwork, and a 2025 visit by INTACH heritage experts found only one wall still standing. A proposal to ring the site with a boundary wall and turn it into a heritage park has gone nowhere, and no conservation work has ever been done on the fort. The Tribune has reported its decay twice, in 2014 and again in 2025, without effect so far.

Mata Sundri and the village's sacred geography

Bajwara is honoured in local tradition as the birthplace of Mata Sundri Ji, the wife of Guru Gobind Singh Ji. Her memorial gurdwara stands in the village near the fort, its white domes rising beside the old red walls, and it anchors the village's religious calendar. Local claims reach further still, naming Bajwara as a birthplace of Sher Shah Suri, of Todar Mal and of the Arya Samaj educator Mahatma Hansraj. Those rest on tradition rather than settled record, and the village treasures them alongside the documented history. Everyday worship centres on Bajwara's own gurdwaras and temples.

People and work

The 2011 census counted 9,929 people in Bajwara: 5,095 men and 4,834 women, in 2,092 households at about 4.7 people to a household. The sex ratio was 949 women for every 1,000 men, a notably balanced figure. Scheduled Castes made up 5,394 people, about 54 percent of the village, a majority of its population, and no Scheduled Tribe population was recorded. Children up to the age of six numbered 1,065, about 11 percent. Literacy stood at 86.04 percent among residents aged seven and above, with men at 90.11 percent and women at 81.76 percent, the highest rate among the large villages enriched in this batch. Density works out to about 1,076 people per square kilometre.

The land and work figures describe a village of commuters and workshops more than of ploughs. Of its 923 hectares, the net sown area was 547 hectares, every hectare irrigated by wells, with 247 hectares under non-agricultural uses and 79 hectares barren. The census recorded 3,251 workers, about 33 percent of the village. Of the 3,021 main workers, 2,369 were other workers in trade, transport and services, 240 worked in household industry, 238 were agricultural labourers and only about 174 were cultivators. Counting the 230 marginal workers, totals come to 194 cultivators and 334 agricultural labourers: five kilometres from the district city, most of Bajwara already works in its orbit.

Schools, health and daily services

Bajwara's services are solid for a village. The 2011 Village Directory recorded a government primary school, two government middle schools, a secondary school and a senior secondary school. For health, the village has a health sub-centre and a dispensary, along with a veterinary facility; there is no community or primary health centre, so hospital care means Hoshiarpur, about 5 kilometres away. Drinking water comes from treated tap water supply. The village has a post office, with the sub post office 5 to 10 kilometres away, mobile phone coverage, and a common service centre 5 to 10 kilometres away. Public and private bus services both serve Bajwara, and the nearest railway station is 5 to 10 kilometres away. A commercial bank and a co-operative bank operate in the village, though no ATM was recorded in 2011. A public distribution system shop, an anganwadi centre and an ASHA worker are present, and power supply in 2011 ran to 15 hours a day.

Who founded Bajwara?

According to the Hoshiarpur District Gazetteer, Bajwara was founded by three immigrants from Ghazni, one of them the dhrupad singer Baju Baora, known in tradition as Baiju Bawra, from whom the village takes its name.

How far is Bajwara from Hoshiarpur?

Bajwara is about 5 kilometres from Hoshiarpur city, in Hoshiarpur tehsil of Hoshiarpur district, Punjab. Its PIN code is 146023.

Does Bajwara have a hospital?

The 2011 Village Directory recorded a health sub-centre and a dispensary in Bajwara, but no hospital or health centre. Hospital care is available in Hoshiarpur, about 5 kilometres away.

What is Bajwara Fort?

Bajwara Fort is a ruined fortress of unknown origin spread over 6 to 7 acres in the village, captured by Maharaja Ranjit Singh in 1825 and used by the British to hold prisoners of the 1857 rebellion. Badly neglected, it had largely collapsed by the time heritage experts surveyed it in 2025.