, a town of India in the easternmost part of the Pand̲j̲āb, situated in lat. 30° 39′ N. and long. 76° 28′ E. and lying some 36 km/24 miles north of Patiāla city.
In the mediaeval Islamic Persian chronicles, the name is usually spelt S.h.r.n.d , and the popular derivation from sar-Hind “the head of India”, from its strategic position, is obviously fanciful. The town must have had a pre-Islamic, Hindu past, but became important from G̲h̲ūrid times onwards and was developed by the Tug̲h̲luḳid sultan Fīrūz S̲h̲āh (III) at the behest of his spiritual…