The Dogra People, Soldiers and Rulers of the Jammu Hills

In the Duggar country of hills and plains, where the Punjab rises toward the high Himalaya, live the Dogra people of Jammu. Speakers of the Dogri language and famed across India as soldiers and rulers, they are the community that once climbed from a small mountain principality to govern the vast princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, from the plains of Jammu to the heights of Ladakh.

Heirs to a martial tradition, to the exquisite Pahari painting of Basohli and Guler, and to the great pilgrimage of Vaishno Devi, the Dogras combine the ruggedness of a hill people with the refinement of a courtly past. This article traces their origins, language, homeland, society, religion, and traditions, and the remarkable history of the Dogra dynasty that carried their name across the mountains.