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It seems probable, therefore, that at a distant time the whole hill
tracts, from Kanawar in Bashahr to Lahul, including much of Kulu, were inhabited by tribes
related to the Munda-speaking races of Central India. During the Kulu supremacy a
considerable influx of Kulu blood probably entered the veins of the Lahulis especially in
Pattan or Manchat and Chamba-Lahul.
The Tibetans have always inhabited Spiti,
and the Western dialect of the Tibetan language is spoken. It was never a part of Kulu,
which formed a part of the original Kangra district under the British. Hindu rule over
Spiti was very nominal and Hindu Rajas with the surname of 'Sena ' ruled over Spiti before
it went under Ladakh. Spiti was, as Hutchison and Vogelobserve, more at the mercy of its
neighbors, especially Ladakh, Bashahr and Kulu.
When an invasion came the people ran to
inaccessible mountain heights till the invaders retracted. The inhospitable area was not
worth colonization for the invaders. In 1841 the Sikhs annexed Kulu and sent a force to
Spiti.
Hutchison and Vogel write:
"After the annexation of Kulu by the Sikhs
in 1841, a force was sent into Spiti. As usual the people fled to the uplands on its
approach, leaving their houses and monasteries to be plundered. The burnt condition of the
mural paintings in the temple of the Pin Monastery is said to have been due to the
incendiarism of the Sikhs, but may have been the work of Ghulam Khan. No attempt, however,
was made to annex the country, which remained a province of Ladakh.
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