1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Nabha

NABHA, a native state of India, within the Punjab. Area, 966 sq. m. Pop. (1901) 297,949. Its territories are scattered; one section, divided into twelve separate tracts, lies among the territories of Patiala and Jind, in the east and south of the Punjab; the other section is in the extreme south-east. The whole of the territories belong physically to a plain; but they vary in character from the great fertility of the Pawadh region to the aridity of the Rajputana desert. Nabha is one of the Sikh states, founded by a member of the Phulkian family, which established its independence about 1763. The first relations of the state with the British were in 1807–1808, when the raja obtained protection against the threatened encroachments of Ranjit Singh. During the Mutiny in 1857 the raja showed distinguished loyalty, and was rewarded by grants of territory to the value of over £10,000. The imperial service troops of the raja Hira Singh (b. c. 1843; succeeded in 1871) did good service during the Tirah campaign of 1897–98. The chief products of the state are wheat, millets, pulses, cotton and sugar. The estimated gross revenue is £100,000; no tribute is paid. The territory is crossed by the main line and also by several branches of the North-Western railway, and is irrigated by the Sirhind canal.

The town of Nabha, founded in 1755, has a station on the Rajpura-Bhatinda branch of the North-Western railway. Pop. (1901) 18,468.

See Phulkian States Gazetteer (Lahore, 1909).