Kot Kapuraਕੋਟ ਕਪੂਰਾ

Where is Kot Kapura?

Kot Kapura is a town and municipal council in Faridkot district, Punjab, in the Malwa region, and the largest city in the district. It stands about 15 kilometres from Faridkot city, 50 kilometres from Bathinda, 40 kilometres from Moga and 30 kilometres from Sri Muktsar Sahib, in the heart of the cotton belt. Around the town spreads the large village recorded on this site as Kot Kapura Rural, which shares the town's name and much of its story.

History and the name tradition

The town takes its name from its founder: kot means a fort, and Kapura is Nawab Kapura Singh Brar (1625 to 1708), the chaudhry of 84 villages and the nephew and successor of Bhallan, who had founded the Faridkot principality. In 1661 Kapura built his fort here and the town grew around it, becoming in time the chief place of the Brar country between Faridkot and Bathinda.

Kot Kapura holds a place in the last journey of Guru Gobind Singh Ji through Malwa. Reaching the town in December 1705 after the evacuation of Chamkaur, the Guru asked Kapura for the use of his fort. Kapura, fearing Mughal anger, refused. Yet he afterwards came to the Guru's camp, stood with him at the Battle of Muktsar on 29 December 1705, and was baptised by the Guru in 1705, receiving a khanda and a shield. From Kot Kapura the Guru moved on to Dhilwan Kalan. In the years that followed, the principality of which Kot Kapura was a part was taken by Maharaja Ranjit Singh in the early nineteenth century.

Geography and people

The 2011 census counted 91,979 people in Kot Kapura, up from 80,785 in 2001 and 62,430 in 1991: 48,598 men and 43,381 women. Of the 81,411 residents aged seven and above, 63,072 were literate, about 77.5 per cent. The municipal area covers 17.25 square kilometres, which makes Kot Kapura a busy, closely built market town serving a wide ring of villages in Faridkot and Bathinda districts.

What is Kot Kapura known for?

Kot Kapura is called the City of White Gold, and the white gold is cotton. Its cotton market was once counted the largest in Asia, and the mandis of the town still draw the kapas crop of the whole region in season. Two foods carry the town's name far beyond Punjab: the Dhodha sweet, a rich milk and wheat preparation sold by the town's halwais, and Atta Chicken, both of which are sent out of the town in quantity. The town's Shastri Market and Maheshwari Street were established by Bansi Dhar Maheshwari (1875 to 1935), a leading figure of the old town, and rank among the largest market streets in Punjab.

The crossing that became a song

For decades, Kot Kapura was also famous for something its residents cursed daily: the railway crossing in the middle of the town that stayed closed so often and so long that it cut the town in two. The singer Didar Sandhu sang about that crossing, and generations of travellers knew the wait. The crossing has since been replaced by a flyover, and the town tells the story as a closed chapter of its past.

Railway, roads and getting there

Kotkapura Junction, code KKP, is the town's station, in the Firozpur division of the Northern Railway. It stands on the Bathinda to Firozpur line and is also the junction for the Fazilka to Kotkapura line, with three platforms and around 47 trains passing or calling. By road the town is linked to Faridkot, Bathinda, Moga and Sri Muktsar Sahib. Its PIN code is 151204 and its vehicle registration series is PB-79.

Kot Kapura today

Today Kot Kapura is the working centre of Faridkot district: bigger than the district headquarters town itself, with the district's busiest markets, its junction station and its schools drawing students and traders from across the district and over the Bathinda border. The cotton still comes in by the trolley and the truck through the autumn, the Dhodha shops still send their boxes out across Punjab, and the flyover carries the traffic over the tracks where the old crossing once held the town up for hours.

What is the population of Kot Kapura?

The population of Kot Kapura was 91,979 at the 2011 census, 48,598 men and 43,381 women, making it the largest city in Faridkot district. It had grown from 62,430 in 1991 and 80,785 in 2001.

Why is Kot Kapura called the City of White Gold?

The name comes from cotton. Kot Kapura's market was once counted the largest cotton market in Asia, and the white kapas crop of the Malwa belt made the town rich, so residents call it the City of White Gold.