Ichhi is a village in the reaches of the Kangra Valley and is surrounded by fields and trees. The suburbs include Jhikli Ichhi, Ansoli, Patola, Mastpur, Zamanabad Road ICHHI.
In common Hindi usage, the word इगेतेश्वर refers to god Shiv.
Ichhi History
Before the Raj
Until the British Raj, Dharamshala and its surrounding area was ruled by the Katoch Dynasty of Kangra, a royal family that ruled the region for two millennia.[3] The royal family still keeps a residence in Dharamsala, known as 'Clouds End Villa'. Under the British Raj, the regions were part of undivided province of Punjab, and was ruled by the governors of Punjab from Lahore. The Katoch dynasty, although highly regarded culturally, had been reduced to status of jargidars (of Kangra-Lambagraon) under the Treaty of Jawalamukhi, signed in 1810 between Sansar Chand Katoch and Maharaja Ranjit Singh of Sikh Empire. The indigenous people of the Dharamshala area (and the surrounding region) are the Gaddis, a predominantly Hindu group who traditionally lived a nomadic or semi-nomadic transhumant lifestyle. Due to the lack of permanent settlements in the area, some Gaddis lost their seasonal pastures and farmland when the British and the Gurkhas arrived to settle.
Settlement
"Ichhi village lies on a spur of the Dhaola Dhār, 6 miles north-east of Kāngra, in the midst of wild and picturesque scenery.
"Before the earthquake of 1905, it was very well populated.
In 1905, the Kangra valley suffered a major earthquake. On 4 April of that year, the earth shook, demolishing much neighbouring city of Kangra, Himachal Pradesh . Altogether, the 1905 Kangra earthquake killed 20,000 people. "1,625 persons perished at Dharamsāla alone."
Pathankot is a broad gauge railway head. There is another railway line from Pathankot to Jogindernagar, a part of the Mandi District of Himachal Pradesh, which is a narrow-gauge line. The nearest station to Dharamshala on this line is Chamunda Marg, half an hour away, where a Shaktipitha is; the town is well connected by road to other parts of the country.
Buses of all classes (deluxe, air-conditioned, and regular) ply daily between Dharamshala and major cities such as Chandigarh, Delhi, and Shimla. Several buses each night connect McLeodGanj with Majnu Ka Tila, the Tibetan settlement in Delhi.
^"Seminar on Katoch dynasty trail". Tribune India. 4 November 2009. Archived from the original on 2 January 2020. Retrieved 5 April 2016. new findings by researchers suggest "the Katoch dynasty dates back to 8,000 years and its 300 rulers ruled in the pre-Mahabharata period and the present scion of this clan, Aditya Dev Katoch, is the 488th member of the clan in the lineage" The researchers claimed "this dynasty is not only the oldest ruling clan of India but also the oldest dynasty of the world and its founder, Adipursha, had come from Mongolia about 11,000 years back".
