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History Archaeological and documentary evidence
suggests that Gujranwala city is about 500 years old. The first known
settlement at the site was known as Khanpur Saansi after Khan Saansi of
jat tribe who established 11 villages in the vicinity of
modern day Gujranwala. The town came to be known as Gujranwala for gujjar tribes who
occupied the area in the middle of the sixteenth century. Other smaller
town in the district viz. Sohdara, Eminabad, Wazirabad, and Ghakhar are
older than Gujranwala itself. The district became important in the late 18th and early 19th
century when the rising power of Sikh tribes came to be centred in
Gujranwala. The best known Sikh ruler of the Punjab Maharaja Ranjit
Singh was born in 1780 in Gujranwala which served as the capital of the
Sikh domain until Lahore
fell to them in 1799. Gujranwala was annexed
by the British in 1849 and became one of the original districts in the
British-administered Punjab.
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