DHARMSALA  , a

hill-station and sanatorium of the Punjab, India, situated on a spur of the Dhaola Dhar, 16 m . N.E. of Kangra town, at an elevation of some 6000 ft . Pop . (1901) 6971 . The scenery of Dharmsala is of peculiar grandeur . The spur on which it stands is thickly wooded with oak and other trees; behind it the pine-clad slopes of the mountain tower towards the jagged peaks of the higher range, snow-clad for half the year; while below stretches the luxuriant cultivation of the Kangra valley . In 1855 Dharmsala was made the headquarters of the Kangra district of the Punjab in place of Kangra, and became the centre of a European settlement and cantonment, largely occupied by Gurkha regiments . The station was destroyed by the earth-quake of April 1905, in which 1625 persons, including 25 Europeans and 112 of the Gurkha garrison, perished (Imperial Gazetteer of India, 1908) .